Linda, these pictures may help your need for the coast.

http://www.cornwallcam.co.uk/

Domino

I not saint, just got my value of saving from my parents.
20 odd years later I am much better off my friends who brought everything on hire purchase. I ended up with the nicer house in nice area, 2 newest cars(paid cash for).

This year I remodelled our kitchen for less than £2K( used Ebay) and a work colleague who added another £20K to his mortgage said he could not see much difference between his professionally fitted kitchen than ours. He will spend the next 10 years paying off a new kitchen( nothing really wrong with his old kitchen, wife wanted a new one).
My wife and I are instilling the value of money into our 16 & 18 year old sons which will be especially important when they go to uni.
hudd

Aaaaaah. La Taverne de Montmartre looks quite inviting too. Not sure where Bellville market is but it seems to be representing the UN.

When i visted the site I don't think I saw the photos of France? I don't know why he included them. Confusing.

Always happy to see photos of Paris.

Here is one those hypothetical articles about the best places to live in the UK. It does, however, provide some interesting suggestions. Norwich is third, for example. I always thought it was somewhat underrated. I am not sure how old the article is though.


http://www.housetohome.co.uk/product...k-our-top-30/1

Looks to be pretty current. When I look at the entry for Canterbury it suggests it is no more than a year old - commutability.

List seems pretty standard but it's the order of precedence that has me confused and NEWPORT over Cardiff? I personally much prefer Swansea to Newport but there are parts of it that lower its tone somewhat.

No south coast retirement spots other than Bournemouth. No Broadstairs but Lymington.

nearer to England ??

I think some of the listings have had the localised areas shoved in with them so that Newport probably includes Chepstow which can be very up-market and completely different in character. Bournemouth would include Christchurch and Inverness probably includes the surrounding area in order to justify being at #2.

Photograph 9 is definitely not Torquay, I believe it to be Dartmouth. I was in both towns two years ago, and with Torquay being my home town, I can recognise the differences.

... and Exeter, Brighton and Torquay, although Brighton is hardly a retirement spot.

After the first few it seemed that the writer's criteria were cathedrals, medieval churches and shopping centres. Not my criteria obviously, so it's all subjective but a good site giving more food for thought. I thought Stowmarket looked interesting and St Ives, if only it wasn't so darn far from everywhere else. Glad to see Hereford made the list.

Sorry, did not regard Exeter as being coastal and anything west of Bournemouth regarded as South-West - incl. your beloved Torquay . Am personally a big fan of Truro to the point that at one time it was on our short-list due to schools and attractive shopping and well-underpinned economics as a municipal centre.

St Ives is a bit of a hybrid because of its popularity with the arty scene ever since the Barbara Hepworth gallery was created. This has tended to make it more pricey but it is characterful though and I personally like it for its typical Cornish atmosphere of fish shops, good bakeries and pasty shops. Can be seriously over-run in season when parking is a nightmare.

I am familiar with Stowmarket and would group Bury St Edmunds in with it. There are some very attractive villages around Stowmarket including Hitcham, Buxhall, Rattlesden and Kettlebaston and Stowmarket has good access to London - Liverpool Street. I'm surprised Ely is not on the list.

Note that the list includes (in England) the cathedral cities of Canterbury, York, Leeds, Exeter, Lincoln and Norwich which are also all university cities and centres of academia quite aside from Oxford and Cambridge. This adds attraction for the level of cultural activities on offer. Property prices are generally well supported though and the rental markets are very buoyant. Even Lincoln now has fast train service to London.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...uide-to-london

I didn't think that looked like Torquay! One of my siblings has a holiday place in Dartmouth, but I couldn't say for sure if that pic was of that area. We will be looking around the Torquay/Dartmouth area next summer, hoping to find a small holiday place. They still appear to be over priced though. Hopefully, prices will come down a bit by then.

My friend just moved to London from Libya and he showed me his house. I thought you would like to enjoy it also.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...-31318480.html