Don't think that poster is living in UK - Creuse?

Yep, spot on.

I think the poster was saying 'look how great it is in France and that is what makes Britain crap'

Oops, did not catch the irony. Nevertheless, there are plenty of villages in England which match his description.

Really? I've been to 9 countries and they never heard of this... lol

guess it must be the 'modern countries'


Still i don't want to fund a pedo corporation (when i return back to UK i ain't paying them a damn thing)

Notice of Removal of Implied Right of Access

What is a "pedo corporation" when it's at home?

Well, we do in France. It is normally included with your council tax, but is a separate fee.

Indeed. Most of Europe.

Indeed, we live in one

Exactly. All the reasons I left the UK and why I'm happier in France. I'd love to live back in the UK, but it's not the UK anymore. Oh, and I forgot the weather - I'm sure that's deteriorated since my childhood. I remember summers too hot to do my Mock 'O's, and winters with snow on the edge of London. Several years of wet summers merging with wet winters took their toll. Here we get sunshine - sometimes too much but a stone house keeps nice and cool, snow sometimes in winter, a fair bit of rain as we're in the hills, but not incessant, - we even had a rebate on the taxes one year for drought, but still never had a hosepipe ban.

If you could just move a Tesco's, Morrisons or Waitrose, a decent Indian restaurant, and a pub here, just for old times sake, it would be perfect! Though a pom took over a bar here so that's a pub equivalent, we can get deliveries of various food from the UK - not that I dislike French food but there are just sometimes some things you miss, and an Asian shop in the city. It's the price you pay for being rural.

The UK is greatish if you can afford to live where you want. Yes. I'm sure there are similar villages, but at a price. My little patch of 7 acres and a stone farmhouse and barn, cost (a lot) less than the ex-council semi I sold. An equivalent house in England would be at least £500,000. So now I have a detached house with no mortgage, pay less council taxes, have better weather, don't have a pocket handkerchief garden, have broadband to work from home, if not Tesco's at least we have 5 big supermarkets in the next town, and better weather, don't have to wait two weeks to see the doctor (which I DID have to in England, in a rural area), and virtually crime free to boot (which it wasn't, in a rural area in England - another week, another burnt out car, oil from a farm tank - and if you have a £500,000 house in the UK you're a burglar magnet).

I'm sure to some the UK is the best thing since sliced bread, if you're happy with that then fine, but there is better.

How long have you been there? Are you integrated in the community?

Been here ten years now. Yes, I think we're integrated, we help out on an annual event, share stuff with the neighbours etc.

For you there is better, for us and many millions of others there isnt. I'm glad you like France but I wouldnt live there for anything.

Why not?

It all depends what your personal wants and needs AND FINANCES are which could be entirely different from somebody else's and tax can be an issue in France too. English language, schools, isolation, pubs, shops, bureaucracy allergy, family..............

For instance, you mentioned that you have a significant holding of land. Funnily enough when I was in France a couple of years back I spoke to a retired Brit who lives in Morbihan in Brittany who said that in retrospect the biggest regret he had was that he had TOO MUCH LAND to the point where he is a slave to it. I agreed with him wholeheartedly and would run a mile now to have less land than the acre-plus I have to maintain, let alone the property/house itself if only because unlike many others, I am not green-fingered or handy, though am a reluctant bride to it all these days out of necessity.