it seems that becoming an EX pat is bad for marriages.

This is a Dmail article.

So it seems that if you want to "do life", stay in the UK

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...y-stories.html

Ps, I know this is France

I think most ppl who have lived long term abroad will have seen a fair amount of this.
However looking on the bright side,.. variety is the spice of life.
Who wants to serve a life sentence,....well not me anyway.

Why would the people want to advertise their mistakes/misery...and in the Daily Hate to boot?

I saw that earlier

I know tons of marriages which have ended here - and with expats in other countries (my db being one)

quite a few who I know who have split here would almost certainly have split anyway

Good heavens. Marriages can break down when there is stress?

I had no idea.

Case of bringing your baggage when you move. I think some start a new life hoping their problems will go away. I know one couple whose marriage was limping along and they came to spain to make a new start, of course it didn't work. Another couple's marriage broke down in a disagreement over money, wether to send their three kids to a brit college or a state school. Can happen anywhere.

There are many reasons including the ones you mention.
Sometimes it can be down to the wrong location,..eg... remote places and loneliness after living in a more urban social setting.
It seems a fairly common problem in France where ppl can also have difficulty fitting in with the locals and their lifestyle,..some areas fairly friendly, others maybe not so.
Also very common in the Costas, where the easy going holiday-like living leads to all sorts of temptation,..(get thee behind me satan),...and going astray.
Could write a book on it, I dare say,...how I have seen so many ppls attitudes and lifestyles change so dramatically in different surroundings,.....eventually quite often badly affecting their personal relationships.

We too are suffering the financial thing, and the husband not being able to speak fluently and being unemployed thing. But we live in Paradise. Not in France. So we hold hands walking to the bar to buy the coffee and Kit Kat we can't really afford, after doing half a day of backbreaking self building, after half a day of work and before an evening of work... Maybe that's just *our* marriage. But Southern Spain (and the Andalucians) don't then heap scorn on our efforts as it appears to me that parts of France would!
But I agree. We make these life changes without doing enough homework. That works for me, but not for people who find change difficult.