amandasattic

Wow, that's a lot of advice, thanks so much to everyone for their input. I think initially the property we buy in France will be a 'holiday home' until such time that we find employment in France as we are not near retirement age. Ideally once we have grasped the language we would love to work in a caravan/campsite in France so then we would become 'proper' residents. We will be using a relatives home address in the UK for mailing/insurance purposes initially until we settle down in France. Working and living in both countries does seem a little complicated with regards tax etc, but I suppose like everything we will learn as we go along. I do however not want to fall foul of the law and live 'illegally' anywhere so may need to get further legal advice from tax office or similar body to see where we stand. Thanks again for all your help. Any pointers into a good area which has loads of camping sites would be great :-)

Thanks very much for your replies. I think the plan would be to renovate a property a bit at a time over a few years and once it was up to scratch perhaps look at a permanent move to France, or to even get employment working on campsites/caravan sites as wardens over in France as our French language should be reasonable good after a few years. The only reason for working in the UK initially is because I know one of the most difficult things to achieve in another country is finding employment to sustain life, it certainly isn't easy in our own country at the moment so it would be twice as hard to find work over in France, especially with the language barrier. Any advice on areas to explore which have potential property to renovate would be great. Thanks again, amanda

Hello everyone, This is my first post on this forum so apologies if I am asking a question that has already been asked but would love some feedback on the following: Myself and my husband plan to sell our house in Scotland and work as caravan wardens in the UK (we have done this before and loved it), we are both in our mid thirties and have tried the wardening life and mortgage settling down life, and warden life wins hands down. I do however want a 'brick built home' as a base/place to retire to eventually and due to high house prices we cannot afford to buy a house outright in the UK, so our plan is to buy in France, we will have approx 30-40 thousand euros to spend and don't mind renovating (not sure where though, any advice would be gratefully received). We love small towns which are vibrant. lively and have kept a sense of their history, but we also love countryside, sea, rivers, mountains etc. Does anyone work in the UK as wardens/or or for at least 6 months of the year in the UK but only have a property in France? Not sure about tax implications, healthcare provisions etc so would love to hear from others who are actually doing what we plan to do. We have been to France before and travelled from the North to the South in a clapped out old campervan, and it was great experience. We were also thinking about Portugal but are worried about the language barrier, we know a little bit of French (enough to get by) we know we could pick it up easier than Portuguese (we think) Any advice would be greatfully received