Later
-
Posts
134 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by Later
-
-
Clareh
Welcome. Sorry to sound so down, but are you aware that you will end up paying about 60% or more of what you earn to the French government? I'm sure people will shoot me down for this comment, but really I think it should be looked at long and hard to save you loads of grief in the future. I suspect most of your income from this venture would be seasonal, but your financial obligations to the government would go on throughout the year.
-
... and don't forget if you have broadband you can always log onto www.bbc.co.uk etc etc and listen to your favourite radio station in real time or replaying soemthing from earlier in the week.
-
Perhaps your friend's experience was specific to the south of France. What about dipping your toe in the water with a year or so in your favourite part of France (somewhere other than than the south perhaps)? If you like it, then stay. If not then move back to Blightly or move to a diferent part of France.
I know this all sounds like stating the obvious, but there are lots of people who move to France and hate the experience and lots who think it is the best thing they've ever done. Horses for courses. I think it has a lot to do with preparation and expectations (IMHO lots of one and very low levels of the other gives you the best chance of making a go of it).
-
I sliced my hand open to the bone using a saw, but that was in England, so it probably doesn't count.
-
Aeb
The Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales has info on this for the UK and I'm pretty sure they have links to their French equivalents. http://www.cat.org.uk/index.tmpl?refer=index&init=1
-
... aaagh but what about the washing up?
-
Dick
Did you change for dinner?
-
Peter
Apologies, I am feeling a bit wobbly - this cancer thing is all a bit much and my fuse is too short. I have received some very nice private emails suggesting that actually you are one of the good guys. So I shall get back in my box and take back my grrr. If you're not too hostile to the idea, perhaps you could make some suggestions about how I could make website more helpful to people ... remove inaccuracies etc etc
-
Well Peter Owen thank you for that constructive response designed to foster open and uninhibited dialogue (were you in the army by any chance?). Looking at your email address I suspect that French healthcare would be your thing then. I would ask if I could put your link on my site, but you seem like an unpleasant person and I shan't and I hope anyone who reads this post avoids you like the plague. Heaven forbid they should ask questions for fear of being made to look like a complete plonker.
For me one of the most confusing aspects of trying to understand the issues facing a move to France is that there is so much conflicting information.
Grrrr (and other rude words deleted voluntarily by the writer)
-
[quote]Later. Please don't take this the wrong way BUT by your own admission some two weeks back you confessed to being the person behind the "Don't Move to France" website after some personal problems you e...[/quote]
Good question. Damn I thought nobody would notice . Actually although my wife and I wrote the website together, we divided the "don't move" sections so we did half each. Harriet did eg health, tax and education and I did all the nonsense bits about eye gouging rugby players, economics and so on ... but that's a cop out.
Harriet is sleeping for England most of the time (chemo), so I can't just turn to her to discuss things ... the LF website provides that forum in a literal sense. Anyway first thing this morning when I thought I would impress her with my new-found knowledge she gave me short shrift telling me that we already knew that ... etc etc and some of it is on the website ... perhaps I should go back and re-read the bits she wrote. Being a bit thick n'all it clearly takes several goes to get this sort of thing stuck in my head.
We certainly don't pretend to be all knowing about France. I am learning a lot on this website just through lurking. There is a lot of really good stuff in here, if people take the time to read it. It should be compulsory for people planning to move to France.
I never said don't move to France, I said don't move to France until you've done your homework. I'm very sceptical about people who wear rose tinted glasses when it comes to France and all things French (or any other country for that matter).
My wife is off the idea of moving to France, apart from the obvious disctraction in her life at present, she has decided she quite likes Blighty.
I'm very open to a move to France. Definitely not off France forever, just don't want to go there and be disappointed, lose my shirt, decide it was not what we expected it to be etc etc. It may not seem like it, but in my opinion it still has to be one of the best places in the world to live, provided you know what you're getting yourself into and you have low expectations.
Many thanks for your kind wishes.
-
Jill
Did you watch or listen to Bragg's series on the English language? I was particularly interested to learn that many expressions and words in common usage in English English, orginated outside Britain and, in particular, that lots of expression I took to be British English were in fact from abroad (especially America).
The other thing he banged on about was that English is and has always been a language in transition ... constantly changing. It's strength comes from its adaptability.
I read recently some letters from my 86 year old father to his sisters, written during the war. The slang was hilarious (to me at least) and very much a reflection of the time and circumstances in which they were written. For example, I crashed my aeorplane was I had a wizard prang. His use of language has changed and he is now more likely to say something along the lines of crashed my blardy car (again).
I love listening to Scots, Welsh, Jamaicans, Zimbabweans, and people from the southern United States. I think they can add a beauty to the spoken language that you don't get in many parts of England.
-
I hadn't considered things in this light. In fact on a positive note, things could be worse. My wife could have cancer, the flu and a broken leg. Now that would be pretty miserable. I can see the regional news headline now: Cancer Sufferer with Flu Breaks Leg after Violent Sneaze.
-
French toast, french fries, french cricket, french humour
-
Right that is clearer. So if me wif was revisited by the dreaded "thing", we would have to pay out above and beyond the fees covered by the state if (i) the state didn't cover the entire cost (which I guess is likely to be the case) and (ii) the top-up insurance did'nt cover the pre-existing condition. That could necessitate us upping sticks and scarpering back to blightly.
-
Teemedup you've got over 1,200 posts ! I'm not sure whether to be very impressed or agitated like a grumpy old man, like ya know.
-
I sometimes shout at the telly
-
That "like" thing really gets on my wick. A friend of my wife does it all the time. She got a degree at Cambridge and she keeps saying "like". I mean what's she like (now that's OK, because I said it ...) ?
If I were not so PC I would lean across and smack her.
-
Rabbits are not the sweat little things they make themselves out to be. I once ended up in hospital with a broken foot after being attacked by a rabbit.
And another thing. You won't believe this, but it is true ... they end up in the strangest places.
I found a dead one on the roof a few years back.
Last winter our Jack Russell was going absolutely berserk at the wall next to the laundry door. This went on for two days. We thought he had finally lost his marbles, but when I removed the plasterboard I found a rather dehydrated rabbit (fully grown) in the wall cavity. Normally I'm not very sympathetic to rabbits as they eat our vegetables etc, but this one looked so sorry for itself that I took it outside and let it go free (by the pond)- with the dogs firmly locked in teh house.
In Russia lots of them spend the winter on peoples' heads - now ain't that the strangest thing.
-
We are in the UK. My wife (38) is undergoing treatment for cervical cancer (and seems to be winning, she should be in the clear in the new year - fingers crossed).
We have been thinking about moving to SW France on and off for about three years. It has recently dawned on us that she (we) now have a pre-existing (is that the term?) medical condition.
What are the implications of this for a life in France and in particular in terms of medical treatment and health insurance? I read on this forum that most top-up insurance packages exclude pre-existing conditions. Does this mean we would have to pay out of our own pockets, if, heaven forbid, the nasty little beast reappeared in a few years time? Or could we rely upon the state system to look after us (providing we have paid our dues to the state etc etc).
BTW the NHS has been extremely good and pretty fast. We are very impressed.
Also, I don't understand why, if the state system is so good, one should need top-up insurance.
-
A "back of the envelope" calculation I just did suggests that on that basis, if you move from the UK to France, you need to double your gross income to have the same take-home pay.
But actually this isn't right, because I didn't allow for c12% NI paid by the employer (in my case, me) and private pension which can be c20% and professional indemnity insurance, which varies between professions ... I don't know what equivalent plumbers and bricklayers pay, but I'm sure it's not inconsiderable.
I'm finding it difficult to compare apples here. If I posted this post I would have asked a slightly different question (easy to say with the benefit of hindsight
), something along the lines of ... so how much more do you pay in France and at what stage do you pay it - before, during or after you earn it? -
If his name is MacLeod, may I suggest you don't go saying he's English, or he may not be as helpful as he otherwise might be.
-
Off topic I know, but my wife (we) is/are currently undergoing treatment for cervical cancer in Hampshire. If there is anything we can do to help, please get in touch by email, or reply to this post? We're surrounded by English and Australian doctors who are family and friends and a sister-in-law who is an oncology nurse in Portsmouth. So we are awash with support, love and, not to be underestimated, information.
At the very least we might be able to help by pointing you at UK online cancer support information - not much use in France you might think, but my wife (we) found that the more information we had, the better able we were to deal with the "thing".
Four courses of chemo down and radiotherapy about to start, we appear to be winning and hope you are too.
There is hope and lots of reasons to be optimistic. My mother had a radical mastectomy in 1964 and she is still going strong (now aged 82).
Courage, stength and above all good humour in the face of adversity to you! .
-
I read in the Economist (so it must be true) that a large proportion of UN development projects are carried out within easy access of nice beaches. Darfur is nowhere a nice beach. This explains a lot.
-
I certainly agree there is no substitute for the real thing - and you'd never really know what it was like unless you went. I'd like to think if you were prepared for the worst, then your experience of the real thing would be a lot more tolerable / enjoyable.
Many thanks and best regards to yours too.
Feeling Deflated!
in The Complete France Post Bag
Posted
Tresco
I really liked your analogy about (not) having children and (not) moving to France.
I was not that keen on children and had a long shopping list of reasons not to have them, but then, through some process that I don't understand
my wife got pregnant, not once, but twice! I was prepared to accept her claim it was an act of God the first time, but the second time I was a bit dubious. Funny thing is they both look a lot like me (poor things) and the other thing is, to my astonishment, they are the best thing since sliced bread and, in spite of my reservations, I have fallen madly in love with them (although two nights ago at 3AM I wasn't so sure about this).