Sprogster

An additional more recent requirement of the French banks Will, are a copy of your last income tax asessment from your home country. 

Much easier, if your British bank can open a Euro account for you, which most can do these days. If not within branch, through their Channel Islands or Isle of Man operations. Also saves a mountain of know your customer paper work, if you are an existing customer. Not a good idea to have material amounts of cash sitting in a French bank account, if you are non French resident, as if you fall under the proverbial bus your executors will have the complexity and expense of dealing with your French Estate and all the forced heirship issues and potential taxes that go with it.

The problem in France for young people is not the education system as such, but the very poor job prospects faced when leaving education. Youth unemployment has been a systemic problem in France and amongst the worst in Europe for many years, hence the large young French working population in London.

Times have radically changed since then with Jersey entering into tax information exchange agreements with many countries including France, which will be signed shortly. As for cash withdrawals from Jersey banks, well just you try these days! Not only will Jersey banks no longer pay out large amounts of cash , you probably would not make it back through the airport without being stopped and questioned by the police! Jersey has gone much further than the UK with its anti money laundering regulations and in the absence of any bank secrecy laws, is the last place someone with anything to hide would use these days. I can think of a few EU members though who are not as well regulated including dare I say the City of London, which is the worlds leading offshore financial centre for non UK domicilliaries. Think Russian and Arab money.

Sadly, France is a country that did respect food, because France's proud gastronomic reputation is in tatters according to France's chefs. Apparently, too many restaurants don't even have a real chef and it's odds-on that your canard a l'orange is just industrial frozen food straight out of the microwave. So bad is the situation that last year a few worried French chefs got together to create a special label guaranteeing that at least 80 per cent of their dishes were in fact prepared on the premises with fresh ingredients. Maitre Restaurateur was hoping to do for France's cuisine what Camra did for real ale. But only 200 of France's 120,000 restos showed any interest. France is McDonalds fastest growing European market and fast food is rapidly replacing the traditional family restaurant, because the average family in France just cannot afford any longer to eat at the traditional French style restaurant. It is only entrangers like us Brits that have been keeping these restos going and with the weakened £, matters will only get worse. If you can afford to eat at Michelin star restaurants, then France can lay claim to be the gastronomic capital of the world. However, the reality for the average person is very different, when increasingly French families eat out at McDonalds or the local pizza emporium!  

If you have a pre-existing chronic medical condition that an insurer will not cover, the risk that the French authorities might discover this is not ones main concern, but what it would cost you if you required medical treatment in France for a problem connected to the excluded pre-existing medical condition. If the chronic medical condition is migraine, the cost of one paying for the medication is probably not going to be an issue. However, if like some over fifties one takes medication for high blood pressure and/or cholesterol, which are increasingly being prescribed nowadays as a preventative measure even if you only have a border hypertension, then one has a much greater concern. The reason being that the insurers are likely to exclude any heart or vascular problem that might arise in the future and if heaven forbid one had a heart attack or stroke and were rushed into a French hospital for emergency intensive care treatment, the costs could be ruineous if you are not covered by medical insurance. In summary, I don't believe the main concern is what the French authorities may or may not think about the level of medical insurance cover you have, but the personal financial risk you run by not having cover for a chronic medical condition, that could result in expensive medical treatment being required.

I don't think you are in a minority at all allanb, as my guess is that most Brits living in France are probably 'inactifs' reliant on some form of UK source investrment or pension income. In the early nineties, when the £ last slumped retired Brits returned to the UK in large numbers from countries like Spain and France and sadly I believe history may repeat itself. The upside is that those who return will get a lot more £'s for their euros!

I was just curious, as you do not refer to a region of France in your profile, whether or not you are an Aussie 'spoofer' because of your over done negativity about the UK, which could be construed as trying to rile other posters into a heated response. If you look at the latest dire Eurozone economic data reported today, it would appear that your Titanic analogy is rapidly spreading to the whole EU!

aussibattler, as this is a forum on France, I am curious as to what your connection with France is?

You are right sweet 17, in that the one area where the UK is significantly cheaper, are Chemists. The reason being is that the regulations in France protect the small independent Chemist and have prevented any national chains such as Boots establishing themselves and the French supermarkets from selling medications such as aspirin. One of the reasons I believe you see large Boots stores airside at airports like Gatwick, are that passengers load up on their cough cold and other remedies at prices that a fraction of those in countries such as France.

According to a boating forum, I read from time to time, there has been sufficient snow at Antibes in the South of France to damage the Bimini covers of several boats!! The poster concerned, said he had received a phone call from the Marina staff advising him that his boat cover and metal supporting frame had been damaged by the weight of snow . Apparently, we are in for a colder than average Winter, but this is ridiculous!

Bill, the three major considerations for you are probably language, health insurance cover and the weather. The ability to pick up another language differs from person to person and it is something that gets more difficult as we get older. Therefore, despite all efforts, obtaining fluency in another language can be illusive for some.  Health insurance in France can be problematic for foreign early retirees under pensionable age, because of the unrealistic comprehensive level of private insurance cover required by the French authorities, means it is unobtainable if you have any pre-existing health conditions.Without this cover you cannot obtain legal residency, so it is not just a matter of cost. Lastly, as previous posters have mentioned, the Winter weather in much of inland France can be substantively colder than Southern England, as it does not benefit from the Gulf Stream, so sensible to check this out by visiting in Winter as you say you intend to.

teapot, FOREX or Money Brokers services firms are not regulated other than having to comply with money laundering legislation, so it is very much a matter of buyer beware. What you may be thinking of are independent financial advisory firms who are FSA regulated. Not that being FSA regulated gives any client protection, remember Lehman Bros!

There is always a lag affect in a correcting property market and we are currently in the sellers denial and wait and see stage. Give it another twleve months and then you will see the cracks beginning to show, as many sellers who have been holding out start to loose their nerve. It is a sad fact of human nature that most people who want to sell end up doing it at, or near the bottom of the market.

The price of property in France is not the main issue reducing British interest in the French housing market currently, it is the fact that it is very difficult to sell your house in the UK at the moment, or obtain a mortgage to buy a second home. It does not matter how cheap that house is in France if you cannot raise the finance to buy it.

I believe the figure is actually around 300,000. The greater figure refers to Brits with homes in France including maison secondaire. In terms of countries that Brits move to permanently Australia and Spain are more popular.

I concur Scooby, in that more often than not a poster is comparing life between urban/city life in the UK and remote rural areas of France, overlooking the fact that the reason rural areas of France are so quiet is that there are few employment opportunities and many people have moved to French cities to find work! The other big lifestyle issue of course is the language barrier, in that many Brits moving to France assume that simply by being there they will absorb the French language. In reality, becoming fluent in French to the point you can be employable in a skilled job is a huge challenge and dare I say not achievable by everyone despite best efforts, as people have differing natural abilities to learn another language, which tends to deterioate with age as I am discovering!

Fiona, Apologies if I came over unduly negative, but one of the values with this type of forum is you pick up on issues that otherwise would be difficult to ascertain. As previously mentioned, most contributors to this Forum tend to be retirees and or second home owners, which reflects the demographics of most Brits who have homes in France. Therefore, our opinions as to the lifestyle comparisons are probably going to be very different from when we were your age with young children. That said I would say in your circumstances go for it, as you don't have children at a critical school age and you have a good exit strategy, by keeping your house in the UK. After a year of chilling out in France you might feel different and if the job situation does not work out there are always other countries such as Canada, Australia or New Zealand, which is where I would consider going if I was a young professional with small children and could get a visa. Bon chance!

Fiona, You also need to look into the French health cover issues, following the major changes earlier this year, in terms of the period of your entitlement to an E106 and the need to obtain comprehensive private medical insurance once your E106 has run out, if at that stage you and your other half are still looking for employment in France. Also by moving to France you will be foregoing the safety net of unemployment benefit and income support, non of which would be available to you until you have been in employment in France and contributed to their social security system. The French are far stricter than the UK on incomers,, including EU Citizens, claiming benefits and health care support. Lastly, I am not sure the French building trade is in a much healthier position than the UK at the moment.

Fiona, The majority of the members of this Forum are probably retirees with a pension and investment income and therefore don't have the major challenge you face and that is can you make a living in France? The reason for the apparent very high return rate to the UK is in the main due to money, so the comparisons between lifestyles in France and the UK are somewhat irrelavent. However, and this is the biggy, we are going into the worst recession for decades and you have what appears to be a secure job. Boring or not you might be extremely grateful for this in a few months time if the economic doomsayers are correct, so think very carefully before you resign. The economic predictions for France are generally no better than the UK. If you are in secure employment I would put your plans on hold for a little while, as otherwise you may put your dreams at risk by bad timing. 

Benjamin, I am not sure the Southern Irish are a viable market at the moment as their tiger economy has been even more badly affected than the UK by the credit crunch, with a collapse in their housing market values, escalating unemployment and a raft of additional new taxes including one on second homes.

The problem is anniefromwales, that even those who are looking to buy a new home are struggling to obtain finance, even with a good credit score. This is not only because the banks are reluctant to lend to anyone at the moment, but that surveyors preparing valuations for lending banks are being extremely cautious and it is not unheard off for valuations to come in 20% to 30% under the agreed sale price!  

Will, you are not quite correct, in that the only residents of Jersey or Guernsey who are not treated as full British Citizens in Europe, are those who are Jersey or Guernsey born without any British or EU parentage. (There are no Jersey citizens, as Jersey is part of Great Britain and there are no immigration controls between the Islands and the UK.) So for example, if you are Jersey born and have a parent or grandparent who is an EU citizen, then you have full  EU free movement of labour citizen rights through ancestry. Only about 3% of Jersey's locally born population do not qualify for full EU citizen free movement of labour rights and their British passport is stamped accordingly.

woolybanana, I don't think many Belgiums will be investing hot money in France, bearing in mind the increasing exchange of tax information by the French Fisc, including C.I!. (Jersey and Guernsey will shortly be signing a Tax Information Exchange Agreement with France.) My guess is that sort of property investment goes to Dubai. The current market conditions have arisen out of the credit crunch!

P-D de Rouffignac, I think you will find that the credit crunch finally caught up with the Cote D'Azur property market in September, as an eighty per cent decline in activity is being reported since then, including the top end of the market. So at best that market has come to a standstill. On the assumption that most purchasers of second homes use some element of bank finance, this market could take longer to recover, as most banks have stopped financing second home purchases and will currently not even allow borrowers to raise equity on their primary residence. Even if foreign purchasers have cash to fund the purchase, more often than not on more expensive French property, they will seek to finance the purchase for French wealth and inheritance tax mitigation reasons, if they are sensible!