Colette

[quote user="Llwyncelyn"] However our friends live in the Vendee and they tell us that the summer is wonderful and short sharp winters.  However thats what they say but there is nothing like personal experience. [/quote] No, it's a fact, I remember once seeing a map.  Isn't it due to the Atlantic drift coming up the west coast?  There's a narrow coastal area between southern Britanny and the Vendee that has as much sunshine and summer temperatures similar to the Cote d'azur.Coastal Charente is quite good too I think.  

Helen, we're only here for long holidays but from what I see as just a 12 to 15 week a year visitor lots of ladies are very lonely and very bored.  You're not being selfish you're being realistic and good for you.  Many won\t admit it to family, friends even themselves but year round life in rural france isn't all it's cut up to be.  Unless you speak good french, are quite outward going and mix well, ideally have a job (nigh on impossible, most peoples UK qualifications are not recognised, even teachers) you are going to be bored especially in long winter.  We have friends just south of Angouleme and the weather as in most parts of the south west can be quite horrible in the winter when it rains for months on end and is really cold.  Unless you drive you won't meet anyone, it's not like the UK.  Most people have damp houses, utilities are so high you daren't keep the heating on as you would at home.  Expat Brits are supposedly friendly but it's the usual thing in a small community and it's pot luck if you just click with anyone nearby.  I know I sound a real wet blanket but I do wish people would tell it like it is.  I used to think when we retired we would move to our place permanently but in recent years we've both started to have second thoughts.  I think now it's best to keep a foot in both camps.  Sorry again for sounding so negative.

Neighbours of ours rent their place out in the winter for a cheapish rent (something similar to what you paid) but with utilities on top.  And the utilities (mainly electricity for the rads) usually exceed the rent.  After a couple of nightmare experiences their first year, they now warn people repeatedly that the electric bill and the per basket or whatever it is they quote for firewood doesn't come cheap.  They placed an ad in a posh mag and managed to get a 3 month let last winter from a very nice bloke recently divorced taking a sort of mid life gap year. They're hoping to find someone similar again this year for January to easter.  I think you're very brave wanting to rent in Normandy in mid winter and admire you for doing something so different to everyone else.

And a beautiful shop opposite the cathedral on the market square in Cahors too.  Wonderful for home furnishings, bedding and stuff.  Not cheap though.

But what surprises so many French people is that relatively young British people in their 20s and 30s are moving to odd parts of rural France when all the French people in that age group are moving the other way.  And it surprises me too.  When we first had our house here there were few Brits around under 40, very few indeed, most were either retired or hoping to take early retirement.  Now there are dozens in our neighbourhood alone, even some young singles.  None have work, all are trying to 'find themselves' or something.  Must be really grim in the winter when there's sweet FA to do and the weather's even worst than it is now.  Why do they do it?

This is our ninth summer with the house and although we're not always here (South west) this month I have it on very good authority that the weather is often very unreliable from mid august onwards.  Anyone remember 2003 when it rained practically every day for the entire month of august yet it was a wonderful Indian summer and hot (30s) from september through to mid october.  Unless you've got kids and are tied to school holidays I can't understand why everyone insists on visiting this month, especially as everywhere is also so crowded and you pay over the odds for everything too.

But he doesn't paint a rosy picture of life in Provence, far from it.  In fact, when I read A Year In Provence when it first came out in paperback it put me off ever wanting a house in France, especially renovating one and that's something that's stuck with us ever since.  I think we only envy him because he had enough money to opt out and live quite comfortably (once house was renovated) in a fabulously beautiful part of the country and, of course, undeniably he made a mint doing something we would all love to do, namely live in Provence in a lovely house and write a book about it. His later non life style novels are really enjoyable even if you're not particular interested in france.  And his last book about scams in the wine industry is currently being made into a film.

 I am leaving France because the country is in terminal decline. I have been warning those who desire a life in France to think again. The French are hurting and the pain will get worse before anything will change. The anti-british sentiments are increasing because of the difficulties the country is facing. It's not a place for a new life.   I think France has been in decline ever since we first bought here in 1996, others may say long before.  When we bought our first place, lots of English people were selling up due to exchange rate problems, house price collapse and poor state of the French economy.  We only bought a holiday home but thought then it's no place for a new life though lovely for the summer and holidays.  And nothing's really changed has it?  Though I think the anti-British sentiments are increasing, perhaps not openly but certainly behind closed doors amongst the French.  It's hardly surprising really when you consider how a growing number of areas are becoming overrun we can't deny this with les rosbifs pricing young local people out of the market, bringing in British builders and plumbers and electricians to do the renovations.  At least that's the impression you get looking at the carpark in Bergerac.       

When we were looking for our house in south west France in 2003 one of the agents we met in the southern Gers was already advertising on his website that he believed the market for gites was well and truly saturated.  He also stressed that buyers should not take any potential rental income into account when budgeting to buy as the season was very short, even if you could attract business.  And I must say this is what we have seen for ourselves.  Beautiful houses with lots of en suites and a pool where the owners have been at this for some years do appear to get booked up for the school holidays and a few weeks more but smaller, more ordinary places struggle. 

I thought 60 was the new 40 and I don't know any 40 or 60 year olds who dribble or put their milk in the dishwasher or remember anything about the War, which is perfectly understandable because they weren't born then.  Most of the 60 year olds I know are comfortably retired in France on good pensions and having a marvellous time.  They're in good health, have loads of interests and certainly don't think of themselves as old.  Quite the contrary!

In answer to Deimos's questions, don't you have to pay something in the region of 8% of your annual income towards the French public health care system if you are a resident?  So it really depends upon your income.  If 8% (or whatever the exact figure is, I can't remember) of your income is more than the cost of annual private health care membership then yes you could be worse of.  Especially as you would also have to buy top up insurance in addition to the basic 8% to get full 100% coverage. 

Ignoring the rights or wrongs for a minute, what surprises me is how they manage to do it in the first place.  Reading only last week that tens of thousands of people in the UK do not claim tax credits and other benefits because as even the govt acknowledges the paperwork is so complex, how on earth do people manage to fill in all the necessary forms in French?  Most people we know in France struggle with basic everyday matters and even if they were entitled to any benefits I doubt very much they would have a clue or the language skills to do anything about it.  Colette

I didn't see this section.  Please look Forum (buying/owning French property) where I have asked a question about general renovation.  Thanks in advance for your help.  Colette

Friends of ours can't find the property they want in their price bracket so are thinking about buying a place in need of renovation and then doing it up.  They will have to use local builders as they don't have the time or the skills to do it themselves but they are worried.   Although the two places they've seen and like are both what the estate agent calls structurally sound, they'll need to reroof, wire, plumb, plaster, new windows, doors and floors plus, I think, add a staircase.  Is it really difficult having all this work done when you are in England?  Are you forever having to pop over to keep an eye on what's being done or not being done.  Can these companies work with minimum supervision?  I've always heard that you need to really be on site permanently in order to get a good job done but as they say, so many people renovate whilst being based in theUK so it's not impossible, or is it? Also, although they would naturally get a number of quotations, if you pay Euros 100,000 for a place in need of renovation, would you normally expect to pay the same again in renovation costs?

I was only talking about holiday lets.  We couldn't possibly consider a long term arrangement as we want to pop over and visit the house often at short notice when we have a quiet period at work.  Also, isn't it more complicated legally if you let long term?  I thought it was.  But I do wonder how the owners of those really fancy properties you see in the up-market brochures manage.  Some of these houses are out of this world, and at rents to match!