froggiemel

Hi all does anyone know about becoming a self-employed Estate Agent in Normandy? I have excellent local knowledge and fluent French, and my fiance has a very good business head. I have seen adverts from agencies wanting to take people on. Can it work???  

Thank you very very much everyone, you are all full of great advice! We have considered going down the road of opening a garage but I will need to be there the whole time because hubby doesn't speak French, which means I can't get a job elsewhere to make ends meet.... We're now thinking of running a gite from the UK for a bit, to see how it goes before we make the jump. By the way, I have seen some corps de ferme for €100,000! But you're right, probably not big enough...

Hi, does anyone have any suggestions for cheap and convenient travel from Cambridge to Bayeux/Caen/Cherbourg? I have tried everything - flying from London to Paris, ferry Dover-Calais, ferry Portsmouth-Caen, Portsmouth-Cherbourg...all expensive and takes ALL DAY (or night) to get there!! Normandy is so close, yet so hard and expensive to reach. I had a glimmer of hope when Ryanair started flying to Deauville...only to cancel the route before the first flight... Help!!  

Hi all, my fiance and I are looking to move to Normandy (Caen-Bayeux-Cherbourg). I'm bilingual so finding a job shouldn't be a problem, but my fiance currently owns a car sales and repairs garage and doesn't speak a word. Would he be able to find work as a mechanic/labourer with no French? Also, what would be the development prospects? Would he have to stay stuck in a low paid job forever? We are worried about giving up a healthy business in the UK to go to rubbish, boring jobs and struggle financially...... Any comments very much appreciated!

Hi all, my fiance and I are looking to move to Normandy (Caen-Bayeux-Cherbourg). The plan is to buy a 'corps de ferme' for around 100,000 euros and spend the same amount again renovating it. We want to live in one half and use the other half as a gite. However we are young and only have a small amount of equity to be had from the sale of our current house... I'm bilingual so finding a job shouldn't be a problem, but my fiance currently owns a car sales and repairs garage and doesn't speak a word. Would he be able to find work as a mechanic/labourer with no French? This would mean a fairly low income between us and I wondered what you thought of the gite idea - would it give us enough to cover the mortgage? I have an extensive knowledge of the tourism industry in Normandy but I'm worried about the saturation of the gite market. Would it be better to buy an established gite business? Or a hotel? Affordable ones, however, seem to be like rocking horse droppings... We are worried about giving up a healthy business in the UK to go to rubbish, boring jobs and struggle financially...... Any comments very much appreciated!