Scoiie

Having read peoples replies to our last posting and had time to think, we have now come up with the option of buying a Winnebago and traveling over to France for 6 months maximum.  In this time we would hope to discover if it is really what we want, how we would support ourselves - (that should say what work could I find) and also a chance to look at different regions and properties. Obviously to enable us to do this we would need somewhere we could park up for short term stopovers or even long term ones if we discover an area we particularl like. Does anyone know of any caravan or camping parks that are open all year round and don't charge the earth.  The Winnie will be fairly self sufficient,having its own generator, water and gas - so for a start just somewhere to park overnights would be helpful.

I would like to thank you all for your replies and maybe to add a bit more to why we want to move to France. Firstly it's not that far from England, its green like here and well just everything else appeals to both of us.  We have a 250 year old cottage in England and due to my husband having to take early retirement, to hold on to our cottage is not going to be possible - but the money from selling it would set us up nicely for a life in France, even if we had a tricky start. Yes will miss grandchildren, 8 in total but what fun to have them come and stay with us for a few days at time instead of a snatched hour here and there. We also have 5 grown up children between us and maybe time with them relaxing would benefit us all. Paul has had to take earlier retirement but he still wants to work and as a kitchen fitter/joiner we are hoping that he could pick up some part time work in France.  Me, I am the workhorse of the team and will turn my hand to anything - for the past year I have been singlehanded running a bus converted into a cafe, so I know all about hard work and frustration. So please keep your comments and suggestions coming in, it is all very helpful.  We are trying not to jump in feet first, but the more we talk about it the more excited we get.

Hi, we have just made the decision to try to find a property in France.  Firstly I will do a brief outline of what we would like to do:  Buy a 2 or 3 bedroom house, with a out building or barn in Limousin.  It must also have an amount of land with it for firstly a garden and secondly to expand if we decided that was the route to take. The house must be fairly habitable, but we are not bothered about renovations that need doing, my husband is a joiner with a lot of other skills. The idea would be then to convert the barn or outbuilding into a self contained apartment to let out (the family alone would probably fill it for 6 months, but would probably not want to pay).  Once that was established, then create a small campsite for tents or caravans - no more than 6 at one time - and to offer a cafe style breakfast facility and evening meal - we have both worked in catering. We both need to brush up on our French anyone got suggests for a quick way for the more mature student? So, what we need to know is our we mad! no seriously we would like to hear from other people who have jumped of the deep end and is there anthing we can learn from people who have.