Well, here goes. The grand old age of 43 and my first blog! We are seriously considering moving to south-west France with a reluctant teen, when she finishes GCSE's at 16. This seems to be against all the advice read so far on this blog - and you may all be right. The teen is question is bright, confident, gregarious but has no french to speak of at the moment and no desire to leave friends and social life for the rural french life. This wouldn't be until summer 2009 so lots of time to plan, prepare and change our minds! We believe she would benefit from a greater world perspective, a new language and culture and a stronger CV overall - and are in no rush for her to achieve the next level of qualifications (be it three or four more years until she is ready for university). If we were to 'go for it' and she hated it, there could be a Plan B with close family back in the UK who she could return to, but we would love her to have the opportunity. The area of France we are in (Boulougne-sur-Gesse in Haute Garonne) has increasing numbers of Brit families so she would not be the first or only. Feedback welcome please on the relative sanity of this proposal, your experiences, views on international schools or total immersion in the french school system...or any other thoughts / advice. PS - we have no intention of attempting to drag a kicking, screaming teen 1,000 miles south totally against her will, so no calls to Childline necessary at the moment.
