AngelFish

No not all all, actually I appreciate a more practical post of advice, thats the reason my OH is going back out to take a look at the house, (we have already seen the shop as used it quite often when we were there), and the finances, and possible future ideas, we have forged a contact with a supplier who is looking for an agent to sell british goods, we have already done some homework as to what the locals would like, fresh veg, salads, quality meat, newspapapers, cigarettes,  we would look to install a fax and photocpier as they proved to be very popular with previous lease holders as well. There is a history behind the shop as it was being run by a gentleman who due to illness is unable to continue, his son currently runs a larger supermarket 3-4 K away and therfore is unable to devote his time to the premises,

thanks for all your comments so far, I now know how Desparate Dan felt, I know it will be hard as we have previously moved from a rural welsh speaking community to a suburb of London, for a a period of time, so we have experience in changes and adapting to different cultures. I do take on board however the comment regarding my daughters education and by the way she was the first one of us to suggest the move even before we had been aware of the opportunities, my husband is going back in a couple of weeks on a fact finding mission to meet up with the landlord, Mayor and head of the school. all this information will be carefully weighed before we decide to do anything, we may consider a halfway trial where my husband goes and works there for 6 months to test the water so to speak to give us more insight, but we will see.

I have been looking at this post for the last three weeks or so and despite the negatives, would like to add my query, we are in a slightly different position than Desparate Dan, but would appreciate some input from those who are experienced in living in France. Our situation is as follows: we have been given the possibility ( I say this because we are still in the fact finding stage) of renting a house and shop within a rural village in the south of france, the shop is a small shop but is the only one for 2miles the village consists or around 300 people, this includes some english speaking expats, who also have businesses in the area and with whom we have formed friendships with. My husband is a landscape gardener by trade, however he will turn his hand to anything, and as well as the shop we have researched the area and found that there is only one other gardener in the vicinity and that he would be interested in looking to discuss a possible partnership, even if this was not so,  a preliminary reccy did result in my husband been offered 4 separate jobs just in the 10 days we were there last. We have forged good contacts with the owner of the house and shop and have set up a appointment through our friends there with the local Mayor, who we are led to believe is keen for new families to come to his village and especially concerned that the local shop does not 'die'. It would be just the three of us my husband and I and our 12 year old daughter. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Many thanks