DZ

Thanks for replying, John (fantastic views from your villa, by the way!).  I am in dept. 34. I need to find someone locally who would be the keyholder and who could prepare the house for occasional visits from friends and colleagues (ie. not on a weekly basis).  I have met a few nice local people and could ask if they knew of anyone suitable to do such a job - but of course, it's always a bit risky (and most probably not legal!).  I am really not sure of the local going rates for such jobs either! Anna

This topic interests me as well and some cursory searches of this Forum have resulted in lots of information.  From what I can see prices quoted vary between 11 - 30 euros per hour and there are conflicting opinions as to whether you can employ neighbours to do that job informally, or whether a registered cleaning company should be used.  Any updated advice on the subject would be welcome!

[quote user="mark1963"]Our kids are presently 9 and 5 so we firmly believe that we must get them into the local French school in September 2007 (latest) or forget any ideas about a permanent move until our youngest is 16'ish. How depressing! [/quote] Moving when your youngest is 16'ish won't be any easier, unless you don't mind leaving them with family in the UK.  I really feel for your dilemma because I have spent the whole summer pondering a similar kind of move and decided against it simply because my kids are too old to settle in easily and I would have had to leave one of them on their own in UK, at a university.  I rather suspect that if I was in your shoes, ie. with younger kids, I would probably have tried to do the mad thing and see how things work out!  Best of luck whatever you decide.

[quote user="pads"] Im not going to worry to much about getting my sentances correct at the moment but to get a good store of words under my belt first, Im sure its not the right way but its my way. [/quote] I absolutely agree - I find that having a good knowledge of vocabulary solves half of the problems.  I have been learning words like a maniac for the past 18 months and I simply can't believe how much it has aided my comprehension and general confidence with the language, even though my grammar is still a bit rusty and hesitant.  I have started a sort of personal phrase book with new words and phrases grouped into categories and that has proved to be extremely useful in all sorts of real life situations in France. 

[quote user="PossumGirl"]Oh, that's not bad.  Okay, I will be a good Possum and do an update today. PG [/quote] Possum, you bad girl - you still haven't updated your blog (and I am one of your faithful readers)! Dear Forum Administrator - the new blog that you mentioned does not appear to have been added to the Forum Home yet. I just love reading other people's blogs (and would write one myself if only I would be moving to France, which I am not...).

Thank you Twinkle, Dick and Dotty, for your words of encouragement.  On a personal level, not going to France still feels like the completely wrong decision to have made, but seeing my children so well settled in their respective schools and having just got back from dropping the eldest at his university, I have to try to convince myself that I did the right thing for the children at least.  I don't suppose my son would have had opportunity to study photography in France, as he is doing now, and my daughter could not develop her talent for writing (in English).  But it wasn't an easy choice!  To explain further, I had a wonderful option of either taking a rather good redundancy on which we could have lived for a year, or taking an equally good permanent job and staying.  An enviable choice or hell of indecision?  The latter, I think.  Only time will tell if that was the right decision!  But in the meantime, I am trying to stay positive and keep learning French like mad, so that when I manage to get to France one day, I can feel that I am nearly fluent.  I have also hired a tutor for the children, so that they feel comfortable using French when we visit our house.  I am determined that this will not be the end of my French dream and I shall keep visiting this Forum for further encouragement and inspiration!

[quote user="Just Katie "] I think that most parents want the best for their children but when they go into a dreamworld of a new life their judgement can easily be clouded.  I know, I am one of the worlds dreamers.  However, when you bump back to reality most people weigh up the feasibility of their plans and conclude they were living in cuckoo land.  [/quote] I sat there quietly, reading the exchanges and pndering day and night... I have to say that the post I quote from (and the majority of the others) have convinced me not to live in the cuckoo land, and so I have decided that the only way to go forward is to stay in the UK and let our teenagers get on with their education.  Might be the right decision, might be totally the wrong and unadventurous one - but it certainly shows the Power of the Forum! Yours, still dreaming of living in France one day...  

I don't know where you live, but Trocante is a good place.  Go on www.trocante.fr and it will show you whether your department has got a branch (we have bought lots of good stuff through them - they have both antiques and completely modern stuff.  I haven't tried selling through them, but have seen plenty of people do so).

[quote user="beryl"]  French is a hard language, even my French friends acknowledge that, but if you try you will find that most French people will meet you at least half way. [/quote] True, and I have found many French people very accommodating with my French, but what do I do if they don't even try to speak French back to me but launch straight into English?  Is it a sign that my French is so bad, are they trying to be friendly and spare me the trouble, are they doing it to show me their superiority in linguistic skills or simply to annoy me?!  And I never know after that if I should stick to my French (which is not so bad after all) or to revert to English (which is not my mother tongue anyway!).  Do you get similar problems when visiting France?

The Scottish Minister obviously doesn't know much about vodka if he claims that you could not taste the raw materials in this spirit!  There is a massive difference in taste between vodka produced from grain and from potatoes (the latter being my firm favourite)!  I would recommend "Luksusowa" if you can ever lay your hands on it - truly superb!

It is nice to hear a story with a happy ending!  How well did your children speak French before you left London, Garlic?

[quote user="KathyC"] There are also many other ways of moving out of London, without moving to France. Why do people always want to go to such extremes? I hope that this hasn't come over as unhelpful; it's really intended to be a different slant on a problem. [/quote] The only reason why we might want to move to France and not to Darlington, for example, is that we have a house in a lovely village in the South! 

Hi Tricia I am very interested in this thread and any advice that people might offer because I am in a similar boat (daughter nearly 11 and younger son nearly 15).  My trouble is that all my family want to go to France (apart from the eldest, who's at university) and - as much as I want to live in France myself - I am desperately trying to present to them all the possible disaster scenarios that might happen (not fitting in, boredom and depression, not being able to find a job...).  Both my husband and I love all things French so we would be OK, but my son simply wants to escape from London.  In the last 6 months he was mugged twice and had one of his eyes permanently damaged in an attack at school.  Try explaining to him that living in rural and tranquil place in France might not be better than living in London... I wonder if there are ANY positive examples out there of teenagers who went to France, liked it, stayed and get on somehow?!  Please, please answer - even if it is to say: Go and get some sense, woman!

Have you tried Darty?  I was very satisfied with their goods and service.  http://www.darty.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/DartyGroupView?storeId=10001&u=3&r=12415&mn=1

I've just checked out our telephone line using this useful website and am confused.  I know there is no ADSL in our village and it's coming only in 2012, but what is ReADSL?  According to the website, it's coming this October, so may I hope for broadband connection?!

Hi Pads Fingers crossed that it all goes well for you - do try to let the Forum know how you are getting on as soon as you can!  I am that close to making a decision to follow in your footsteps (which is certainly mad with older children...).  So no last minute advice from me - just best of luck! Anna

Having travelled on the Motorail just twice (well, south and north), I am no expert.  I asked the staff on the train going south if French people ever used the service and was told that no, as it would normally be inconvenient for them to go the the Motorail terminals and very expensive.  However, on our way back, there were some French people who got on the train in Tolouse and got off in Brieve (whether they had a car with them on the train, I do not know).  As to your Honda 4 x 4, I know that on routes from Clais to Avignon the maximum height of 1.80m is accepted.

Go for it, if you can!  See my post about Motorail under general Travelling to/from France topic.

We have just come back from France by Motorail and what great experience it was in comparison to driving all the way South!  The terminals were really easy to find and all the staff helpful and fully bilingual.  The trains were old-fashioned but quaint and it was quite amazing to go to sleep in the North and wake up in the sunny South the next morning.  Had a nice breakfast laid out for us in the station restaurant and waited about 5 minutes for our car to be unloaded.  OK, it is expensive compared to driving all the way, but what a way to start (and finish) a holiday!  I just hope they will keep the service going - I am not sure how they can afford it, even with the current high prices.  Both ways, maximum of two compartments were occupied per carriage. All in all, a great way to travel.

We drove with the car boot full of tins of paint a couple of weeks ago - no problems whatsover.  Have you read anywhere about such products being banned on the ferries? 

Ali, we will be going by motorail, so won't have a chance of bumping into you, however I will definitely be thinking about you on my travels and keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well!  I hope you will continue keeping us posted on this Forum as to how things develop.  And, as I am reluctantly going back home in August, you will be staying in France for good, you lucky thing! Yours, green with envy, but wishing you all the very best!

Thank you, Twinkle.  I intend to have a very good time in France.  And as to the temperatures, it has been amazingly hot in London for the past few days too.  Probably global warming but I have to admit I love it!

[quote user="Cassis"]No excuses, please.  You could always spend the entire 3 weeks in an Internet café or library ... [/quote] Tee-hee!  I AM going to enquire about connecting us to a telephone line and perhaps getting an internet connection, but it is rather low down the line of priorities (for the start, we can't get hold of our nice French builder so we don't even know if we have a kitchen! But we can camp in la cave downsatairs, I don't care, live on baguettes and cheese [and wine, of course]!).

What made me feel good about the week was knowing that next week (Wednesday) we are off to our house in France for 3 (THREE) whole weeks!  Can't wait any longer.  The down thing is that I won't be able to check the Forum postings for 3 weeks as well, but hey, I am going to be in France, so who cares!

I hope they are not what I know as "frelon" - really nasty if it stings, apparently.  Check this website out: http://patwo.com/insect/frelon.htm