the story so far....

[jon]

Arrived in November and stayed in a rented house[which was located 2 km from our house]we signed in Dec.Some of you may remeber that we came from London and I explained that the only things that I miss about the City was a couple of my fav restaurants  and our friends.Mentioned that I had some very bad experiences with the NHS and that my long love affair with UK was sadly over.Of course many of you  were  uncomfortable with the declaration of my disatisfaction  and make massive attempts as bullies tryring desperately to tell me that my views are irrelevant.

Well since my last posting on this sight I have moved into the house which we purchased last year.......and there were numerous problems.One of them was legall and that was settled within two weeks.The electricity was mal functioning and the central heating not working.....and the water coming from the taps was fizzy like perrier....everything was taken care of within a day or so.All workmen....[including chimey sweep] arrived on time or 10 mins ahead of appointed time.All deliveries of goods arrived with a cheerful driver.

Neighbours....nearest and dearest awaits my attention in the m orning...surely for food[I have his parents ok on this]but he comes and goes most of the day.There is a friendly owl who, I hope we will see ...of course he is in residence and does not appear when the neighbours pussycat is around.

The only drama which remains bazaar is the telephone..France telecom.Took a week to get line and internet conection at the rented place...but something very odd is happening here at our house....3 weeks apparently for all to work.Afer ten days and two visits we have internet and outgoing calls.I spoke with a friend in UK yesterday and she said that when she picked up the phone last week she could hear me talking in French to someone.....she remained as a third party ....but unable to comunicate.

Interesting to look at the propspects of solar power.The way forward.

For those of you thinking of mooving to France in the near future...and have been lucky enough to sell[I hear that in trendy Chiswick the estate agents offices are silent for lack of visitors...when a few months ago...so so diffrent] I can recomend that you concider Entre Deux Mers.Had a chat with an Estate agent in Paris who always seems to have the best properties and knows how to sell them.He tells me that we must wait untill sept to see how the market is but he tells me that the British are not buying just now because they are unable to sell.He also said that my area remains the strongest in the S.W and property in Lot et Garon...Agen etc asking prices need to reduce by 15 to 20 per cent.

Just outside the house we have a sun trap and the weather has been glorious.I n L:ondon I used a drying nmachine for the washing.....everything was out on the clothes line yesterday and ready for ironing within hours.

Granted it is not all roses ...[but  they will be here soon] but when I hear that my sister in laws 16 year old niece was mugged in Reading I feel that I have made the right decision to turn my back on the agression of London and her peremeters.

So if you wish to leave uk....work out your finances carefully, future income and where you will be based...then research.You can rent in France for about 800 euros per month ...2 bed house.

 

[ali-cat]

I'm really happy to hear that you've had such a successful move to France & are really happy with your decision.  No doubt some will come on & once again complain that the "French way of life" you describe is a myth - but some of us really have been lucky enough to find exactly what we are looking for.

We faced similar problems with French Telecom (paying for non-existent internet connection for 4 months!) but it was mainly our own fault, due to our lack of language skills, to get it sorted out sooner.  As for your water ..... some people would pay good money for that!! [:D]

 

[Cendrillon]

"Just outside the house we have a sun trap and the weather has been glorious.I n L:ondon I used a drying nmachine for the washing.....everything was out on the clothes line yesterday and ready for ironing within hours."

This facility is not exclusive to France! LOL

 

Jon

I am pleased it is all working so well for you in France and long may the honeymoon period continue.

"Of course many of you  were  uncomfortable with the declaration of my disatisfaction  and make massive attempts as bullies tryring desperately to tell me that my views are irrelevant."

Many of us have good experiences and enjoy living in the U.K. though I would be the first to admit that there's good and bad to be found in both countries. Comparing London life with life in rural France you are not comparing like with like.

Don't forget that there are people on this forum who have lived in France for years and have much experience of day to day living and working in France, their experience may have been somewhat different to your own. It's good that they find the time to share it with forum members who may well benefit from it and at least be forewarned of some of the pit-falls.

[:)]

Still very happy with a life in both countries [8-|]

 

 

[raindog]

[quote user="jon"]

Of course many of you  were  uncomfortable with the declaration of my disatisfaction  and make massive attempts as bullies tryring desperately to tell me that my views are irrelevant.

[/quote]

Get a grip jon, nobody has bullied you. But, even now, you're continuing to make comparisons between muggings in Reading and living lost in the vineyards of western France. While your poor niece was being mugged, someone in a French banlieue was recieving the same treatment.

Glad you're settling in ok - keep us posted.[:)]

[ali-cat]

Raindog .... I think the signature, at the bottom of your postings, is leading me to believe that you're a bit of a pessimist & cynic!! 

I don't think that Jon said France was perfect - everyone knows that nowhere is -  but was trying to make the point that things have worked out the way he hoped they would, regardless of how much he was shouted down previously.  I didn't see the original posts but judging my your opening words of "get a grip", I'm not really surprised he felt the need to re-post, if this was the attitude.

[raindog]

[quote user="ali-cat"]

Raindog .... I think the signature, at the bottom of your postings, is leading me to believe that you're a bit of a pessimist & cynic!! 

[/quote]

[:D][:D]

you're right, i'm fairly cynical - but i'm not at all pessimistic - just realistic. (anyway, how does the saying go? an optimist is someone who doesn't know what's going on)

I think i'll change my signature to "I like fluffy kittens and primroses"

I wrote "get a grip" because he keeps on about being bullied, when he isn't [:)]

[Russethouse]

Well here I am, daffs, crocus, snowdrops, aconites in bloom, even the rosemary has bloom and there are plenty of buds to come. The roses are shooting, so too the perenials........

This week we have had visits from three tradesmen, all on time, polite and did what was requested.

Yesterday I went out to lunch with a friend and today I went out for lunch with my husband, on both occasions we exchanged pleasant greetings and chat with people we know.

The sun is warm, washing is drying in a trice and people are out enjoying the weather, walking by the river, rowing etc.

All in all its very pleasant - perhaps surprising then that I am just a mile from Reading town centre ![:)]

By the way one of the tradesman (who we know because we have used him several times) was telling us that his brother in law had been murdered - his brother in law was French and lived just outside Bordeaux - Crime happens everywhere it seems.

Ali - I'm afraid postings which promote the opinion France = good  UK= bad, will always get a rough time on this forum.

[ali-cat]

[quote user="raindog"][quote user="ali-cat"]

Raindog .... I think the signature, at the bottom of your postings, is leading me to believe that you're a bit of a pessimist & cynic!! 

[/quote]I think i'll change my signature to "I like fluffy kittens and primroses"

I wrote "get a grip" because he keeps on about being bullied, when he isn't [:)]

[/quote]

If you had written "I like fluffy kittens & daisies" I would have been worried that you actually knew me!! [:-))]

I do though think that there is a lot of bulling going on at the moment - not just on this thread.  I will argue till I'm blue in the face with someone if they are talking about something specific i.e. health care benefits etc. which I have experience with - but I would never tell someone that their impression of a place or atmosphere is right or wrong (France or UK) as I don't know where they live & what their experiences are.

[jon]

`Russet house and raindog...one of you needs to try harder and to rule out some of the negativity.

The other one needs to step off the high horse....

I am only relating everything as it is.As I said it is not perfectection on a plate here...why do you persist in knocking the truth and trying.

This particular  area of posting is to portray/help others making a decision about moving/buying in France.

There is no need  for your attitudes we are not in a competition!

 

[jon]

missed part of my sentance "trying.......to be smart"

[artsole]

russethouse,

It may be true that your tradesmans brother in law was murdered, but who is to say that he wasn't a drug dealer involved in drug wars, or someone who regularly got into fights and therefore, the risk of being killed was higher. I am not trying to diminish the fact that someone was murdered, but the way you have put it, just adds to all the other stuff that is said on here............. and you a moderator tut tut[:D]

[YCCMB]

[8-)]

 

So, if someone gets killed or mugged in the UK, they are bound to be an innocent victim, whereas the only victims of violent crime in France are likely to be involved in some criminal activity themselves?? Geez, artsole, clutch a bit tighter onto that straw you're holding, or you might blow away!

[Russethouse]

There is no need  for your attitudes we are not in a competition

Absolutley!

But yet again you post something positive about France and negative about the UK, as you see it is easy to do.......and doesn't achieve anything.

I love France, but its not Utopia, you have changed your life for the better, great, good for you, but as Raindog I think said, you are not comparing like for like. You may have had a unhappy time in the Uk but plenty of people have a pleasant enough life here.(Even in Reading ! [;-)])

Deards, as for the guy being murdered being a drug dealer - I doubt it, but of course you could have said the same about Jons relative.

BTW being a moderator doesn't prevent me having an opinion.[6]

 

[Will]

No, I think there is a risk of this topic and others like it going to the other extreme - of 'France is full of drug dealers and criminals and isn't really a nice place'. In my opinion both France and Britain have their share of troubles; to ignore them is stupid, as we all know, but it's equally unrealistic to make too much of the troubles. It's possible to look at the realism of life in France without getting either 'fluffy' or despondent.

I'm pretty sure that I know exactly where artsole lives, and it's neither the most salubrious part of a well-known and quite touristy town, nor is it the equivalent to a sink estate (there may well be some of those extra-muros). Being a town it has its problems, its less-than-socially-acceptable inhabitants and its crime - so do towns everywhere. Even places like Windsor, certainly Reading (our daughter lives there) and the town where our English house is.

If artsole is who I think he is, then he knows what he is talking about a hundred times better than most other forum users - including me. He was one of the original users (under a different identity) of the old Living France forum some seven or eight (maybe even more) years ago and since then has been far more involved in French life (in Normandy and various places down south), French work (salaried employment, own business, working the markets, working as an artist) and in just being an Englishman living full-time in the real France, with more than his fair share of ups and downs, than pretty well anybody. And I include RH in that, as she obviously remembers him too.

If I've got this wrong, then sorry, and why have you plagiarised the work of a good friend of mine for your avatar? [;-)]

 

[raindog]

[quote user="jon"]

`Russet house and raindog...one of you needs to try harder and to rule out some of the negativity.

[/quote]

Jon, I only answered your post because you said you'd been bullied, when we all know you haven't. I think you mistake a difference of opinion for bullying.

Again, i'm pleased you're settling in.

PS lighten up a bit [:)]

[artsole]

Betty

ah! so that was what it was............I wasn't clutching on to my straw tight enough![;-)] But you have missed my point, I was trying to say that if you are going to state something, then present all the facts if possible, if not......"ta gueule" , because it just adds to the confusion. I am neither positive nor negative about france or UK, I had a good life in the UK and I've got a good life in france, the only differences (and they are small ones)......... I don't have to work too hard in France,[:)] the booze is cheaper,[:-))] the sun shines more often.[8-|]..........and the women are easier to get into bed (or on the floor, or the back seat, or the washing machine etc etc)[6] Russet, ofcourse you are entitled to your opinion, but my point was, as a moderator," fait attention"  and who's deards?

Will, thanks for the support and from these comments you may gather that plagerism isn't my thing![:P]

[jon]

Raindog ...you lighten up...a bit.

I am settling in....and put a lot of effort and taken a huge risk in changing my life...so why on earth do some of you try to make things difficult.

Yes London is probably as bad as Paris......I would never move to Paris...its a great place for a week end running around shops and restaurants.....just as London is great for music venues, restaurants and people who are basicly very unfriendly and very busy tryin g to impress each other.Like for like....yes.

I like what I have now  and I am certain that others who come from a busy, buzzy world would be very happy to taste a little of "the local wine"and recomend this area for those seeking a retreat from Turnham Green Terrace or "very exciting" Oxford Street .....or Lazy days at the Charles Napier where even champagne is on tap.

We are not all the same...said it before.

 

[YCCMB]

[quote user="Will"]

Being a town it has its problems, its less-than-socially-acceptable inhabitants and its crime - so do towns everywhere. Even places like Windsor, certainly Reading (our daughter lives there) and the town where our English house is.

[/quote]

 

I don't think anyone said that Windsor, Reading or indeed "the town where your English house is" (Horsham, I believe, if we're to name the hometowns of all participants) didn't have all of the above. In fact, as I've said many, many times, the area where I live has a raft of problems, social issues and so on. However, unfit though I may be to lick the boots of someone who has lived in France since before the early days of Complete France (gosh, how ever did they manage?), I am in total agreement with those who have stated, here and elsewhere, that the UK is not any more hell-on-earth than France (any of it) is some 21st century utopia.

As for artsole, as far as I am concerned I responded to what he wrote, and I'm sorry, artsole, if I misunderstood your comment. However, I'll just carry on with my normal approach to these things and  speak as I find. I don't need to take up references Will, but thanks.

 

[artsole]

Betty,

you carry on dear, in what ever way you see fit[:)] but perhaps.......... you need to clutch on to that straw a bit tighter[8-|] I'm happy to continue discussing things on here and I'm willing to talk about the good and the bad about the UK and France. If that's the discussion people want, "pas de problem". I've been here before[:@] if you think you may be unfit to lick boots, you may be fit enough to lick my 'artsole'[:P]

[TWINKLE]

[quote user="artsole"]

and the women are easier to get into bed (or on the floor, or the back seat, or the washing machine etc etc)[6] [/quote]

Is that because they weigh less or that they are more bendy?

By the way - I love your brussel sprout avatar[:)]

[woolybananasbrother]

definitely bendy dear and not getting sufficient appreciation[6]

[TWINKLE]

Or enough food?

Ok - I'm off! 

 

[artsole]

oh twinkle, I love my brussel sprouts as well[6] Is it the washing machine that weighs less or is more bender.................or is that bandy[:P] Twinkle, you really need to translat my signature..............but literally if your 'french' is good enough[kiss]

[TWINKLE]

Umm, you could get deleted here for that signature.  Normally, in France we say "Heureux d'apprendre la langue avec vous"

I may have to notify the mods for that slip of the tongue[:P] 

[artsole]

you notify the mods.................i'll stick with the rockers[:P] there's a good club in town and I'm off there in about an hour. Ah sorry everyone, have moved away from the subject![:D][:D] what was the subject, twinkle would like to, prendre langue avec moi?[:P]