Brits go home?

[Lautrec]

Can anyone recount any anti-Brit experiences they have had in Brittany or in any other area if it comes to that! I personally have had shown nothing else but politeness and kindness by my neighbours and shop assistants in my area of the Charente. I suppose it could be down to making a big effort to speak the language; even if you do it badly!

[Dave&Olive]

must say in all our trips to france only met one ignorant frenchman , you can meet more than that in 1 hour in the uk.

 Like you we are in the Charante (area 79 ) and the locals do tend to think my french  spoken very badly with a strong welsh accent is very funny ( this is what they tell me anyway )

      so I can say I will probable get more stick over this reply from the 3 guri members than I have ever had or will have in France

         Dave

[SaligoBay]

<<must say in all our trips to france only met one ignorant frenchman , you can meet more than that in 1 hour in the uk.>>

I don't think I ever met an ignorant Frenchman in the UK.  You must have been moving in the wrong circles! 

 

[Val_2]

Twice this week, people I have known for over 15 years here have made remarks about the english invasion into Brittany and how the house prices are getting out of reach of ordinary people. I know they weren't getting at me personally but the remarks and the way they were put across felt quite hurtful and I felt embarressed to be english. I tried to justify the situation saying that the main culprits are the extremely greedy agents and sellers and not always the purchasers. Today we all went shopping in a very busy supermarket and not one of us spoke english at all,we just felt we should keep a low profile.

[Dick Smith]

Dave, this Gurum agrees with you - I've been abused once (by a French Chav who objected to me making a left turn when he wanted to just roar along without stopping) and I've been treated civilly but very coldly by someone who I later found out thought I was German. I was also once totally ignored by a shopkeeper (mistaken for German again) and laughed at by a stallholder (thought I was Belgian). Apart from that in 20+ years and five years of having our place (very cheap, uninhabited 10 years before we bought it), nothing. Lots of people have been helpful (except for a woman in Leclerc), polite and welcoming, especially when I have been spending money. I think it's all hype and will blow over.

[Clair]

[quote]Can anyone recount any anti-Brit experiences they have had in Brittany or in any other area if it comes to that! I personally have had shown nothing else but politeness and kindness by my neighbours a...[/quote]

I live in northern Lot (46) and although I am French born, I am referred to as English by the locals! I suppose it helps them to know who they're talking about.

It is true that the last few weeks have brought up more comments about "Les Anglais buying everything" and "putting prices up".

It's partly fed by media reports and general discontent with one thing and another... just another wave of "finding someone to blame"

I did mention to my farmer neighbour that if he wanted to sell a calf and was offered 60 Euros by a local and 80 by an Englishman/Dutchman/Belgian, he could decide for himself and no-one would force him to sell for 80!

I was also told today that the heavy snowfall was a result of landing on the moon (just as they said back in the 70s!!)

So it's just grumble as usual I think...

[Tourangelle]

I have recently had to listen to similar remarks to Val from members of my husband's family, admittedly not in Brittany (it was Ardeche). I actually find it really rude. I just said nobody forces the French owner to sell to Brits. But I absolutely refuse to feel embarassed to be British in France, there are loads more French in Britain than there are in France. Also the rural exodus started in the 1950s in France, too bad if French people come to appreciate their countryside and small country village. In the recent on-line survey Living France did it looked like about 85% of people moving to France wanted to live in the county, where the French, for many years either could not live, or did not want to.

[Dick Smith]

You make a good point about depopulation, Tourangelle. In the 1960s the Massif Centrale was so underpopulated that farms were bought and given away to anyone who would take them on. That goats-cheese bloke who looks like me started that way.

[Musicmonkey<ADDRESS><STRONG>Musicmonkey<STRONG><ADDRESS>]

On a minor level, though it really annoyed me at the time, I tried to buy a casserole pot that I wouldn't give house room to (I wanted it for the lid which was fine), the man at the depot vente peeled off the sticker which said €1 and revealed a €5 sticker underneath, which he expected me to pay!  Dual pricing policy?

On a major level, we made what we thought were friends of our French neighbours, entrusted the keys to our second home to them and arranged for them to do changeovers for us.  They were promptly and well paid for any tasks required of them and, in addition we said, when we were asked, that the mother could use the house when we had no guests to compose music in peace.

Things started to go wrong when she and her family 'created' jobs that took hours to complete and expected us to pay when they had not obtained our authority first.  We agreed to end the business relationship at the end of last year, but said that she could continue to use one room in the house in exchange for emptying our dehumidifier.

When we made a surprise visit a couple of weeks ago, we found that she had been doing her washing and ironing at our house and had not put the dehumidifier on at all, presumably to disguise the extra electricity usage.  When we asked for our keys back - she point blank refused saying that she had to follow French law and post them recorded delivery ie. after we had left for the UK.  We offered to give her a receipt for them but this did not satisfy her.  This involved us in having to get the locks changed and a lot of stress.

We had wanted to integrate and 'put something back' into the community.  Now we will use British employees as there will be less room for misunderstandings.  We are deeply hurt to be treated like this.  It was increasingly clear from her communications with us that she was not happy about Brits taking property that would make it hard or impossible for the young to buy property of their own.

In the UK where traditionally people have strived to own their own home the average age for 1st time buyers is 35.  Not so very different?

 

[Patf]

This problem might currently be drawn to French people's attention by Borloo's idea of trying to provide housing costing 100.000 euro or less for young people. There was an article on this in the Depeche de Midi and they found that in most rural areas this was possible. The only exception was in the Lot, " l'un des departments ruraux les plus chers de France pour cause d'acheteurs britanniques."  So it seems Claire is right in saying that the press are stirring things. But the most expensive areas are the cities and big towns, which presumably has nothing to do with the british. The trouble with buying these cheap rural properties is that there's no work in the area. Pat.