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TV show looking for people moving to France


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[quote user="nectarine"]Is the 'Place In The Sun' fantasy such a bad thing ? If you were desperate to sell your house - as I know many people are, and have been on the market a long time - and someone came along who thought it was all sunshine and aperitifs under the wisteria ... well surely you wouldn't tell them the 'harsh reality' of life here. You'd tell them how long the summer is, what the lovely markets are like ... you'd go along with that and hope they make an offer and help you move along. Yes to some reality ... but let's keep the housing market moving a bit. These sort of programme might inspire some buyers to come over..[/quote]

 

Would that not constitute a vice cashé?[Www]

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Oh, come along, I think you take this far too seriously,Q.  Nobody is suggesting, nor has suggested on here, that  it's hell.  Simply that it's not paradise and that it's a shame that the so called "reality" tv version of it maybe isn't 100% real.  But heck, it's just entertainment and if anybody's daft enough to believe the hype, then that's their problem.  Do I regret moving here? - no.  Do I wish I'd been warned about some of the downsides which I hadn't appreciated - yes.  But then I didn't find this forum until after I'd moved here,[:)]
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[quote user="Quillan"]makes you wonder if some secretly regret making the move. [/quote]

No secret about it for me,  I'll be quite open about it, though don't know if I regret making themove in the first place. For several reasons though wish I had moved out of France earlier, years ago. It just isn't for me now, there are lots of people I know with similar thoughts that really really want to get out.

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[quote user="Balham"][quote user="Quillan"]makes you wonder if some secretly regret making the move. [/quote]

No secret about it for me,  I'll be quite open about it, though don't know if I regret making themove in the first place. For several reasons though wish I had moved out of France earlier, years ago. It just isn't for me now, there are lots of people I know with similar thoughts that really really want to get out.

[/quote]

Although we have not yet made the final move to France, we do intend to, when the present medical situation is satisfactorily sorted out ( hopefully ), if of course it doesn't work out and things go terminally wrong, I can't imagine that I would want to stay in France on my own, even though I am reasonably proficient in the language. It just wouldn't seem the thing to do. ''A stranger in a strange land'' springs to mind.
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Balham, I understand what you're saying.  And, no, OH and I deffo do NOT regret moving to France.

OTOH, we do know a fair few who HAVE regretted it.  We knew of at least 5 couples a couple of years ago in the Cognac area who all couldn't wait to sell up and return to the "ole country".

And here, in our new location in the Dordogne, we have already met 2 or 3 couples who want to sell up and return to the UK.  Indeed, the couple we bought this house from chose to sell up even though they lost  tens of thousands in the transaction.  I'm not complaining; I had a bit of a bargain after all!

Then, there are the Brits living opposite us; now trying to sell even though they have been here some 15 years.  She says she doesn't want to die in a foreign country (though why that would matter when one is dead, I fail to understand) and he says he hates the winters here.  Mind you, they expect to get top whack for their property so they might have a longish wait to sell.

Don't know if it's at all relevant but neither of them speak more than a few words of French.

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Not wishing to be pedantic Coops but I didn't say anyone thought it hell. I was talking to a friend the other day who, like me, is ex military. We often find ourselves at difference with others in our daily lives and get particularly annoyed when people whinge about their lot or things that happen, not that I am suggesting anyone here is of course. The difference we felt is that we have been trained to 'get over it' because there is little one can do so you accept it for what it is and move on. Sort of a bit like the coming elections in France. I don't have a vote, there is nothing I can do or say about who gets to be president so it is of no interest to me. It will be what it will be and whatever happens I will have to accept it and get on with my life as there are plenty of other things to do and worry about (like when do I plant by French beans for example).

So living in France is in many ways no different to living elsewhere. There are the same problems, rising cost of food and fuel for example yet for me education in France for example is of no interest. The only thing I would be interested in is healthcare but then I pay my way (like many others) so I don't think I have much to worry about, at the moment. Perhaps also the military life plays its part in that I have lived in many places, sometimes for a short period and other longer so I have never really put my 'roots' down anywhere. France to me is just a place where I live, at the moment that is. If things change in France and I don't like the changes I will simply move somewhere else. I have never thought it would be exciting living here.

I do sometimes think, when I see other ex-pats, that one reason they are here is because they can own something that they could never afford back in the UK. Perhaps it's a place in the country or a big house with a pool or whatever.

Looking at the website for this film company and the market they seem to be looking at most of the type of people they will come across will have a second home down south on the Med and they probably will have other property in other parts of the world. I think if I had a couple of million floating around and was looking for somewhere to live as a main residency France would not be the place I would choose. I would probably be looking at Monaco in Europe but somewhere out in the West Indies mainly where at least there is pretty predictable weather for a start, like hot.

I do agree on one thing with you, it's about time we had a serious 'reality' program about Brits moving abroad. The could easily do one country a week, plenty to choose from and easy to get a eight episode season. I think that type of program would be good if it were balanced well. But then of course your never get everyone to agree it's telling it how it is because everyone has different and varied experiences both in the UK before they move and then in the country they move to.

I was wondering, just out of interest, has anyone contacted the production company?

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I can't disagree with you Q, I think the mind set of ex Military / Ex professional Expats is certainly different to the normal UK immigrants to France. We don't necessarily have the long standing ''roots'' or the ''pull'' back to friends / family in UK. As a result we tend to take things as they come and just get on with life.
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[quote user="sweet 17"]Don't know if it's at all relevant but neither of them speak more than a few words of French.[/quote]

Now there's an interesting point. The people that I know that want to move do not speak French, or perhaps one or two words type of thing, enough to buy the occasional sheet of plasterboard or whatever but no way enough to sit through an evening of French television or to be able to use it all day everyday without thinking about it. In that case I buck the trend, I speak French, read it, write it, the full Monty. Theoretically I should be better off with that.

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[quote user="Balham"][quote user="sweet 17"]Don't know if it's at all relevant but neither of them speak more than a few words of French.[/quote]

Now there's an interesting point. The people that I know that want to move do not speak French, or perhaps one or two words type of thing, enough to buy the occasional sheet of plasterboard or whatever but no way enough to sit through an evening of French television or to be able to use it all day everyday without thinking about it. In that case I buck the trend, I speak French, read it, write it, the full Monty. Theoretically I should be better off with that.


[/quote]

You probably are better off than some. However I don't think it is that important to come here without speaking French. By far the most important thing is the willingness to learn. I couldn't speak a word when I arrived but I learnt a lot going to the Brico. I would sit with the dictionary or ask on the forum then go shopping with my list in French. I do watch, at times, people trying, by shouting as if it makes a difference, to ask in English. Not a lot of good in my part of the world as the main second language is Spanish and the rest speak Catalan.

I read French papers (to help with my spelling and grammar) but I don't watch much French TV because most of it is rubbish and the rest is dubbed and I would rather hear it in the original language.

Just as a matter of interest I wonder how many people stop and try and help another Brit who is clearly struggling with their French? I do unless it's a total dick head because they are where I was once and people helped me then as my French friends help me now.

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[quote user="idun"]

I have had a good chuckle at many of these posts. Coast, well if someone was that rich, would paying for health care insurance be a problem? I don't know about these things, not being rich.

[/quote]

Quite right and they probably won't be living there permanently.

We used to keep our boat along the coast from Perpignan. All along the coast from the Spanish border up to beyond Narbonne is for second homes with the exception of fishing ports like Port-la-Neuvelle and Narbonne its self everywhere is closed outside of the French holiday season, you can't even buy a loaf of bread which is why we moved our boat.

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I admit that I did not look at the link so did not fully appreciate, I guess, that we are talking about millionaires here and not normal people who might have to worry about whether they are well enough to retire early to France and stay legal.

Since we married nearly 40 years ago we've owned 3 homes (this being our third) so maybe I do look at my home in a different way from the more peripatetic amongst us, Q.  When I was a kid we moved every couple of years or so, so that probably put me off the nomadic, uncertain life.  I do remember when I lived in Malta with my mother and went to services school that all the kids and their parents certainly took the shifting about as much more every day than the those I had known in the UK who found the fact that I'd already been to 7 different schools by the age of 12 very bizarre!

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That's sort of what I mean. I think many of us know you have not had it easy over the last two years i.e. accident etc. You could no doubt 'dine out' on that and the resulting hospital treatment for years but you don't. It seems to me that the attitude, so common amongst ex military and their families, is that it's happened, you can't turn the clock back as much as we would all like to, so you just get on with it. On the other hand you get those that whinge, moan and tell people all the negatives about France and their life here and finishing with "that's how it is in France", not that I am suggesting anyone here is necessarily doing that. Life is too short and the older you get the sorter it becomes and there is no point in hanging 'in there' if your unhappy, simply move on.

I listened to an English chap down the boule drome the other day moaning about the fact he has just sold his house as he was going back to the UK etc. He advertised it for €80k and only got €50k (the going rate) and he was very disappointed. Somebody asked how long he had lived there and how much he paid, he paid €12k for it 5 years ago and spent another €5k decorating and doing some light remedial work. Personally I thought he got a good deal but then he was thinking about how much houses cost in the UK because he had already spent the rest of his profit from his UK house on two new expensive cars and a shed load of exotic holidays.

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Idun, being rich does not buy you good health and therefore the need for comprehensive private medical insurance may be a question of unobtainability rather than affordability. 

A similar issue arises with the promotion of Florida and other parts of the USA as a retirement second home destination for Brits. What they omit to mention is that unless you are in excellent health, it is unlikely you can obtain over the age of sixty private medical travel insurance for more than a six week visit at a time, meaning it is virtually impossible to obtain cover for the 4-6 months you are allowed to stay in the USA as a visitor. 

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