alittlebitfrench Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Ok. You have just won Euro millions or the Loto.You now have the choice of living anywhere in France.So where would you live ? What region ? Rural or city ? What type of house ? Old or New ?Indulge..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 In my dreams.........I'd like to buy a lighthouse on the Granit Rose Coast in Britanny. Don't know whether if I was filthy rich I'd live there full time, but it has a great appeal for me.Where else, well, I lived away from the coast most of my adult life, so where ever I decided to buy would have to be on the coast but not the med and probably Brittany and probably the Granit Rose Coast[:D]And if I was that rich, I would probably have a pied a terre in the Alpes, because if, for too many years I missed the sea, then these days, I have moments when I miss my mountains. Not sure where I'd chose, but there again say with 100million €'s I could have a few places........couldn't I.[Www]ps ......... it says 'Best place to live', but that would be where I am happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTrash Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Why would you limit yourself to one place in France if you had won euro millions?I would buy a pied à terre somewhere on the Med (probably a bland trendy apartment with all mod cons) and rent a crumbling Bohemian flat with oodles of character in Montmartre, I would keep my chocolate box 17th century pied à terre in Normandy and do it up a bit, and I would buy an obscenely huge luxurious camping car that costs more than the average house and spend most of my time in that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 1st choice, Tours2nd choice, anywhere but here [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 OK, I'm curious, what is so special about Tours?I know we have stayed there one December, but I can remember nothing of the place, we had broken up our journey, as we were going on holiday in St Malo, the week before xmas........... Cannot remember why we chose to break our journey in Tours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 If I won the lottery I would grab my passport, leave my front door standing open so the neighbours can fight over my stuff and I would be out of here so quickly I would leave skidmarks down the jetway onto the plane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 La Reunion.To be honest, though, if I won that much money, France would be quite far from my thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 [quote user="You can call me Betty"]La Reunion.To be honest, though, if I won that much money, France would be quite far from my thoughts.[/quote]Quite Betty.TBH - I think I fancy NZ ....could afford to travel first class so no problem with keeping in touch with old friends on the long flight .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 [quote user="idun"]OK, I'm curious, what is so special about Tours?[/quote] Private joke with ALBF! Anyone watch Thalassa Friday on le Vanuatu? That is where I want/hope to go next, mi likeum tumas [;-)] It was a 50% part of France until 30 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 I don't think there is any country in the world that would tempt me away from France.I would go for a nice flat or a historical hotel particulier in Paris. Maybe in Montmartre humming the music from the film amèlie or just in the 16th? That would be my dream. Paris is the ultimate. Other than that, a house in Annecy with a panoramic view over the lake and the mountains or a house just outside Aix en Provence.Idun....Tours is mainstream France. It is one of many places in France where people drive well, excellent customer service, everyone is polite, supermarkets are great, schools are great. You will have no problems with SFR, your neighbours, barking dogs or the chasse. If you buy white paint your walls will go white when you use it. It is like UK but everyone speaks French. It is quite boring really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Before I came to France, or more specifically troudeculdemondeville living in a city would have been my worst nightmare, thats not to say I dont get why people do, its just not my bag and still isnt. However if I had no choice but to remain in France, and thank heavens that I still do have choice, then I would definitely move to a city preferably Paris for the sheer pleasure and confort of being surrounded by people on the same wavelength and with values, its not because most speak English but because they have stepped out of their comfort zone to do so and to move there and will probably have travelled overseas, in any case further than the boundary of their birth village. I always laugh when I see hear or read of the French disliking or hating Parisens, I bet none of the people labelled as such were born Parisens but instead went there to better themselves and its that and jealousy which sticks in the throat of the patelins, there is a reason why people who have had the nouse to leave my area never return despite most people having a strong instinct to return to their villages especially in retirement, I quickly learnt the reason even before I could really understand French, it was seeing how these people were treated by their own families as the enemy like any other foreigner. Did nobody see Thalassa? You can see it on Pluzz or using the replay function if you have tv via ADSL, its been 11 years since I was in Vanuatu and a lot has changed notably the invasion of the Chinese but Kastom life will not be changed overnight, seeing all the happy smiling faces gave me a kick up the backside to concrétiser my plans, they are said to be the happiest people in the world, I have yet to see one happy smiling face around here in 11 years and I dont want it dragging me down. I speak and understand French quite well now especially the Picard dialect but when people start moaning (as if they ever stop!) it becomes an incomprehensible gutteral mumbling and grumbling acted out with negative gestes, even my closest friends I frequently have to ask to stop moaning and to speak normally for me to understand them otherwise their raling serves for nothing with me, there are still a lot of people who are still 100ù incomprehensible to me after 11 years because they are so negative they never ever speak positively of anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 [quote user="idun"]OK, I'm curious, what is so special about Tours?[/quote]I live there [:D] well not far down the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 You make some good points there Chancer.My wife has worked in Paris for nearly twenty years and will carry on doing so for the rest of her working life. Does that make her Parisien ? Her aunty is a nun and has lived in Paris for the last 60 odd years. Is she Parisien ? There are many different types of Parisiens. Not everyone who was born and lives/works in Paris have wealth. These people are like cockneys to me. They are really cool and very funny.The Parisiens that people seem to dislike are the ones with 'inherited' wealth. They tend to be aristocrats. But that is typically normal/historical with French society. As you say it is probably jealousy.Nevertheless, being a voyeur of French life for so many years I have come to the conclusion that living in Paris and having a 'maison secondaire' outside of Paris is the ultimate in French living. We are moving back to Paris next year. I can't wait.P.S Chancer. You will be surprised to learn how little people actually speak English in Paris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 I would buy the house next door and get rid of the obnoxious mad git who lives there. Other than that I would stay put as I am quite happy in our likkle village, without Tweedle-Dum next door that is. But there is hope yet as he is trying to sell. It will be his 6th move after problems with his neighbours. He must be the worlds most unlucky bloke for having bad neighbours [Www][Www] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 [quote user="Chancer"][quote user="idun"]OK, I'm curious, what is so special about Tours?[/quote] Private joke with ALBF! Anyone watch Thalassa Friday on le Vanuatu? That is where I want/hope to go next, mi likeum tumas [;-)] It was a 50% part of France until 30 years ago.[/quote]Well, if you did move to Vanuatu then you would have a choice with the anthem [blink]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yumi,_Yumi,_Yumi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 "how little people actually speak English in Paris"How little do they have to be to speak English?or did you mean 'few'?A meaningless thread since it is impossible to know the 'best' without the ground for the comparison, or the evidence from which to judge.It is more: "which stereotype of an unknown place appeals to your ignorance"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 ALBF, you are very naughty........ I have been to Tours, be it briefly and no one spoke to me in english, in spite of my awful accent giving me away as an anglaise.Of the major cities if I was filthy rich, it would London and not Paris for me, and New York. I like visiting Annecy, prefer to live looking down on Lac du Bourget, if I was very rich. Love Lac Leman too, but too cold in winter for me and I like the cold.I know where I wouldn't live in France though. There are plenty of places where I wouldn't, and I know why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 The Parisiens, (well that should be the people that live and work in Paris) that I have met in Amiens could all speak English but they were all professionals, I remember once being very shocked when being presented to a couple (in French) and the husband said "would you prefer to speak in French or English?". I had an interview in La Defense and walking around I could have been in London, New York or probably any city where multi-national business is conducted, all I could hear all around me was English spoken by all nationalities although predominantly the French I did not hear an English accent but that is the language that the majority were conversing in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindal1000 Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 It's interesting because in London you now hear an awful lot of French! I like Bordeaux as a city but don't think I'd want to live there. If money was no object I'd buy a full time house in the country where I paid the least tax and 'live' there. Monaco sounds nice.. and then I'd buy a delux camping car like Dave Brailsford's and drive round visiting until I found somewhere I really like, and then I'd buy a holiday home there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 I know two different Parisien families who have property down here and both are 100% sound. The first are an elderly couple with I assume inherited Old Money wealth who have a large chateau here as a holiday home, and the other is a self-made business man who has done well for himself with a software company who has a holiday home here too.While I get on well with both, they are not well liked by the locals for vague undefined reasons I can only put down to jealousy, really. But then like where Chancer lives, most locals here are miderable, tight-fisted, poorly educated, hostile to outsiders and have rarely set foot outside of the Departement.As for me and my imaginary Lotto win - I quite fancy trying my hand at being the stereotypical washed-up expat.....somewhere where the beers are cold, the girls are warm and both are cheap. I would be found propping up a bar in some beach hut, wearing a crumpled white linen Man From DelMonte suit, on my 3rd double gin and tonic by 10am, regaling/boring everyone within earshot of tales of derring do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 Just wanted to add to my mainstream France/Tours list that people are not miserable, tight-fisted, poorly educated, hostile to outsiders and have rarely set foot outside of the Department. People are normal. Just normal run of the mill people with mortgages.The family of my wife are from a hamlet in Burgundy. Her family pretty much founded the hamlet. For generations people have lived in the house (tiny typical old house) but mostly in the summer as they spent their winter elsewhere working.....mostly cities. When some of the family go and stay at the house during the summer like every year for the last zillion years, the locals will not talk to them. They are considered outsiders although they are born and bred there and the graveyard is mostly full of their family. The people who ignore them are not born and bred themselves in the hamlet they grew up in the surrounding villages. It is not just a Parisien thing. People in these villages are just so untravelled and uneducated and are hostile to anyone that 'may' have money. A Belgian bloke bought the local bar in an adjoining village. The locals ganged up an essentially forced him out. Now the bar is closed. Vivre la France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debra Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 [quote user="alittlebitfrench"]My wife has worked in Paris for nearly twenty years and will carry on doing so for the rest of her working life. Does that make her Parisien ? Her aunty is a nun and has lived in Paris for the last 60 odd years. Is she Parisien .[/quote]Apparently not. However, as a local eleven year old told me, my neighbour, only having moved here to live with her Charentais husband after the war, in nineteen forty six, isn't Charentaise you know, but Parisienne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 albf - reading your last post, it's you who has the problem, not the rest of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 [quote user="Patf"]albf - reading your last post, it's you who has the problem, not the rest of us.[/quote]How does that work ?I am just a passenger looking out the window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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