Mattyj198 Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 I don't really care what time of year I am over there. In the summers Canada gets blistering hot. This summer it was so hot here the road caught on fire and you could cook a roast beef in your car window. In the winters it gets to about -30 for most of January and Feb. The snow is deep and you have to shovel it every day. I know the temp. still goes below zero over there but the snow and the cold weather there is perfect for me trying to escape a harsh Canadian winter or summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprogster Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Chiefluvie, Aix is a good two hours from St Tropez and it takes another 40 minutes from there to get to the Luberon.Have you actually been to the coast around the Gulf of St Tropez, if so you will have noticed that most houses are modern villas and apartments with orange pan tile roofs built within the last forty years and of poured concrete or concrete block construction. Whereas, in the Luberon you have a lot of much older houses including stone constructed houses of a totally different style.In St Tropez they have a grande bradderie at the end of October following which most shops and restaurants close until March or April. Although, some restaurants will open for Christmas week.Likewise, Ste Maxime which is my local town, is pretty much dead from November through the end of February, with the exception of Christmas/New Year week, with very few open restaurants and a lot of the smaller non food shops closed.A lot of the business owners and employees tend to have businesses and jobs in the French Alps for the winter season. Inland it is different, but I am talking about the resort coastal towns.In the valley where I live out of a 100 or so houses, there are only two occupied year round, which can make the long winter nights rather spooky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex H Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 I have a neighbour here, who has a friend that lives in Canada. Every year, in winter the friend visits for a month to escape Canada's winter.We thought it a bit odd at first, until he told us the temperatures he was escaping. [IMG]http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu210/alexh01/smile-1-1.jpg[/IMG] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG MAC Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Wherever my family is..is home...That is why I am currently at home in Scotland..staying with my brother and his family while working here..'Home' otherwise is Portsmouth except when I am 'Home' at France...Home, to me, is where you feel safe, sheltered and at peace. I think the concept of 'you are only allowed one home' somewhat lacking in imagination . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 [quote user="BIG MAC"]Wherever my family is..is home...That is why I am currently at home in Scotland..staying with my brother and his family while working here..'Home' otherwise is Portsmouth except when I am 'Home' at France...Home, to me, is where you feel safe, sheltered and at peace. I think the concept of 'you are only allowed one home' somewhat lacking in imagination .[/quote]Exacly so, Big Mac! [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 When we bought our Fr. house my mother asked whether we would get bored "holidaying" in the same place every year. OH replied that owning a property in France was like having a second life, and so it has proved.[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyF Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Spot on, Cendrillon! [:)] My mother-in-law still talks about us as going on holiday to France every summer, even though she knows from having visisted us several times that we just get on with life in very much the same way as in the UK. I think of it as picking up my life and putting it down elsewhere for a few months. [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattyj198 Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 ""BIG MAC"]Wherever my family is..is home...That is why I am currently at home in Scotland..staying with my brother and his family while working here..'Home' otherwise is Portsmouth except when I am 'Home' at France...Home, to me, is where you feel safe, sheltered and at peace. I think the concept of 'you are only allowed one home' somewhat lacking in imagination .I 100% agree. When I am at my house its home and the same with my parents home, my mother in laws place and even my next door neighbour from when I was growing up. They are all home to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 [quote user="KathyF"]Spot on, Cendrillon! [:)] My mother-in-law still talks about us as going on holiday to France every summer, even though she knows from having visisted us several times that we just get on with life in very much the same way as in the UK. I think of it as picking up my life and putting it down elsewhere for a few months. [:D][/quote]Thats s a good way of putting it ................Which ever house / home you are living in there are services to pay for . Gas electricity water . Its just a matter of when and where you choose to be paying out for them. . I look at it as shut down one open up another And a supermarket is a supermarket whether I am buying my food in the SuperU wearing shorts and T shirt or Sainsbury's wearing trousers and a jumper it has to be done and the cost of living works out the same each month.for me . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pads Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 My true home is were ever hubby cat and dog are ....be it a tent on top of a mountain or a palace in London...As I say below home is where I lay my paw .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprogster Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Cendrillon, your mother had a good point though, as apparently second home owners on average sell up within ten years for exactly that reason, usually when children have left home and the parents have more freedom to roam the world again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyF Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 That won't apply to us, Sprogster, as MOH is the most reluctant holiday-maker you can imagine and won't fly under any circumstances. [:)] We bought our French home when we were already grandparents and 9 years on still enjoy every day we are there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Sprogster wrote the following post at 12/02/2012 19:02: Cendrillon, your mother had a good point though, as apparently second home owners on average sell up within ten years for exactly that reason, usually when children have left home and the parents have more freedom to roam the world again! We bought our second home 12 years ago and that was well after our children had left home. We did quite a bit of "roaming" before then and still could now if we wished. In recent years our children and their young families like to come and spend holidays with us in France so we have no intention of selling the house yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatHCA Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I don't get to France as much as I would like,but I consider it living in my other home. I still cook, clean , wash ,wash up , shop etc I just don't go to work or have the cats. Like others mine isn't really good for winter , and I am really missing it at the moment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 mmmmm...what I just don't get is why anyone would buy a property they only use / visit / rent out in the 'summer' - it's almost like time-share but they call it home!Chiefluvvie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 If it's got my furniture, my clothes, my crockery and cutlery in it, if I clean it, maintain it, pay the bills on it and do the gardening, then it's my home.The fact that I do visit from time to time all year round means that I rarely describe my visits there as a "holiday". I have holidays at other times and in other places. I have homes in the UK and France.Others may feel differently.[;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 How very nice.....so, when you say 'I'm going home' - where is that? I guess it depends on where you are and who you're talking to at the time - does it ?Does 'home' mean the same as 'property', or 'house' or 'residence' ? - just throwing it out there......Chiefluvvie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I'm just telling it how I see it. Frankly, I don't have a problem with my personal circumstances and choices, but if you do, I can live with that.If I'm in France and heading back to England, most people (me included) tend to use the fairly bland "rentrer" when discussing when I'm going back to the UK. When I'm in England, I simply say "I'm off to France". It's really quite simple and painless. For me, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Crikey - what a response - touch a nerve did I ?Chiefluvvie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Not at all. I was wondering the same about you actually. You seem to be rather prickly about the concept of having more than one home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Not at all - I have 3 properties but only one I call home.......Chiefluvvie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Well, nice for you, obviously. I have just the two, and I choose to call them both my "home". As I said before, others may feel differently. You are clearly one of those others. What I can't quite grasp is why it matters to you or anyone else what someone else might choose to call a house they spend quite a bit of time living in.If it would help, I'm happy to call my French home "Brian" in any of our future discussions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Call it whatever you like.....Brian if you must :-)There's a pretentiousness about calling a property 'home' when you only visit during the summer and spend the rest of the year in Kent........surely it's a time-share!Chiefluvvie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyF Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 [quote user="Chiefluvvie"] There's a pretentiousness about calling a property 'home' when you only visit during the summer and spend the rest of the year in Kent........surely it's a time-share! Chiefluvvie[/quote]Misuse of language here. A time-share is a property which many people own, each for a week or two a year. My French house is owned solely by me and lived in solely by me and my husband and cannot be called a time-share, even if we only spend the summer there. For as long as I'm there with my husband, it's my home and it feels like home. If that's pretentious, then call me pretentious. [:D] The fact that you can't see that for people like me and several other contributors to this thread, home is a moveable situation rather than a pile of bricks and mortar is, it seems to me, your problem, not ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefluvvie Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 ....and another nerve touched.....very interesting :-)Yes I do call you pretentious and, no I don't see it....I only have one place I call 'home', - nothing to do with mere bricks and mortar - how crass.My observation, not yours !Chiefluvvie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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