Home

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

What is home exactly?

I've seen on here over time and from Brits I know in France (and some I knew in Australia too), always talking about "back home".

This has always confused me, because to me, home is where I live. I'm originally from England, but when I lived in Australia, home was where I was living, and now I live in France, home is where I am living right now. I've never understood home as being where I once lived.

Where is home for you?

[mint]

Richard, I'm with you all the way on this one.

When we first arrived, I might inadvertantly say "home", meaning the UK, but the OH would always correct me.

Now, when I say home, I mean France (more particularly my part of France) and when I mean the UK, I say the UK.

[Gardengirl]

Interesting question, Richard. You really got me thinking about it! We both still spoke about 'home', meaning our parents' homes after we moved south. Our sons still speak of 'home' meaning our family home here in UK, even though they both have their own homes.

We now speak of 'home' meaning both our home in UK and our home in France. I have found myself speaking more often about 'in UK' and 'in France' rather than just 'home'. Both feel like 'home' when we're there.

I always thought home was where you felt your roots were put down; I must be a new sort of plant - double-rooted! 

GG

[ViVienne]

home is either over here or over there depending on where we are!! I guess some people also think of the place where their families are or where they were bought up as home.

[Maricopa]

Here in France for me is Home, when I refer to the UK I normally say "back in blighty".

[Stan Streason]

Home in the context of the question is a number of things.

It is somewhere where there are memories.

It is somewhere where the family would congregate in times of crisis

As you get older it gradually moves from being where your parents live or where you grew up (and still have ties) to where you live now.

Whilst you are still proposing to trade up, a house is unlikely to be "home".  It becomes home when you have no intention to leave it.

[KathyF]

[quote user="Shivy"]home is either over here or over there depending on where we are!! I guess some people also think of the place where their families are or where they were bought up as home.[/quote]

My sentiments exactly. [:)]

[woolybanana]

Here as there is no over there and I havent been there for over 10 years now.

[Joe]

I aggree with you.Home is now here.Went back to UK for a few days.Glad I am back home.OH is finding it a bit hard at the moment,but we will be ok.Its only been 12 weeks after all.

[buelligan]

I was born in Kenya, my mother was born there too, my grandparents lived there (and in other parts of East Africa) from their early twenties.  They always referred to Britain  as "Home".  I was really excited to be going "Home" when we finally had to leave.  When I arrived, I soon discovered it wasn't "Home" at all.  I had the wrong accent, the wrong clothes and didn't know anybody.  It was very, very cold (June).  Since then, I've found "Home" in lots of places - for me, it's where you are safe (and you don't have to do the washing up unless you decide it needs doing).[:)]

[Tony F Dordogne]

For us, home is here in France.  We don't have any property in the Uk and therefore can't have a home there.  We're going back to the Uk tomorrow but I'm back home on Sunday - last time we were back there, November 2008, I got really homesick for our little house and huge garden, first time I've ever been homesick in my life.  And I miss the cats!

The Uk is where the family live, it's their home, not ours.

[Bob T]

I have only been here 5 years now, but was asked in a cafe how often I go home, the reply was every day. Home is where my house and wife are.

[Mme poivre]

interesting Question but i am with garden girl on this one, we dont own a property in england but have to work there the house we live in lovely and is home when we are there but always home is france where i would really love to be but cant at the moment.

[Braco]

Ultimately home is the last place you decide to rest your bones.

[cooperlola]

I am at home now, typing this.  Nothing left in the UK which I remotely think of as home any more, although I love going back to visit, and to see my old friends and revisit old haunts - I certainly don't feel like an alien in the UK.

Wherever I lay my cat, that's my home.

[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q103/cooperlola/lm07scruttestday1-1007.jpg[/IMG]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Same here cooperlola. Nothing in the UK for me either, no friends or family. Just me and the two dogs, and this is our home. In the middle of France somewhere.

[Celine]

Strange how where the pets are makes it home for us too.

Having said that, in all our dozen or so moves all the animals have settled in no trouble at all. I take a leaf out of their book, that home is simply where we live at present, nothing to do with sentiment.

[Cendrillon]

Surely,

"Home is where the heart is"[:)]

[mint]

Oh, Cendrillon, I love that.  I'd forgotten about that saying as I haven't heard it for years.  Nowadays, people tend to think that Home is their most profitable investment.[:(]

[Théière]

It could be any one of these.....

| Living France Home | France Magazine Home | French Property News Home |

[Www]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="Cendrillon"]Surely,

"Home is where the heart is"[:)]

[/quote]

Very cliche. But then it is a cliche for a reason!

[nomoss]

[quote user="Richard"]What is home exactly?

[/quote]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDGMXrmiswg

[just john]

Real home is where we grew up, and brought the kids up, the family home (this is sometimes 'old home' especially in the kids eyes); now there are several homes, the kids home; 'where I live now home' in UK and our 2nd home in France (sometimes, holiday home).[8-|]

 

[Patf]

We've moved around so much I don't know which one to choose.

Although we love it here and this house and garden are ideal for us, the only place I feel really at home is somewhere on the NE coast of England. Where I spent my first 20 years. I still visit the area and sometimes bump into friends from the past. To use another well known phrase, it's as if I've never been away.

http://www.northumberland-cam.com/blyth/

[cooperlola]

Those pics bring back some memories.  Those were the first wind turnbines I ever saw - I went to have a look at the first one with my da and an old uni' friend of his.

I never lived in Northumberland but spent all the holidays in Newbiggin with my granny and great aunts, and even into my forties when only one great aunt remained, I was always welcome there and always bumped into people I'd known since childhood.  I feel a far greater affinity with the north east than any place we ever lived whn I was a kid, as my parents tended to move every couple of years (my mother still does get fed up with her house almost before she's moved in!)  It didn't rub off on me though, as after 35 years of marriage, we've only had 3 homes ourselves and we expect this to be our last.