I sometimes wonder if it will ever be possible

[BIG MAC]

We have a house in France. We have friends in France. We love the French way of life but recognise our English employment pays for it and the reality is a bit less 'Hearts and flowers'

I don't know how many of us are in the situation that they would like to lock their front door in the UK and head for France permanently but are held by financial ties so wait until their dotage before going if at all.

I look at the complex taxation, the even more complex health system and as for registering and driving a car........cripes it's beurocracy gone mad.

I know one day we will fetch up there, I just hope that we are still young and healthy and well enough funded enough to enjoy it.

Those of you who already have made the move and made it 'Stick' I am ever so slightly envious (In a positive way.......positively envious?)

I wonder when or if it will be our turn........You know when you get those days that you feel life may be passing you by?

Ramble over...........

[Cendrillon]

Big Mac

You have a house in France which is great and lovely for the holidays if not for full time living. You also live in Hants. which as a county has a lot to offer so all I would say is look around you,  enjoy what you have while you are able, don't put your life on hold, you have the best of both worlds, enjoy.

Bonne chance et bon courage.[:)]

[cooperlola]

Mac, one night the o/h and I sat in the pub and decided on a date (a couple of years hence in our case) to make the jump.  In the end we were a few months late but in essence at least, we did it.  I think that if you really want to do something the only way is to dive in (making sure you can swim first).  Otherwise you may never do it until it is too late.

It's not really bureaucracy gone mad - all the tax/health/car stuff has to be done in the UK too - it's simply that when you move countries it all hits you at once.  Just remember - others (many of whom may be less well prepared than you) have already done it and succeeded.  It is NOT rocket science!

[Gastines]

All the points you state are well covered on this and other sites. The main difference you will find here is that if you visit the offices concerned with your tax/health/car queries they can be dealt with straight away and worries dealt with. We have found the staff in ALL the offices including tax, very helpfull. The main thing here is to take all the correct documents with you and ensure you get the UK end to deal with things. Finances are now easier to work out and if you reckon on 1 euro equal to 1 pound , that should take care of any increases for a few years.

Regards.

[nectarine]

Big Mac, five years ago I was where you are, having a holiday home and wishing I could live there all the time, and decided to move over within five years.  Well we did it just a few months ago and it is everything I dreamed it would be (so far!!) but, yes, paperwork and registering and all that has taken time and given me some sleepless nights.  Financially, yes we could afford it and we don't work any more but, of course, if you rely on the UK for your employment then don't turn your back on a good living - I know many people who have thought they could find work in France and are seriously in debt now!!

But, to give you hope and inspiration, I had a picture of our French house pinned up at work, on the wall behind my computer.  So when I was having a hard day at work I could look up and think "I am doing THIS so that one day I can live  THERE".  And it kept me going, in fact it gave me a reason to work in a way, not just a financial one, but I had hope that this wasn't going to be what I was going to do for the rest of my days (unlike many of my fellow rat-racers!).

So Big Mac, keep going, your day will come, your debts will be paid, you will have enough to live on and then, I suggest, be brave and take the leap.  For all the paperwork and bureaucracy that it first entails, it is worth it to wake up every morning and realise that you are living your dream!!

[Cerise]

If you really want to do it then you can.  BUT and it is a big but, you have to decide to be a lot worse off financially, unless you wait until you are retired.  We came getting on for 7 years ago now.  My husband didn't speak French, but he now does and has had a CDI for the last 4 years.  We are not starving to death but we are certainly no where near as well off as if we had stayed in UK.  You have 2 houses, so if you only had one you wouldn't need so much money to keep it going.  Have you any ideas about jobs you could do if you were here,

I can't tell you if it is worth it.  Interestingly my OH - who had no French on arrival - is happier than me, but he has a job.  I too work - run our B & B - but that was never my dream.  I do it because it is something I can do to earn my living given that no-one French wants to give me a job.  I do it well, because I'm like that, but quite honestly I'd much prefer to go out to work for normal and less exhausting 35 hours a week.

However, we have made a life here.  Nowhere is perfect.  I'd like to move on and try something else.  The bureaucracy is not so bad if you are not the kind of person to question it!  I do find it drives me crazy because it is so illogical and 'because I say so'.

Do you love France because it is different from your everyday life?  If it was your everyday life warts and all would you stil like it?  Personally I think those with a foot in both camps have the best of both worlds.  Nobody can have everything so you have to decide if you and any significant others wish to move here enough to take a lot of risks.

Good luck anyway.

 

[WJT]

Big Mac, I know how you feel, our dream of moving to France is all but gone.  But it has nothing to do with bureaucracy just the financial crisis and the effect on pension, property and pound. If it isn't just financial in your situation and your problem only lies with the bureaucracy you mentioned, I would go for it. But if it has to do with finance, you are certainly not alone.[:(]

[odile]

oh no, you are not! We just can't decide what to do!

[AnOther]

I have to agree with gastines and Coops (again !). We sold up and moved about 15 months ago but even with what we though was sufficient homework and preparation to at least hit the ground running we still very much fell into Coops characterisation of 'others less prepared'. Neither of brought any French language skills to the table BTW.

Credit where due though, I have to declare upfront that this forum has been more useful than I can adequately express. Largely because of it I can also say that for us it's not been in the least bit complex or a bureaucratic morass. Afilliation to CMU was straightforward and we were we were fortunate enough to get in before the critical date which, without this forum we probably wouldn't have even known about, our 1st tax return was filled in for us by a very helpful English speaking lady at the Impots and both our cars were a complete doddle to re-register. Whatever the problem there will nearly always be someone here who has

been through it, knows the solution, or at least can point you to where

you can find an answer so I think maybe you worry too much on that score.

I do think finance is the key but I also do not think Cerise's comment 'decide to be a lot worse off financially' is really fair. We have no real idea of your circumstances and it may be that by selling up in UK you could live a very comfortable life in France so saying you should automatically expect to be worse off cannot be taken for granted, only you can be the judge of that. As gasines says though, with an exchange rate of virtually 1:1 you can be pretty confident that you're not going to get fatally clobbered as many unfortunately have over this past year.

[ViVienne]

I consider myself really lucky to have the choice to decide where I will live when I retire, I'm not desperate to go to France as I have family and friends in England and I know there are lots of things I will miss, however when we go to France it is a real wrench to leave and it gets harder each time, we have good friends there too. I too have a photo of the French house by the computer at work so that on the days when I'd sooner not be there it reminds me why I am!! We bought our house in France 7 years ago after watching the prices slowly increase, we had always said we wanted to buy one there when we retired but realised the way prices were going we wouldn't be able to afford to. We will be in the lucky position of owning two houses when the mortgage is paid in 8 years....we are both still in our 40's and it's nice to know we can decide what we want to do when the time comes as lot's of people simply don't have any choices to make.

[Cerise]

ErnieY - I only meant it for those who work, if they actually need their income to live on.  If they only run one house they may be better off in actual terms, but not everybody has an income outside their salary.

I don't think we are much worse off in life style but we have very little actual MONEY.  In UK we didn't borrow much, but always knew we could as we had a good regular income.  Here we have a regular income, enough to keep the wolf from the door, but nothing really to save or to enable us to borrow etc.  It is a strange feeling, if you earn quite a lot of money even if you owe a lot of money you feel you have room to manoeuvre.  Here the majority of wages are so low that a reduced lifestyle is inevitable.  Unless someone is very, very lucky they are going to be on the SMIC or slightly above if they are able to find a job with a company where they want to live.  Take home pay will be in the region of £1000 per month before tax.  Most people from the UK aged more than 18 are used to considerably better salaries than that.  Certainly anyone who is able currently to afford a second home will be.  It is a real shock how low salaries are in rural France.  Our French friends who are mostly same ages/occupations as Uk friends are mostly a great deal poorer materially  and any problem - such as the car going wrong, needing a new washing machine etc - is a much bigger issue .  UK mates say they are poor but in next breath talk about their new car/foreign holiday/designer clothes.  We simply can no longer even consider most of those things.  Doesn't matter much most of the time but I do get a pang when my old pals come over and we go to the shops they gaily say look at that, only 75€ I'll buy it and I know that I simply can't consider buying a luxury that costs 75€ on a whim.

This is not a hard luck story.  We have a pretty nice life, but I'm very realistic.  If you are not of retirement age and are working here you aren't going to have much extra money to save for the future - if you have good savings/pension that may not matter, all depends on age, but I got the impression the original poster was not that old.  Better they know the financial realities of working here if they really want to go for it.

[AnOther]

[quote user="Cerise"]I only meant it for those who work, if they actually need their income to live on.[/quote]Point taken and agreed on that basis [:D]

[Keni]

Mac,

We have been waiting until the right moment - the only problem is, as I have mentioned before, we put the house up for sale in September - great, we managed to try and sell the house in the worst possible time in the whole of history.

Ok, so we have had no takers, but we are still up for it. We work on the premise that the little twinkle we can see in the distance is our future, and as said earlier, we are now actively working towards it.

Don't get disheartened, the difference between a dream and the future is only one step forward. Good luck and to you and yours, have a good Christmas and Happy New Year.