Where to return to in UK?

[David]

Considering that many people are now thinking that they may be forced to return to the UK due to the new health regulations, I started wondering where to go, providing that anywhere in the UK was acceptable.

Can anyone recommend any area of UK that would provide a lifestyle most closely resembling the lifestyle in France that we came over here for?

For example, for starters, some factors are cheap housing, good warm weather (at least in most summers), low or zero crime, politeness and friendliness of local neighbours, no litter, well behaved children, good local produce in supermarkets, etc, etc.

Some would want urban areas and some would want rural areas.

Any ideas?

David

[Bugsy]

[quote user="David"]

For example, for starters, some factors are cheap housing, good warm weather (at least in most summers), low or zero crime, politeness and friendliness of local neighbours, no litter, well behaved children, good local produce in supermarkets, etc, etc.

Some would want urban areas and some would want rural areas.

Any ideas?

David

[/quote]

Cheap Housing,

Good Warm Weather

Low or Zero Crime

Politness, Friendliness and Good Neighbours

No Litter

Well Behaved Children

Good Local Produce

I'm wracking my brain and will let you know asap. (A bit like the computer in The Hitch-hikers guide to the Galaxy)

[:)][Www]

[Pads]

I think you will still find most of those points in rural cornwall. I certainly would not want to live anywhere else in England any more after living in and around london and towns in the North west. You wont find local produce in the super markets but there are plenty of farmers markets, House prices the same as any where else in the south, but sadley rubbish summers

I dont understand why people will come back as apposed to paying for health care, when you can save nearly that much by not having to pay UK poll tax[;-)]  

[David]

Bugbear, fully agree - perhaps I should add low density traffic on roads making driving a pleasure.

Pads, good point about poll tax.  (I thought that poll tax was abolished when Maggie was thrown out - has Labour introduced it again?) Is all this talk of being forced to return to UK (in newspapers) just hysteria, or is there a good financial reason to return to UK?

In any event it would be a good discussion as to the best place to return to.  Cornwall seems a good idea, but what part of Cornwall Pads, as I understood that Cornwall natives did not like outsiders (grockles, emmets?).

David

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Tricky...there are bits of West Norfolk that are still pretty bucolic. And you'd have the challenge of having to learn a foreign language again, though I believe that the dialetcal "Norfolk" of my youth is scheduled for extinction sometime around 2020.[:)]

[Pads]

[quote user="David"]

 

Pads, good point about poll tax.  (I thought that poll tax was abolished when Maggie was thrown out - has Labour introduced it again?) Is all this talk of being forced to return to UK (in newspapers) just hysteria, or is there a good financial reason to return to UK?

In any event it would be a good discussion as to the best place to return to.  Cornwall seems a good idea, but what part of Cornwall Pads, as I understood that Cornwall natives did not like outsiders (grockles, emmets?).

David

[/quote]

It may now be called something else (havnt a clue ) but its still there and getting more and more expensive every year , I currently spend 4 times more in the UK than on the one in France for the same size house.

I have never seen anyone or been treated myself  by a local with any thing else other than kindess . Its loverly here, mind you there are a lot of incomers so maybe they have just given up.[:)]

I live in a small village in north cornwall, like rural france services are limited but we do get a mobile library one every 2 weeks which is a good excuse for us all to meet up in the village hall for coffee while we wait for him to come, here we natter, swap spare veg/salad produce and books  plus if you need any one for any thing eg a baby sitter, some one to look after your cat for a week , to borrow a lawn mower ect this is the time to sort it out. Most people here are retired so I find myself dragged in to helping out with gardening ect , but inreturn I have great pet sitters and more jam than I could ever eat.  

[Joy1]

We are paying at least as much in France in Tax d'habitation and tax foncaire as we were paying 2 years ago in the UK. (We lived in a band D house in a small town in the midlands!) Not everyone in France pays less tax[:'(] Not sure where I'd return to if I had to, although West Dorset is very nice! Joy

[TWINKLE]

Oh that sounds lovely - sorry - loverly Pads[:)] 

What's that place called where Dawn French played a shopowner in Devon or Cornwall I think it was?   I'd love to experience living somewhere where you have to wait for the monthly boat to take you to the nearest town.  Not for too long though[;-)]

Is there seriously going to be an exodus of Brits leaving France?  What will you do with your houses? 

[mint]

For me, it'll have to be Somerset, a much underrated place and everybody just shoots down it on their way to Cornwall.  The northern coast from, say, Minehead to Taunton is particularly lovely.

Mind you, I'd have to be a millionaire to live there in the sort of house that I have in France (modest as that is)!

[Pads]

I dont think a large amount of people will move back just because of having to pay for health treatments, It may well be the last straw for some who havnt settled well and have other gripes.  If you add up how much the move alone would cost, the still slighty cheaper cost of living (in my opion) and the cost of bying a house over here, that would keep you in health insurance for years to come. Then theres the complete change of life style in climate and social worries. I think people are just panicking a bit at the mo and the new bills will just get put into the melting pot and lived with while making cut backs on other things in life, as people do with morgage rises and when houses rates jumped from 99pounds a year about 15 years ago to the poll tax which is around 1500pounds today .

I also like Dorset but house prices there are much higher than Cornwall as you get a lot of the commuter group who still travel to london for work and have pushed house prices up. Cornwall is still a little far for that for most people, Its mostly retired people here.

If any one is thinking of moving here Id be more than happy to help by sending over house details or giving info on areas ect..........   

 

[cooperlola]

Shropshire for me.  But I'm not going back until every penny I possess is gone, then I'll fall back, penniless, upon the state!

[Framboise]

Not sure where I'd go.  Surrey  as the county of my birth is not what it may have been once upon a time.  Gradually being eaten away by the London suburbs as Middlesex was, it all blurs into suburbia so within 20 years everything within the M25 will be "London".  

I don't want to be old here and thats why we are de-camping to France in the first place, the land of my forefathers in fact, but IF  I had to come back I shall do as Cooperlola but deposit myself on the kids so they can look after me for a change!!   Why else have four children? [:-))]   We will have four options - three in UK, wheresoever they may abide and  one in France -   but we have no intentions of leaving France whatever happens.  I won't even consider it.  My box will be planted en France!     [:)]

[Tony F Dordogne]

Framboise, got it in one as far as Jenny and I are concerned.  Like you I have very long ago French ancestors and to be honest, if I'm going to be mixed into my compost heap, I'd rather keep the soft fruit going here than a row of mangy roses in an East London crematorium.

Unless of course, Jenny is still around and if so, half of me goes into the Thames, close to the South Bank where we did our 'courting' and half goes into the French compost heap.

I don't even want to go back to the UK for two weeks any more - if the kids and grandchildren want to see us, they know where we live and if they can't be bothered to come here why should we go there?

[heidi h]

I am so fed up with all the brit bashing that goes on in France. I am moving back to the UK next week for the simple reason that after 3 years I miss it. Shock horror I hear you all muttering. I have had a very nice time here and despite meeting some great people, I don't feel they will ever be friends like I have in the UK  - there is too much of a cultural difference. I miss cinema that isn't dubbed, a good coffee, a wide choice of good places to go and eat and drink( I think the UK now beats France hands down for food and bars), decent shops,  customer service (Uk is better than here where I don't think they have even heard of the phrase) a supermarket that sells a wide range of products from other countries too (so I can but lemon grass to make a thai curry or an Italian red!). As someone in her mid thirties it is also not a cheap place to live and I too pay much more in fonciere and habitation than I ever did council tax (Poll tax was a different decade!) Don't get me wrong I have enjoyed my time here but for me its time to go back. If I could transport my house with its land back to the south coast of england I would be made up - and space is not a reason to stay somewhere when lets face it, even the weather aint that good. I am originally from a rural staffs village and truely believe that the rual Uk is is not really different from rural France. Neighbours are friendly, they help you out, there are village fetes, morris dancing, real ale by a fire in a local pub, bonfire displays, a sense of community and there ARE farmers markets. The only real difference is the price of property. I don't know anything about new health laws as I have paid cotisations for health care for the last 18 months but if you do have to return I don't think its all that bad - certainly not as bad as the 'Daily Hysteria' would have you all believe!

[cooperlola]

[quote user="heidi h"]not as bad as the 'Daily Hysteria' would have you all believe![/quote]

I'm certain of that.  Good luck to you.  Much better to know what you want, and go for it.  No point in having a life that doesn't suit you - you only have one.

[Rose]

[quote user="TWINKLE"]

What's that place called where Dawn French played a shopowner in Devon or Cornwall....

 [/quote]

Hi Twinkle... not the same programme but there was another with Dawn French called Jam and Jerusalem I think... and it was filmed near my sister's house in mid Devon... a small town called South Molton... and it was so true to life that it was hysterical... every detail... especially the slide show about the dreadful traffic over Exe bridges in Exeter!  Hope they do some more! 

As for nice places to live... well house prices are reasonable-ish in and around Crediton and Mid Devon... and it has a wonderful friendly rural feel without being isolated... a place worth considering![:)]

[TWINKLE]

Hi Pink specs!

I haven't heard of that one - I'll look out for it.  I was talking about Wild West, http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/wildwest/

I saw a few episodes when I had BBC Prime.

[Rose]

I know the one you mean... love Dawn French but never got to see that one!  Saw all the ads but always seemed to miss the actual programme!  [:D]

[Pads]

Have not seen that prog , when was it on ? St Gweep is the TV name yeah ? Where was it filmed do you know ? 

[woolybanana]

S o d TV progs. Who ever wants to that? Miss what? Nothing. Septic Isle equals Septic Tank. Get real, there is nothing there any more once you have left.

[mint]

Wooly

Now, now, it's sceptred isle, as you well know and you mustn't get so excited!  There are many things in Old Blighty that would appeal to Brits over here.

Granted, they would not appeal to the likes of you or me, but then, we aren't your average Brit, are we?  Or does that sound a little patronising?  If so, I don't mean it to?! 

[woolybanana]

No Babe, I aint, been living in the world for far too long. Please, please, what are these things that make people go across the water? I cant see any. (Except typing lessons.)

[mint]

Oh Wooly

The usual things.  If I asked my neighbour, he'd say a pint standing at a bar counter, fish and chips, a curry, takeaway Chinese, PG tips tea bags, HP baked beans, bacon, Yorkshire pudding.  I mean I don't bloody know do I as I don't really miss things and just tend to go along with what's available?

Today, I thought I had my Godin cuisiniere up and running (3 ovens for God's sake), switched on, plop, no service.  So..............that's life, nothing to get your knickers in a twist about.  Just lit the hob with a lighter thingy and fried eggs for the OH, frozen beefburgers (left me by my Brit neighbours) for myself and dog.  Plenty of Burgundy white to start and now large, double whiskey to finish and who cares a monkey's?

Sorry if this sounds defeatist, but, that's life and you either get on with it or be perpetually unhappy and looking for that elusive "je ne sais quoi"!

[raindog]

[quote user="heidi h"]I miss cinema that isn't dubbed,[/quote]

Why not watch French films, they're not dubbed in France....

[woolybanana]

Sweet17 youse is almost there babe. When your students protect you from the authorities, or they get machinegunned or sold off, then it is ok to react. Just a simple stove, just a simple life, no frontiers. Who wears knickers.  REMEMBER BURMA

The things you mention cannot be beaten by a good Trappist or a moules frites .... what are these things. Tell these people to move on, never, never back.

Read NERUDA and be totally happy.