Where to return to in UK?

[woody2122]

Truro is a nice place to live in the uk but I think the propertys is  expensive there, I think the French council tax is the same price as my uk council tax now, Do you think they will put up the french council tax alot more in the future especially if you have an English surname

[woolybanana]

Truro is too close to all those smug Civil Servants at Exeter. Just wait a little while til the market crashes then see. If you absolutely must. Why not stay ex-UK and discover another world. At least the trolls speak foreign[6]

[mint]

Wooly

Can't, alas, read Neruda in the Spanish though I do know a little Spanish.  Don't really know what I do read nowadays apart from the Linguaphone French course.

Take care and keep taking it neat with very little, if any, water.

[woolybanana]

Wish i could, but have been teetotal for years. Allergic to water[6]  Read Neruda in English, just as good (nearly). All on the web. Live again. You seem such a lively gel. Ever planted tea?

[mint]

NOT planted it, but do drink it first thing in the morning!

[woolybanana]

If you bring me a very very large mug of tea, Sweet 17 not too early in the mornings, then I am you peon for life. All services provided. BUT never never return to the Septic Isle.

[woolybanana]

Frith's Law: Never go back.

[Georgina]

Truro and Cornwall are definitely lovely places. But having recently returned for a visit, I was amazed by the amount of traffic.  You literally could not stop anywhere in or out of a car without being run down by a juggernaut or another person.  Certainly it is pretty like a lot of places here.  Even the tight country lanes you could not walk one minute without jumping out of the way of a speeding car. It's very much every man for himself.  A couple of times I stopped to ask directions (well off the main road) and was papped at by impatient drivers after two seconds.

 

Georgina

[cooperlola]

I have an ocotogenarian Mum and several friends of a similar age so going to visit them back in the UK is my only option, as it's a stretch for them to travel over here.  I quite like going back to visit but I am always glad to get home, and that's what France definately is for me now - home. And I'm here to stay - major unforseen disasters apart, of course.

[mint]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Frith's Law: Never go back.[/quote]

How about "Never Explain, Never Complain"?  Can't immediately recall who said it though.  Perhaps s/he was related to good old Frith, whoever he might have been?

[cooperlola]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Frith's Law: Never go back.[/quote]

 Perhaps s/he was related to good old Frith, whoever he might have been?

[/quote]Watership Down, Sweet 17!

[mint]

Now, THAT'S a nice part of the Uk to return to.  Did the proposed road near there ever got built?  If so, the poor old rabbits have probably all been run over by now!

[woolybanana]

Sweet17 might find it a bit of a rough book, Coops. Tough story, tough love, tough guys, pioneer spirit and all that.

[mint]

Wooly, are you trying to put me off eating les lapins?

[woolybanana]

Did you kill it yourself?

[Framboise]

Tony, we are still working on our house in readiness for our planned de-camp in February, however, whether we spend a week there or a weekend, our hearts sink when we have to lock and leave the place for another month or so.  It just upsets me so much.   As for when the gangplank goes down on arrival at Portsmouth, well....................... [:P] and then you get the total mayhem as you leave the port onto that manic stretch of road towards London [:@].......ugh.   Every single time it gets worse and worse but then my heart has already left this country so I guess thats why coming back here feels so downright horrible.  England just grows crummier every time I come back

Yes I shall miss my family when I go, especially my darling little granddaughter, but the kids visiting I doubt would be an issue as No.1 son absolutely loves the house & countryside and has already said that were it not for his Other Half he would come with us, along with son No.3.   My daughter is 17 though - fields, grass, mud & cows are definately NOT her scene, so she has made no attempt to come with us since we bought the place because it was semi-derelict I suppose but  largely because its so rural with no Primark / Top Shop / etc in sight!   Maybe when she is older it will be different.  Anyway, after raising four of the little "treasures" this is purely for my husband and I - we have served our sentence, our servitude to the children!

So do I gather from your little messsage at the bottom that you are descended from Huegenot stock?   I think that from my mother's side this is possible - surname Bastin, from London - but my Dad's family it seems originated in Charente Maritime hundreds of years ago.  My grandfather was Romany, the surname Doe is from D'Eu (a place called Eu apparently).   For me I suppose I am fulfilling my destiny in going to France, gaining a beautiful chunk of prime pastureland that my Grandad would have simply loved.   Its meant to be, no point in fighting it, nor do I plan to ever leave it once I get there to stay.

Roll on Fevrier!!

Sincerely,

Moya  [:D]

[AnOther]

[quote user="David"]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.[/quote]If such places still existed in UK probably half of us would still be there...[:-))]

Liked your comment Coops, we have no intention of going back but it's early days for us yet and I'm sure we're not the first couple to swear that and have to eat their words so let's see, but if we did end up going back to Blighty, in our dotage perhaps, we'd do our damndest to make sure we turned up penniless, what you haven't got they can't take from you.

I rather fancy though if that became a real prospect we'd more likely be visiting http://www.exitinternational.net/ than Ryanair or Ferrybookers and [:P] to the lot of em...........!

[Patf]

I think we will probably go back eventually. I would like to go to the Northumberland coast, but house prices have gone up a lot there too. But Eddie doesn't like the seaside, would choose the wilds of Scotand, which is too quiet for me. And we couldn't afford two houses, so there's the dilemma. Who knows what will happen. But I don't think there's anywhere left in England now which compares with the "real countryside" of France.

[Hoddy]

Patf - I like the idea of Northumberland too; somewhere around Bellingham, Otterburn or Rochester for choice. I think that area is one of England's best kept secrets.

Hoddy

[cooperlola]

Right Ernie. Penniless apart from the Porsche which I will have bought with the proceeds from my house, and will hide away in a garage somewhere for a final, glorious escape from the old jokes' home.[:D]

[MrCanary]

For all those folk who are thinking of quitting la belle France for the UK, listen in....

I own two houses - one in France and the other in one of the nicest parts of England - rural Norfolk.

Take it from one who samples both idyllic lifestyles and one who is desperately trying to leave one for the other - if you possibly can, stay in France!

Mel

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I think if we had to get out of France, we'd try another country in Europe. German house prices are low. Perhaps there.

UK, no thanks.

R.

[AnOther]

Germany would be an alternative for us too.

We've just returned from an annual pilgrimage to the Oktoberfest in Munich where, out of nothing more than idle curiosity, I did in fact look at some house prices and superficially at least they appear to quite comparable with prices in France.

Having made the break returning to UK would be an option of last resort, we'd be off to NZ before that.

[Georgina]

It would be nice in some ways to have a house in each country, but then really you are only ever dipping your toe, you never really try to make a go of it or settle anywhere in either place. A constant safety net is sometimes not the answer when it comes to making the effort. Having said that I would like a house in several countries please.[:-))]

Georgina

[Gluestick]

[quote user="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![/quote]

When I read posts such as this, I do wonder precisely why the poster came to France in the first place. It's interesting to me, since as I still have to live in the UK most of the time - begrudingly - I can see both sides of the scenario. This is particularly so, after just returning after one month and five days in France.

Cinema: what is there to see? The same endless pap which is either remakes - done badly - of earlier classics (are there no innovative scriptwriters or storytellers left in this World?), or shoot-em-up cops and robbers or worse still, kiddies junk and fantasy for kids masquerading as adults. That desperate? Buy DVDs by post!

" A good coffee" Are you serious? Is Starbucks or the endless stream of clones, good? I am spoilt for choice in my local Aldi and Champion for anything from pure Aribica to various blends: and no strange American gluck like JuJu beans, or other Californian nonsenese!

And furthermore, the coffe I drink out, in my regular post-prandial demi tasse is invariably excellent.

"A wide choice of places to go and eat................" France is the home of gastronomic excellence! We can eat out starting at  € 8.50/head for the plat de jour and if two eating, free 500 ml pressions to boot! Even a reasonable pub lunch in most of Britain is now well over nine quid a head and no free booze! Which is fine if one is content with dining on microwaved frozen mass preapred additives and the odd bit of real food!

If you prefer highly suspect curry, or Chinese food or over-priced junk pretending to be Thai; or greaseburgers or old broilers, steeped in chemical muck and served in a paper bucket, both with reconstituted "Fries", or "Pizza" which bear as much resemblance to the genuine Italian article as do British "Hamburgers" to the genuine US original, then yes, the UK is your soul place to reside!

Customer service? Have you been to such places as Asda and Tesco recently? Personally I rather prefer "Bonjour M!" to "Yus Mate", at best and at worst either a sort of flick of the head or a Neandarthol grunt!

The idyllic view of a bucolic rural life, with rosy-cheeked farmworkers cavorting around the Maypole dingling their bells has, I fear, been rather dramatically impacted by second-homers replete with ever larger and often monstrous four wheel drives who then complain bitterly about cocks crowing and church bells ringing on Sundays!

Unfortunately, I have been a "Customer" of the NHS during the past 18 months for various ailments, one requiring serious surgery and can report that the whole organisation is invariably disastrous, with the highest rates of MRSA and CDif in Europe (Higher even than Eastern Europe!),  total lack of any cogent organisation and actual waiting times which make a complete nonsense of the politician's self-plauditary claims!

The railway system is a total joke- and hugely expensive. The roads? Rapidily heading for total gridlock in the South!

My Council Tax increases well above the stated (Mythical! - rate of inflation, yet whenever one wants some service from the local authority they are unable or unwilling to provide it on the grounds of "lack of resources and cutbacks"!!

Just had my Fonciere demand: some bits have gone down! Some have a rebate! And most, like last year have only increased a small amount.

Conrwall has been mentioned: interestingly, Cornwall is now the poorest county in the UK; however, second and third homers have pushed property prices so high, that locals stand no chance of ever buying a house. And affordable renting property just doesn't exist (and without massive - and unfair subsidies it quite obviously can't, since the land cost is the same whether a property is for woner-occupation or social housing).

It is always interesting for my wife and I to return to the UK after a reasonable sojourn in France: the contrasts are quite amazing!

I suppose there are always the outer Scottish Isles.........................if Peter de Savary et al haven't bought them yet and turned them into an upmarket retreat for the mega-wealthy!