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Dream Commuters BBC2 tonight


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[quote user="fulcrum"][quote user="Bugbear"]

[quote user="cooperlola"]Farriery charges are pretty much parallel here and in the UK - I pay roughly the same as I did in Blighty. 

[/quote]

Our farrier charges 5€'s a foot to do our donkeys, I kid you not.

[/quote]

Unfortunately for you he's just been on these boards and has decided to up his prices.  [:D]
[/quote]

Damm..................................................... Donkey  

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It was all far too rosey, do people really believe that sort of c* *p, I used to have a job where I had to regularly stay in travel Inns or other such souless places ,you soon get sick of it no mater how nice you proper home is, The only really valid point I saw in the program was that homeworkers are more productive when I had office days at home would be a 12 hour day , which was a damn site longer than my boss worked!
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I only caught the end of it [:(]

Two points:

Cheap flights from local airposts may not always operate forever.............very true!

I loved the question "how did you manage to integrate?"

reply from a  couple of the women!!!! ..........."oh we went to the local bar!" 

LOL so once again the British women would probably be classed as hard drinkers![Www]

 

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The bar, they wouldn't 'just' be classed as heavy drinkers and where I live  would be sending out the wrong signals completely. [:-))] Our fairly recently deceased putain was the only woman who used to go into our bar....... and a working gal she was right into her 70's.

I would say that the maternelle/primaire is the thing if you have children. I can't think of anywhere better to meet most people at some time or other.

 

 

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I have to agree with most on here who say that the program

was rather scant on facts but I did note a couple of points that I hadn’t

thought about before.

1.    The fact that Brits use Bergerac airport is accepted as the

norm but it was then pointed out that the French can’t fly from Bergerac to

Paris.

2.    The French woman who sat down to dinner with the family in

Albas made the point that the French feel excluded by Brits, who don’t mix,

moving into their area. I never looked at it like that before. I always though

Brits not mixing were the ones who would feel excluded. A very good point made.

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2.  "  The French woman who sat down to dinner with the family in Albas made the point that the French feel excluded by Brits, who don’t mix, moving into their area. I never looked at it like that before. I always though Brits not mixing were the ones who would feel excluded. A very good point made. "


I think that is a true and extremely vaild point.

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I wrote to the BEEB last night, couldn't let that program go without at least saying something.

 

Re the french. How else would they feel, this is a sort of colonialism isn't it. The rich, because let's face it these people who are doing this are earning far more than the locals could usually earn, must seem rich to them, are inflating house prices and want all their brit things. Well in the SW it looks like they do. How would I feel? how do I feel when I see such foreign things in the UK, I don't like it.

 

My sentiments about this have never changed. In the early 70's when all our friends were off to the Costas, a few of us didn't fancy that at all, and we went to other places, other countries. There never was any appeal to me to go foreign shores and be able to get english beer and fish an chips, just never felt right and still doesn't.

The farrier said he had been in France 2 years............ 2 years and he spoke his best french for the tv, well he would have wouldn't he he wouldn't have wanted to look like a pillock?  He said it would take him longer to learn, it will take him an awfully long time won't it with the effort he is putting into it. I think him saying that he spoke french 'un petit' said it all. He should have just said 'non'.

 

 

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[quote user="Will"][quote user="Russethouse"]

Perhaps we should aim our comments at the program makers:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3792089.stm

[/quote]

Thank you Gay, I have done that. I am still feeling pretty angry at the inaccuracy of the programme. Not often does a TV prog get up my nose to that extent. I will report back if I get any response from the BBC.

[/quote]

I've sent them an e-mail as well, Will. If they do me the courtesy of a reply I'll report back, too.

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We have known the family living in Albas since early 2004. I can't remember when they bought their house but it was at least 4 years ago, probably more. Justin has been a commuter all the time since they moved to France so I guess that the economics make it worthwhile or he would/could not continue.

Even if I knew I would not comment on any problems of having a husband/father who is away from home for 10 days out of 14 but whenever we have met Robin and the girls (both with and without Justin) they seem fine.

IMHO this was a poor example of the Money Programme that I used to know and love - shallow, one sided and viewed through a rose tinted lens. Anyone wishing to emulate the participants will have learned nothing of real value.

John

not

 

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[quote user="Iceni"]

We have known the family living in Albas since early 2004. I can't remember when they bought their house but it was at least 4 years ago, probably more. Justin has been a commuter all the time since they moved to France so I guess that the economics make it worthwhile or he would/could not continue.

Even if I knew I would not comment on any problems of having a husband/father who is away from home for 10 days out of 14 but whenever we have met Robin and the girls (both with and without Justin) they seem fine.

IMHO this was a poor example of the Money Programme that I used to know and love - shallow, one sided and viewed through a rose tinted lens. Anyone wishing to emulate the participants will have learned nothing of real value.

John

not

 

[/quote]

 

Very interesting John, even though that is a different area to us, I felt that the price given had to be very old. By the way, I've lost respect for most BBC programs a while back. [Www]

This is timely, because the below bit of rolled up paper fell out of the chimney flue yesterday. It apparently was being used to level out the metal bit that holds the flue.  It is dated 1984. I know the places are small but considering they are a few hundred metres from the Mediterranean sea on the Cote D'Azur, prices from £16,500 to £27,000 isn't bad. [:D]

 I wonder if the BBC Money program would be interested in quoting these prices to the British public. [:-))]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/HIF/lastscan.jpg[/IMG]

 

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I agree it was very misleading and simplistic and not a credit to the Money Programme at all.

Having recently house hunted and bought in the area I would venture that the property on the Lot river would cost probably in excess of £250,000 today.

As for commuting, well I will be a commuter once we have sold our UK property and moved over but, far from being your weekend itinerate or Technomad, I'm in the very fortunate position of having a job in the North Sea Oil business which has me away for 2 weeks then home for 3 on top of which my employer pays all my travelling expenses (Toulouse to Aberdeen is actually cheaper than Norwich to Aberdeen!) and it is only these factors which make moving to France viable, or indeed possible, for me at this time.

 

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[quote user="Will"]

There was also the chap who had given up his comparatively easy commute in Hampshire. What the programme overlooked was that he had exchanged it for a weekly return journey at peak times from Hampshire to Gatwick. I'm not far from Gatwick and no way is that an easy or pleasant commute. They also didn't mention the cost of parking. When I travel back without a car about half of the cost of my journey goes on parking at Portsmouth. I shudder to think what he pays at Gatwick.

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From Southampton, Luton and Stansted are really only doable in any real sense of the word on a Sunday.  £60 for 2 weeks parking off-airport in Luton just now.    And that's the best option available in the winter from Herault.

Quite a bit goes on phone calls home to talk to the boy too.       

I'm spoiling myself on this contract (because it's my first one and I'm worth it! [:D] ), and I pay for a room full-time in Romsey, so that when I'm there I have somewhere that's "mine", and I bought myself a cheap car (100% essential for a social life, which is also 100% essential).   But I know that if I take up the contractor life as a regular thing, I'll have to rethink my extravagance, and I'll be scrabbling around looking for cheap hotels and sofas to sleep in/on.

OTOH, I'm hardly ever in my own bed over there, so maybe it wouldn't be such a problem........

I can't really see why anyone with a young family would choose it as a lifestyle, but obviously they don't really want to live like French families, scrabbling for every centime, and that's understandable.   There are limits to integration!  [:)]

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Well we chose it as our lifestyle nearly 4 years ago, and it works for us!! We were used to my OH being away a couple of nights during the week, anyway. He actually finds the commute less stressfull now - he always has a cabin on the ferry and works on his lap-top, or reads, dozes etc. Depending upon the time of year he has a 40 minute or an hours travel in France to the port, and then an hour the other side. Before it was 3 1/2 to 4 hours (sometimes upto 7 hours depending upon the traffic on the M25) of driving..........and he was stressed and gruumpy all the time. Now we see him either Thursday or Friday until Monday or Tuesday and he is much more pleasant to be around as he is less stressed!!
I know that lots of you don't understand how families can live this sort of life, well we can, and we do...................and no, we wouldn't want to scramble around for every centime............we just want to live our lives our own way - we are all happy, consider ourselves to be as integrated as we want to be, and yes, we speak French !!

Chris

 

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Chrisb - did you see the programme?

I have no objection to cross-channel commuting in principle, it works far better for me than being based in France with the consequent heavy cotisations and communication difficulties. The major disadvantage, apart from being apart for too long, is the way that each journey uses up a day of annual leave entitlement.

It was the way the programme presented commuting that I objected to. For a so-called financial programme it was total rubbish, concentrating almost entirely on cheap housing in France (and even that was based on out of date prices), touching only briefly on travel costs, and not mentioning at all the fact that the commuter has to live somewhere while working. The implications of teleworking from France should have been highly relevant but again, not a mention (only a chap in Spain who paid UK NI, which would certainly not normally be possible in France and I rather think it might not be in Spain either).

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Hi Will

I only caught the tail end of it, unfortunately, so can't comment on its content - I did read the article, which I thought was very light-weight and of no use to anyone thinking of moving abroad. Like others, I struggle with the notion of a farrier commuting daily through the tunnel!

Fortunately all my husband's travel, accommodation and meal costs in the UK are picked up by his employers..........his job is 'field-based' as is that of others at his grade who may live in Scotland, Northern England etc and who regularly fly down to client meetings - his ferries costs are frequently cheaper than an internal UK flight plus hire car, even in the height of Summer, and travel to and from the office or to see his client is part of the working day so he doesn't lose annual leave entitlement.

Lucky?- well yes, of course, but we did our homework and ensured that all this would remain before we moved over...............and there are certainly plenty of days when he could easily work from home, but he makes the journey to the UK for exactly the reasons you mention.

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Hi Will and anybody else I may be able to fill in some gaps:

I was one of the people featured (Albas, SW France) by the BBC  in the programme and sorry to hear if it was considered misleading.  I didn't produce it but IMHO I think the fact that 3 stories (plus the other filler) were squashed into 29 minutes meant that some bits had to be taken out during it's production!  The emphasis of the programme was meant to show the huge increase in number of people actually doing it.

I've tried to summarise some points below (at least from my prospective).

1.    I have been commuting for 7 years now, so yes I did buy my house in 2000 for £180,000 but I did also sell in the UK for £285,000 the same year so it is all relative as prices have risen consistently in both areas by about the same amount.

2.    I spend 9 or 10 consecutive days working in the UK and then 4 or 5 consecutive days with the family in France so I do get in my opinion more quality time with the family than the majority of commuters in the UK.  It's like taking a holiday every 10 days!

 

3.    There are additional cost associated with the commute that were not shown in the televised programme (believe you me, they were discussed and filmed but ended up on the editors floor).  Flights, airport parking and accommodation in a bed-sit right next to the office in the UK (yes, I sold my house in the UK so do not have 2 homes!), etc..  has been costing me an additional £600 per month for me to commute.  I pay all my taxes in the UK and in France and it still must be economical if I can continue to do this (there may not be much disposable income left but the quality of life in France, the freedom for the children, the schools, the weather, the food and the lifestyle all make it worth it!).  We can afford to go out more in France to restaurants and food and wine are cheaper (although the gap over 7 years has closed somewhat).

 

4.    The fact that we know the French language has made a huge difference to integrating with the local community.  Everyone who lives in France understands that it is easier to integrate into a local community than in the fast pace of the rat race in the UK.

 

5.    I am lucky that I have the flexibility at work (I set up the mapping business with a colleague in the UK) and technology allows me to take: 5 weeks in the Summer off work to be with the family, 2 weeks in February to go on holiday to the US to see my wife's parents (some may have recognised my wife's accent although she had lived/worked in the UK for 20 years previously as a UK resident and paid her UK taxes!), 3 weeks at Christmas and 1 week at Easter.  Yes, I have made a sacrifice and miss my wife and children when I am not there but do hope to retire to France sooner to compensate.

 

6.    For all those who think all commuters are burning up more airline fuel than we should be,  there are those of us with an environmental background that are actually trying to do something about it even if it is only on an individual basis.  We contribute to a carbon fund, we are initiating a project to plant some oak trees in the Lot and we now pay taxes to Gordon Brown that exceed what most carbon calculators estimate to compensate for the emissions (How Gordon Brown spends the money is another topic of discussion).  Also when I'm in the UK I rent next to the office so I commute by walking there.  We all want to protect the livelihoods of our children.

 

I hope this fills you in on some of the detail left out.

 

If there are any other topics I may have missed then I would only be to pleased to help.  I will also contact the BBC programme makers with any feedback and point them to this site (if that is OK with the mediators).
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[quote user="dreamcommuter"]

We contribute to a carbon fund, we are initiating a project to plant some oak trees in the Lot [/quote]

Wouldn't bother, dreamcommuter..... you'd have to go some to replace the amount of green stuff that disappears down here in the south every day for yet more new housing and roads!  [:)]    

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Dreamcommuter, I think it is very good of you (and brave [:)]) to come on the forum and take the time to answer some of the questions raised here.  It certainly answers some that I had. It sounds as if you are doing the right thing for you and your family and are very lucky to have the options available to you as you do.

I understand your comment that the program had to provide all of the information in 29 minutes, but I do think the reporter could have easily mentioned the property prices were from  2000 and do not reflect current prices.  Even though your UK property was sold in the same year, I feel that it was misleading. In any case, I enjoyed the program and wish the best to you and your lovely family. I do hope that you will continue to look in and contribute to the forum.

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Thank you, DC, for filling in the gaps as far as you are concerned.

If anything, it makes the way things were presented in the programme even worse. They could so easily have explained, in a couple of minutes, what you have just told us in comparatively few words.

I am not a TV programme maker, though I am a magazine editor, To me a 29-minute TV programme would give the opportunity to get over the equivalent to a 4-5 page magazine article (probably more) - though naturally the approach is different. In terms of factual information, there was precious little in that programme that would be of serious and practical help to anybody wanting to work in Britain and live elsewhere.

I have spent five years now working for British magazines while having a main home in France, operating under different commuting/teleworking regimes, and am soon to start another variation on the same theme, one that is much closer to the way DC works. So I think I am qualified to comment - I think DC has probably hit on the best way of making it work, apart from that funded entirely by the employer, though that is rather exceptional. But the programme was still crap.

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