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Dream Commuters BBC2 tonight


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I wonder if a lot of the critical comments about the program are because people are not appreciating what the program was actually about but instead commenting on what they think the program should have been about. From what I saw the program was about what (some) people were doing and it was not a guide on how to commute internationally. If you think of the program in terms of a guide on how to commute France to UK (working in the UK) then yes it had shortcomings. However, as a short piece on what some people are doing these days then it did present an overview about what several people were doing.

Ian

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Ian, I would agree with you if it was just a news item or lifestyle magazine type piece. However, this was the Money Programme, and from that I would expect factual information and comment on the pros and cons, particularly financial, rather than just the usual 'living the dream' stuff.

It was a wasted half hour. We don't just want to see the fact that it works for some people, we need to know how and why it works, which is far more than just perceived low house prices and cost of living plus this so-called 'better quality of life' - and the fact that being apart for the majority of the time, whatever country you are in, may not represent a better quality of life for some. And, perhaps even more important, the potential pitfalls. If you go to France for 'telecommuting' it is so easy to get the set up wrong, resulting in crippling expense and cancelling out the stress-free nature of French life.

From a purely personal point of view, it would be great if Northern France was flooded with English commuters, think of all the sales bonuses Mrs Will could earn in her work for an agence immobilier. But we want them to come for the right reasons, having done all their homework, not just on the strength of stereotypes reinforced by a bad TV programme.

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Will is quite correct in identifying that there are potential pitfalls in moving to France and working in the UK.  Also by 'telecommuting' you can run into some serious tax and bureaucratic problems by spending too much time in stress-free France (especially if the main business is registered in the UK).  I think the owners of frenchconnections.co.uk had to return back to the UK to run their business!
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Come on dreamcommuter, stress free France, that is just rubbish and you should know it if you know french people as you say you do. They suffer stress and worry and are very fond of taking anti depressants....... a little reality about France from you would be appreciated by me. Not only were you party to a program about France that made it look like some Utopia, but you are perpetuating the same thing on here. And with me at least it won't work.

 

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I think different areas in France seem very different. A trivial example is that women do go in the local bars in villages around me without the previously indicated assumptions being made. Seems a "chose your area carefully" situation.

I wonder if that is where some of the difficulties arise where people cannot appreciate the experiences of others - their own areas do not offer them same as other people experience. For example, living in a more deprived suburb of Paris might cause people to give different reports about "life in France" compared to some others.

Ian

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[quote user="Teamedup"]

Come on dreamcommuter, stress free France, that is just rubbish and you should know it if you know french people as you say you do. They suffer stress and worry and are very fond of taking anti depressants.......

[/quote]

That may be the case in the wealthy and over populated SE but perhaps not so in the poor and empty wine growing region of Albas. [:(] Or of course DC may mean (relatively) stress free for the immigrants.

John

not

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[:)] Now that would imply that 'everyone' in the SE of England was stressed and they aren't. I just don't believe it. We have friends who live in London and greater London and they are fine and happy and a John we know, would never ever live anywhere else in the world. He has travelled extensively, but loves London and living and working there. When we first met him........ what 20 years ago and we said we lived in France, which frankly was a novelty to hear about then, he looked incredulous and said WHY. He has never changed his tune.

Anyone can get stressed, but personality I reckon plays a big part. My good friend in France, and I have to say that they are quite well off, she will sit down and mutter and oh la la as if the worries of the whole world were upon her and when asked will say she has 'souci's'. She hasn't really, but she gets very stressed about nothing.

Re the rent, well, I am really starting to wonder about renting myself. I have seen the maps recently of possible flood areas with global warming and am wondering if I really want to invest in something that may have no value in 20 years time.  [:)] Or maybe we should be thinking of buying a boat instead of a house?

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[quote user="Teamedup"]

Come on dreamcommuter, stress free France, that is just rubbish and you should know it if you know french people as you say you do. They suffer stress and worry and are very fond of taking anti depressants....... a little reality about France from you would be appreciated by me. Not only were you party to a program about France that made it look like some Utopia, but you are perpetuating the same thing on here. And with me at least it won't work.

 

[/quote]

TU

The fact that my neighbours may be stressed does not mean that I have to be.

In some respects my existance is like DC's.  Weekly or bi-weekly commute, but by and large I am not stressed in the way I was when back in the UK, nor indeed now in Germany.  So for me (sorry to be selfish) France is stress free or at least less stressful.  I guess this will be a very personal thing and will depend on where you are coming from and going to.

One frequent reason for stress is of course the lack of employment and money that accompanies it.  By definition an international commuter has no problem with the former and so is less likely to have a problem with the latter.

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[quote user="andyh4"][quote user="Teamedup"]

Come on dreamcommuter, stress free France, that is just rubbish and you should know it if you know french people as you say you do. They suffer stress and worry and are very fond of taking anti depressants....... a little reality about France from you would be appreciated by me. Not only were you party to a program about France that made it look like some Utopia, but you are perpetuating the same thing on here. And with me at least it won't work.

 

[/quote]

TU

The fact that my neighbours may be stressed does not mean that I have to be.

In some respects my existance is like DC's.  Weekly or bi-weekly commute, but by and large I am not stressed in the way I was when back in the UK, nor indeed now in Germany.  So for me (sorry to be selfish) France is stress free or at least less stressful.  I guess this will be a very personal thing and will depend on where you are coming from and going to.

One frequent reason for stress is of course the lack of employment and money that accompanies it.  By definition an international commuter has no problem with the former and so is less likely to have a problem with the latter.

[/quote]

 

Funny really, since my teens I have never seen the world through just 'my' eyes. I have always felt for those around me. I just am not the sort to see my french neighbours struggling etc and having worries and depression and just thinking, well, your problem mate, I'm OK.

So why didn't dream commuter just say, I'm all right, I have no stress in France? But he didn't, he said, stress free France, and that is not so. Dreamcommuter has already got 'his' message out to millions and 'I' am having my little say on here, that is all.

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[quote user="Chrisb"]

I know that lots of you don't understand how families can live this sort of life, [/quote]

I was thinking of our situation, where Mr SB already works full time, so wouldn't be around to do childcare stuff.    That's why I wouldn't want to have done it when we had two small children in a foreign country.  

Nowadays, Mr SB is out 8am to at least 7.30pm, young Master SB (now 12) is out at school 8am-6pm, and when he's here he's most likely to be found MSNing his (French) pals, so my absence isn't a great problem.   It's a shame for the dog, but he gets farmed out at least one day a week when I'm not here.

 

 

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I am slightly interested in why DC just didn't move closer to his work in the Uk, given that there is lots to do and the area boasts one of the most successful state schools in the country  The countryside is reasonable and £285 would have probably bought a pretty nice property then ? (Or were the prices 'mixed': current value for Uk house and price paid for French house? )

What was the deciding factor ?

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I never said "your problem mate".  I simply do not allow myself to get stressed about the problems of others that I cannot solve or largely influence.  And sadly that is the case for the majority of the stressed people around me.  It doesn't mean I don't care nor that I will not do anything to help if I can, but largely I cannot
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Watched it in irritation , partly because of the girly, lightweight presenter who destroyed her credibility as a serious financial reporter by asking 'Bet you dont miss Tesco?' and kept pronouncing France with a short a.  But more seriously, I felt it was grossly misleading especially about the tax implications.

Two days later I was still irritated so took it out by emailing the Money Programme. I have just had a stupid reply so am still irritated.

Let them come and find out for themselves that there is no Broadband in much of the country and mobile coverage is patchy; that a house in the Lot, plus that little pad you stay in in London, will be added together and bring you into the wealth tax bracket in France.

However I am indebted to them for letting me know that Toulouse is rural!

 

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And 'I' didn't say you either.

 

 It was a general constat of how France is seen or encouraged to be seen.

Ignoring what the natives have to put up with and how they live is hardly giving a realistic picture of France. Although I really am starting to believe that the french actually don't count for much in this great move people are making, as long as they make an effort and make sure that everything is available in english for those who don't /won't learn.

 

[:)]WOW Lassie, how could a northern woman like me say France with anything other than a short 'a' when saying it in english. I have never got the 'ar' sound that southerners have for things like 'ba th' etc, we don't say barth, or parth.

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Lassie, I agree with all you say. Especially the bit about Tesco. Our 24-hour Tesco is one thing I definitely DO miss in France, where everywhere closes for a couple of hours in the middle of the day (OK, I'm sure many of you rather like that but it's useless for us workers).

I haven't heard back in response to my message to the Money Programme. Whether that means they are totally ignoring my comments or maybe are taking them a bit more seriously (unlikely) I have no idea. 

One other point. Did anybody notice that in one of the shots in the farrier's house, BBC News 24 was prominently on the telly. I know he was close to Calais, so possibly could just about get analogue terrestrial signals from the BBC, but not digital. So he must be receiving the programmes via satellite - and, as anybody who has ever contacted the BBC from France will know, the BBC cannot condone anybody receiving its programmes via satellite outside its licensing area (or so it told me, and I know many disagree with that). More sloppy editing, or another thumb in the nose to the rest of us, I wonder?

So you're a northern larse then TU? [:D]

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[quote user="Will"]

I haven't heard back in response to my message to the Money Programme. Whether that means they are totally ignoring my comments or maybe are taking them a bit more seriously (unlikely) I have no idea. 

[/quote]

 

I got this:

Thank you for getting in touch with The Money Programme.

I'll pass your e-mail on to the production team.

I tried bating my breath but I went blue..............[:)]

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In response to Russethouse: There were a lot of good reasons we moved to France. It was a personal decision for us.

We were way over mortgaged on our property and had no money (running into dept).

We had 2 small children so felt cramped in our cottage.

We had started to pay for nursery if my wife worked which was costing us more than she was earning so she gave up her job.

Yes we borrowed too much money from the bank for the cottage but made a significant gain if we sold and so for much less money we looked further a field! We sold in UK at 285 and bought at 180 in France (releasing 100K from or mortgage)

My grandmother was French. We like the French architecture, culture, food and way of life we saw in the Lot. We both spoke French.

It wasn't a very difficult decision to reduce our mortgage to next to nothing and use half the money we used to pay for the mortgage to pay for my commuting and expenses.
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Dream Commuter, you have / had very valid reasons to come to France and commute but the program implied that Joe Average would be able to do it, which frankly they can't I would hope that somebody making such a bold step would do their research if they take encouragement from what you and your familly have done, great but not treat it as a blueprint. The program fell way short of my expectations of the Money Program and seemed to edited by a GCSE communications student who didn't quite understand the brief and probably heading towards a resit
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Well, I'm gobsmacked!!! I have received my reply from the production team of the programme and it reads:

Thanks for your points.

As was stated during the programme by John Powell, the commuters all pay

tax in the UK. There is a reciprocal agreement between Britain and

France to allow the several hundred thousand French in the UK and the

similar amount of Brits in France to do this.

[8-)][8-)][8-)][8-)]

 

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Oh well, that's OK then. I can go back to France almost full-time and tele-commute from there safe in the knowledge that the BBC says I do not have to pay tax and cotisations in France.

Why did I waste 46% of my taxable income on French social security payments for so long?

(Yes, I know what the message is actually saying but it shows a lack of research, little knowledge and understanding, and, I suspect, an inability to actually read the question. I've just checked back on the BBC's original article and John Powell, by the way, is the chap who lives near Barcelona, works from there and only occasionally travels back to the UK. What he said on the programme could have been interpreted that he paid Class 2 or 3 NI - about £2 per week if I remember rightly - in order to keep his UK pension alive. But according to the producers, that's not so).

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