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we were sure we are moving to France


stumpy
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But as of yesterday when a guy who assulted me with a cricket bat  left me with a broken leg nose and ankle,and my  kids seeing counsellers .And all he got for pleading guilty to GBH is ...........£750 fine and told to behave himself in future .

Guess what the house is up for sale and by the end of this year we will be living somewhere  south of Bordeaux

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Stumpy, please believe me that there is voilence in France and people complain about the lack of justice handed out too. I am the only one in my family who has not beeh attacked in France.............. and that could have happened once, I think, but I was having one of those 'make my days' days and people gave me a wide berth in the end.

My husband had his bag stolen from the car, gave chase and the bloke pulled scissors on him, if it had been a gun, which are quite common, my husband could have been badly injured or even killed. My eldest has been attacked at least twice, one set of  attackers burned him with cigarettes. And the youngest had two lads with a knife try to mug him in that very bourgeois city of Metz.

None of my family reported these incidents to anyone at all, the eldest son being the only one who was actually injured. AND none of them believed that it would have done any good to report them.

I know of far worse things to tell you, one especially, but unless my friends gave me permission to mention what happened I won't. Something certainly that would have had the national media on their door step in the UK and what happened here, nothing, disinterested gendarmes and the juge d'instruction actually interviewed them once, 'just in case'. As it happens there was a happy ending, but there nearly wasn't and no one was taken to court at all. I am talking serious crime here.

I really do not like to see  posts like this, I'm sorry but France is not some sort of fantasy land where life is wonderful all the time and all is good and you won't be burgled or attacked.  As Rumzigirl said, french people do see psy's, a lot of the population do, IF everything was so, good why would that be????? I know, I don't think that you do, sorry I just think that you don't.

 

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I'm sorry to hear all of that, Stumpy. Your kids will get over it in time, I'm sure, as will you.

I do hope that a rural French setting gives you a bit more peace. I know what TU and the others are saying, but in my experience the French countryside is a lot less threatening than South London urban nightmare.

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Good Lord TU!

That sounds horrific!  It's terrible that all your family have been victims of such awful violence - I'm stunned quite honestly siting here reading this. 

I have lived here for 18 years and performed all over France in village fetes, weddings, bars and cafés, pubs and rock festivals and I've never seen anything worse than a few drunken brawls and 10  b l o o d y noses. Then last year - out of the blue a friend who owns a small wine bar in a tiny pictoresque village was attacked by a gang of gipsies with knives at 6pm in the evening.  They left him in his bar bleeding and he needed over 40 stitches in his face.

 

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Tips of icebergs Twinkle. Like all of us I don't tell 'everything' on here. Over here in SE France it is just like anywhere else in Europe as far as I can tell. The incident with husband happened when we had been here a couple of years. So I didn't expect us to be a l'abri of anything living in France.
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What's psy? (I could not understand Rumzigirl's message at all, and why would the children fit in?)

And sorry Stumpy, your experience must have been truly horrific and for your children. I can understand that your reaction is to leave a place where this happened to you but I suppose Teamedup is unfortunately right it can happen in any other country.

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[quote user="Teamedup"]

I really do not like to see  posts

like this, I'm sorry but France is not some sort of fantasy land where

life is wonderful all the time and all is good and you won't be burgled

or attacked.

 [/quote]

No, it isn't, but to try and pretend that the levels of violence

encountered in rural France are in any way comparable to the urban

warzones of the UK (in which I used to live, so please don't tell that

I don't know about them or that I was dreaming) is fatuous.

[quote user="Teamedup"]

As Rumzigirl said, french people do see psy's, a lot of the

population do, IF everything was so, good why would that be????? I

know, I don't think that you do, sorry I just think that you don't.

 [/quote]

Possibly because seeing a shrink here doesn't carry the same taboo that

is does elsewhere and people are more willing to seek help with their

problems rather than letting them fester? Just a thought.

Stumpy - you and your family have my sympathy. The moronic violence of

the urbs was one of the reasons I was very happy to move to the boonies.

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That rings quite true for me Jon.  I had a bit of a rough childhood and often considered therapy while I was living in Britain but was a bit embarrassed.  I came to France 18 years ago but the demons didn't go away so a couple if years ago I decided to take the plunge here.

I had therapy for 2 years and it helped so much[:)].  You can talk about it openly here and no-one thinks you're loopy or psychotic.  It's a fact of life and nothing to be embarrassed about.

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And where you live Jon, needn't be where this bloke is moving to. As I have said I live out in the sticks, I live in a proper village, but I live in an area which is populated. We have our fair share of bad goings on in this village and in surrounding villages, it is worse in the large towns and cities. What does one do, never move away from chez soi, just like half the old folks in this village have done. My do they all have opinons about everything, but they have literally 'seen nothing'.

What worries me is that this person will tell their kids that France is 'safe' and it isn't 'safe', something could happen to any one of them here too. Then what? 

I know I know, everywhere apart from chez moi  and Metz is completely safe and there is little risk and everything is wonderful. Whatever everyone else says or thinks, well you must be right for whatever reason you can think of.

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Dont get me wrong were not running to land of milk and honey and were coming from a beautiful part of the UK Cornwall .Im not bashful either if my kids need help they must get it from anywhere they can so will I. Im also under no illusion that there are thugs all over the world .Im not even upsett with the guy who hit me , he confessed and was prepared to take his punishment (supprised me !!) ,but im so fed up with the state who can remand a guy in prison for 3 months for robbing a bloke of a playstation aftershave and his wallet.That was the case before .And so to all the other lack of justice that goes on over her ,like myself getting 3 points and £60 fine for not applying my handbrake at a stop sign .Yes i know thats what is required when you come to a stop sign but please how stupid can the traffic cop be !to many targets and no common sense .This country has gone to the dogs every one is over the top with health and safty rights of the individuel like scotland paying compensation to prisnors of up to 30k because they didnt get their heroin !

Rant over and sorry for spelling mistakes

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Thankyou for posting again stumpy. Ther press in France doesn't treat justice or lack of it in the same way. But there are just as many mad things in France, if they are not widely publicised in great headlines, they are still there to see in the press or in reporting progs on the telly never the less, the handling of them seems quite different though. And, well from my point of view, there are some laws that seem to me to have no justice at all to them. A french avocat told me off for even criticizing one of those 'lack of justice' laws, apparently it was not my place to say anything, it was the french way.

Easy targets like motorists are easy targets in France too.

 

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[quote user="fulcrum"][quote user="stumpy"]

getting 3 points and £60 fine for not applying my handbrake at a stop sign .

[/quote]

That is news to me too.

A queue of car stopping at a stop sign have to apply their handbrakes?
[/quote]I was told to do this by my driving instructor, way back when...... Can't say I always do it now though!
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[quote user="TWINKLE"]You can talk about it openly here and no-one thinks you're loopy or psychotic.  It's a fact of life and nothing to be embarrassed about.[/quote]Good to hear, not your personal experiences of course but that a bit of "psy"is more acceptable in France because my OH is a trained Counsellor and Hypnotherapist...[;-)]

Has she ever hypnotised me...how would I know...[blink] ?

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Hi sorry to hear your bad time,

Why not have a think about Limousin, at the moment prices are good but moving up all the time, the expats here are a good lot, and the french smashing,

I understand you've a good chance of getting more for your money here  In Limousin,  than south of Bordeaux,

Good luck,

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 Christ, Teamup where the hell are you living?

Such a place should be given a health warning, (serious )   "lets have the name or dept so people will know if visiting wear  proteced clothing.

Ive noticed very little in fact I can honestly say no crime in this area in the 5 years we have owned our properties here.(dept 23 Aigurande)

Did you upset the local maffia or do something to cause all this violence? Im really shocked to hear your story and I mean that.

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There's very little crime in my little community here, but certainly a bit of petty thieving goes on.  A local farmer had all his garden furniture stolen.  Two weeks' later he had gone round to a friend's house for lunch and realised he had forgotten something so went home.  When he got there, he found a guy (whom he recognised) in his garage, about to help himself to some of his stuff.  Now this chap is quite a size so he stood in the doorway and said "Did you steal my garden furniture?"  The thief admitted that he did.  "OK, I'll let you off but only if you bring my other stuff back.  Otherwise, I'll report you to the gendarmes."  An hour later, all the garden furniture had been returned!
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[quote user="cooperlola"]There's very little crime in my little community here, but certainly a bit of petty thieving goes on.  A local farmer had all his garden furniture stolen.  Two weeks' later he had gone round to a friend's house for lunch and realised he had forgotten something so went home.  When he got there, he found a guy (whom he recognised) in his garage, about to help himself to some of his stuff.  Now this chap is quite a size so he stood in the doorway and said "Did you steal my garden furniture?"  The thief admitted that he did.  "OK, I'll let you off but only if you bring my other stuff back.  Otherwise, I'll report you to the gendarmes."  An hour later, all the garden furniture had been returned![/quote]

Ithink this is what i miss the couminity knowing you village like we used to .And well done to the farmer !We never have lived in the city nor would we ,were open minded as to where we live but weve friends that live south west and south of Bordeaux so thats why we thought there .

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Living in rural France and recently visiting rural UK for a week I was astonished by the contrast. For the 3 years plus in France I have experienced no aggression, hot tempers, nothing untoward. A week in rural UK and I've had hooligans shouting abuse at me, seem rude aggressive behaviour, etc.

Of course it depends on the area you chose to live in and clearly some areas of France are a lot worse than others !!

Maybe the spirit of this post is to select the area you move to carefully.

Ian

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