alittlebitfrench Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 For those who have moved back to the UK from France.Is the grass greener ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTrash Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Oh come on ALBF - you know you'll only get positive answers to that, because if it's not, they'll either paint it or they'll keep quiet. Do you seriously expect anyone to say "No it's browner, I made a mistake"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Go on, ET, play his game; the little horror is bored stiff, needs something to occupy his time, so he tries to provoke on this forum. Treat him as a desperate attention seeker, who probably needs prescription drugs but who doctors really don’ wanna treat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 29, 2018 Author Share Posted January 29, 2018 Oh come on ET - the same question and responses could apply to moving to France. Is the grass greener in France ? Most will say yes but deep down they will think no. I am thinking of Wooly here. LOL.What I want to know, is life better or worse for those who have moved back to the UK.That Idun moved back and they do say quite often that they would like to move to Bretagne. Hmmm. ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Well I have not moved and life is definitely greener in the UK.Very little rain since autumn 2016 and we are still on water and watering restrictions from the summer 2017 despite being half way through the winter.So lots of brown plants here - must be greener in the UK with all the rain they have had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 The grass is greener in both countries, we spend as much time here as possible and as much time as possible in the UK. That way we get the best from both Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTrash Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 "Oh come on ET - the same question and responses could apply to moving to France. Is the grass greener in France ? Most will say yes but deep down they will think no."My point exactly, so why bother asking?Anyways, Wales was greener than a green thing over New Year, it never stopped raining once the whole time I was there, and that's the truth. Even Normandy hasn't had so much rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinBretagne Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 A couple up the road moved back about a year ago. She is like a pig in muck as she never settled in France. He phones me on a regular basis and each time he tells me how much he regretted moving back to the U.K. That sort of sums it up some people are happier in the U.K., some are not. They might even be married. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 Just as was in France there is good, bad and ugly in England too.We are settled here, we were settled in France. I don't believe in fairy tales so don't believe in France being the be all and end all. Would my life be 'better' if we moved back to France, not at all, just different. A 'different' I would have no problem with, just prefer my daily language being in my mother tongue in a country where it is the national language.As pensioners we do benefit from certain things in England, that is a fact, which for the moment are rather nice, but these advantages would probably depend on where one moves to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 I think more things would annoy me in the UK than they do in France to be fair. Not that anything annoys me in France. Well Ok the driving bothers me since nearly being killed the other day.If I had to move back to the UK I would have to create/live in a French bubble. I don't think I could adapt to the cultural ways of every day life. If that makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 ALBF wrote:"If I had to move back to the UK I would have to create/live in a French bubble. I don't think I could adapt to the cultural ways of every day life. If that makes sense."Well, that seems to be a contradiction from, a person who constantly belittles Brits in France for wanting British comforts.LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 Yes is it Nicky. I bet most French living in the UK live in French bubbles and can't stop moaning about the state of NHS, railways, and British roads. I bet they can't stop talking about France either and how great it is. LOLMy problem is that people move to France for the food, the laid back French way of life, the culture and then live in a bubble of UK food and TV. So why move to France and give yourself a headache with bureaucracy when you can just live in the UK ??The question I suppose is, what does France offer that the UK does not ?I get the French moving to the UK bit, they just want a job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 Well I bloody well did not move to France for a 'laid back way of life'............ not where I lived, where people had to get out to work............. even in our village, where many, well most, commuted and life was at break neck speed, well for families as local cities, had horrible rush hours and now it's even worse.The food..................... bof, even the restos around us were not 'great'. We found the odd one eventually and then that would close. The best good friends could do last time I was back, and highly recommended, was a 3 star chain hotel buffet.............and it was OK, as decent as posher highly priced places, I've been to. And other friends took us to a pizzeria........ LBF and it's cuisine.[:-))]At home, frankly we eat very very well and frankly eat better than most french people I know on a daily basis, although they do go extra kms for guests, (us guests) and it is always very nice. Now when I turned up just to say hello and was invited to join my old neighbours for their evening meal, it was frozen chips in one of those dry fryers, and sliced ham, bit of salade verte and a yoghurt. It was OK, and thankfully not dry pasta or dry rice with that, which it could have been and I know they eat. And yet we have eaten like kings, when properly invited to their home. The one thing I do do, that is very french is not hesitate to rale here especially with officials. A french bubble... why would I? I don't think I lived in an english bubble in France (because I embraced as much as I could), but let's face it, I am english and even if I had stayed would never have been french, and that is a reason why I could NEVER have taken french nationality, just would not have been right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTrash Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 "My problem is that people move to France for the food, the laid back French way of life, the culture and then live in a bubble of UK food and TV."I think you'll find that the ones who live in a UK bubble, which is a minority but it's the minority that you seem fixated on, are the ones who moved to France for the cheap property. They don't give a tinker's cuss about French food or culture, the laid back way of life maybe, but if they could have got as nice a house with as much land in the UK, no way would they have moved here. They came here in spite of it being France not because of it being France. UK TV and UK food help make it seem more like home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 I could not move anywhere unless I wanted to live there.I would rather live in a 1 bed flat in somewhere I wanted to live than in a large house in somewhere I did not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 I live in a 1 bedroomed flat somewhere that I dont want to live. But I am easy to please [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 I thought Picardie was your idea of Paradise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTrash Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 Me too ALBF. But a big house and rolling lawns is aspirational for a certain type of Brit, it it important to them and they know they will never afford it in the UK but here they can. I suppose if you have your heart set on achieving something and you get it, then there is satisfaction in it. I love my little house (oh by the way ALBF I got my door fixed, all it took was a bit of sanding and planing and sawing and it opens and shuts now !!!) but it's not my be all and end all, it's one pleasing part of a life with many pleasant things in it.Chancer I suppose that for all you don't like where you are, you have a lot of satisfaction in what you've achieved. Well I hope you still do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 OkLet's do a test.A cosy 2 bed flat in the lake district (or Cornwall) vs 4 bed house with swimming pool in Montpelier.I can't believe you fixed the door ET. That was a feature of the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTrash Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 I wouldn't live in the Lake District because it's crawling with tourist in summer.I've never particularly wanted to live in Cornwall.I like Montpelier but I wouldn't want to live there.I'll stay put. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 The point is, real estate should not be your motivating factor in life when choosing somewhere to live. Especially in France.1 bed in Paris or 2 bed in London ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 London Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 Doesn't matter to me if I'm in France or the UK. In both countries, my immediate neighbours are French.The ones in the UK didn't move here to find work, but were moved here BY his work, but as he travels all the time, he could be anywhere..just that his organisation has an office close by. They don't seem to live in a French bubble, but then they ARE French, not pretending to be. Their kids speak English just like all the other kids they go to school with, the parents likewise. They eat English food from English supermarkets, but they probably watch a bit of French TV if the fancy takes them.She's from the Dordogne, he's from Lyon. They must like it here, they've bought two houses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTrash Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 If I could take one of the flats for say 3 months and then come back to where I am, it would be Paris.But I don't want to move to either permanently. I lived in London when I was in my 20s, enjoyed it then but wouldn't now, I'm all done with city living. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 30, 2018 Author Share Posted January 30, 2018 Paris for me. OH would probably say London. I worked with loads of French people when I was in the UK and even our local pub was owned and run by a French bloke. They did not really live in a bubble as such but France and the French language was there favorite topic of conversation. Very proud the french. Nothing wrong with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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