NormanH Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Unlike me many British people who come to France retire to the country.This article talks about the problems of doing that in the UK.http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/28/older-people-warned-off-rural-lifeIsn't it even harder in a foreign country where there may be language problems and you don't really know the systems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 All I can say is I hope they read the article in their tens of thousands and decide not to move anywhere near me in my very nice bit of countryside![:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Done it when I was young to middle aged and would never do it again. I truly think I would have lost the will to live if I had stayed in my french village any longer. And the views, in the Alpes, fabulous. Countryside, wonderful, fabulous even, for days out and holidays. To 'live', gimme towns with lots of buses and trains and swimming pools and cinemas and shops etc etc in walking distance. That is what I need now and for the rest of my days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 I like my cake and eat it, so spring and summer in rural France suits me fine, it is a bit shut in the winter though when the comfort of an English town calls [;-)]edit: FFS, the comments have more sense than the articles[:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Each to their own. I'm a country girl and always will be. I recently stayed two nights in my mother's Wimbledon flat and wanted to shoot myself. I just could not bear the fact that you can't move without people popping up from their front doors and I felt very watched and overlooked. Yuk. I guess once I can't drive any more I'll end up in a town but I might opt for euthanasia instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 What would you do if there were no Mr coops? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 I have home help, happily, and with luck an adapted house soon (if the insurance company extracts its digit from its backside [:D]). As I say, as long as I can drive... I'm quite happy on my own as long as I have the telly and the 'puter where I can "talk" to people on my own terms, not theirs. Most of the time I prefer the world to be at arms length as much as possible. Even Mr C gets on my nerves at times. I certainly don't want to be overlooked or to feel that other people are minding my business, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 I feel very similarly, but for me life in town is more anonymous, yet I can choose which group of people( if any) to be with at any given time, from a large variety of possibilities.In small places there is that claustrophobia where everybody has grown up together, know all your business, even if they are making it up, and fake 'friendship' to protect their own interests.Here at least the hostility is open [:-))]Each to her/his own of course, but that article reminded me that I have never understood the preference for the inconveniences of life with no home deliveries, no medical help for miles around, and no transport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Well, the bus stops outside my gate if I stick my arm out as it goes past. 1.5€ to get all the way to LM - not bad eh? My doc is 2ks away as is my dentist, the supermarket etc etc - all within the range of my scooter as it happens. There are always ways. It's the physical presence of people which I find hard to deal with - when I visit friends who live in towns I am constantly aware of their neighbours, a thing which doesn't happen here. However, as discussed elsewhere, it really is as much as anything what one is used to. I've lived like this for years - if I had not, then I guess it would have been something of a shock, and possibly not a nice one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Ah that's not my idea of country [:)]I understand better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 My definition of country is nothing but fields no matter which way I look - what's yours? But yes, I do live on a road and it leads to places![:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Moving anywhere on retirement has its disadvantages - it isn't always wise to leave the network and life you know when you might need it most..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Mine is : isolation, no transport, no services for 20 kms, , frequent electricity cuts, or no electricity at all, no mains drainage, no running water, in-bred inquisitive neighbours, rural noise from tractors and dogs/chickens, impassable tracks, very poor or non-existent Internet.I know of places like that only 30 or 40kms from here in the foothills of the Cévennes and massif centrale.Yours sounds more like the 'satellite' villages and small communes in our agglomeration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 [quote user="NormanH"]Mine is : isolation, no transport, no services for 20 kms, , frequent electricity cuts, or no electricity at all, no mains drainage, no running water, in-bred inquisitive neighbours, rural noise from tractors and dogs/chickens, impassable tracks, very poor or non-existent Internet.I know of places like that only 30 or 40kms from here in the foothills of the Cévennes and massif centrale.Yours sounds more like the 'satellite' villages and small communes in our agglomeration.[/quote][:D] A bit of hyperbole there, mayhap? We are the last house in our commune which is 2ks away so not really in a village. In fact I reckon you'd be hard put to find anywhere more than 3 or 4 ks from a village in 72. Less true in moutainous areas though. Transport - one bus a day in each direction - I can get to the circuit so I'm happy. Power cuts - yup, loads; no mains drainage - haven't had that for nearly 40 years so I'm used to it, so what anyway?; inbred neighbours - only have one lot whose house I can see and they aren't from around here; tractors, dogs, chickens - yes, fine, I have no problems with them; impassable tracks - great for dobbin riding so fine and we have loads of those; poor internet - yes, agreed but it's adequate, look, I'm talking to you Norman! I think you'd be hard put to find a habitable property without leccy or water these days and even if they hadn't got them when you moved in, I'm sure they'd be top of anybody's list, even old f*rts looking for a rural retreat, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 When we were looking for land we saw plenty in the middle of nowhere and I steered clear. We eventually bought some on a little lotissement at the edge of a village. A village with all amenities, but I could have screamed most days during the last year or so I was there. That for me is also the country and I will never ever want it again, and neither will my husband. And yet we go out regularly, visit the coast and the country. But be condemned to live in the country now.........yes that is how it would feel if I had to, I'd never do it. I was happy in it for 20 years......... then I was not.That is the country. Now I could live in isolation along a coast though, the sea is something quite quite different. I love the sea, not the Med, the sea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Jack Spratt springs to mind, Idun. Thank goodness we are all different and, happily, that people like you still like to live shoulder to shoulder, or where would we put everybody, especially in the UK?The sea - don't miss it although it's nice to look at for five minutes, then I get bored with it as it's all the same - bluey grey and wet.[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 [:D][:D][:D]That is exactly what I was thinking about this thread. Good job we all don't want to live in the same place or want exactly the same things. It would be a very boring life wouldn't it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Crowded too [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 [quote user="cooperlola"] I'm a country girl and always will be. I guess once I can't drive any more I'll end up in a town. [/quote]Having previously read this thread, these two comments keep coming back to me, I too was a country boy, teenage years walking misty mornings in country lanes and summer afternoons on hilltops, all changed as soon as I could drive and towns earnt me my living but took away the peace I remember, part of the reason for spending my leisure and retirement in rural France; but it is the car (or rarely the bike) that has enabled this for me, and of course with the cost of fuel or being unable to drive that will remove the more rural locations and send me back to a town, albeit a smaller one next time.[8-|] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 A couple of friends of mine were recently forced back to the UK for financial reasons and were very sad to leave their (rented) country home not far from me. I visited them last month in their council flat in Kent and I must admit that it was very nice and the fact that they had a lovely view over open fields from their window did help tremendously. I think what I dread most is ending up looking out over the blank, bland walls of other blocks of houses and flats (some of which are, sorry, pretty grim architecturally in urban France.) I also dread a pet-free existence which is a problem in some developments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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