So Where to Start ?

[MallyAlly]

Hello to all

We are new to the site and have a long term plan for moving to France for our retirement. It will be ten years away, due to various factors, but we are looking at developing our knowledge of the country and the language during that time. So at least we should be at a competant level before then.

Obviously there are a thousand questions but the first thing is what would be the most favoured department ?

To give some of you an idea our interests are dogs / horses / golf and a degree of a self sufficient lifestyle. At present we envisage some form of small holding with a stable, with a couple of acres at least and close to a golf course. We intend to embrace the French lifestyle so we do not need to be in predominantly English areas.

We have some ideas of our own and the South is not an option for us.

We would be interested in hearing peoples views, both good and bad

Thanks

MallyAlly

[woolybanana]

LEARN FRENCH!

[mint]

Hello, MallyAlly

Gosh you have loads of time to do your research.  And, sooner or later, posts on the Forum will answer a lot of your questions even if people don't come on here and answer you directly.  So, do keep coming back and reading and asking and contributing, of course.

Wooly, you are even beginning to sound like Norman.  So, have you two sort of morphed into one?[:P]

[woolybanana]

That I will not take from anyone!!!!!! Fighting talk, Fatty[6]

[Mme poivre]

Wooly did you read the post properly before you shouted, they did say they had ten years to research and LEARN THE LANGUAGE

(Smiley sticking out tounge here):-)

[woolybanana]

Nobody compares me to Norman. That is fighting talk!!!

[Gardian]

[quote user="MallyAlly"]

Obviously there are a thousand questions but the first thing is what would be the most favoured department ?

[/quote]

This same question surfaces regularly & doubtless there'll be a stream of well-intentioned posts saying "Where we live is good".

It's bonkers & quite frankly will leave you no further forward.

Spend the next 5 annual holidays in different Regions (i.e. groups of 4 or 5 departements) and tour around a bit. You'll get a feel for the areas you like and then you can start to home in on a particular spot.   

[mint]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Nobody compares me to Norman. That is fighting talk!!![/quote]

What, are you concerned about coming off worse in a comparison?[:P]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Indre in the Loire Valley is nice. There's a nice flat golf course about 30 minutes away in the hunting grounds of a chateau. I've seen some horses in the area too. Oh and there's dogs here too.

[Russethouse]

Only 10k over what you aid its worth - what a snip !

I don't live in France and I'm personally pre disposed toward Brittany because of my hobby, but my feeling is that Loire Atlantique is a good place to start, but then I like the sea, you may not.

[Sprogster]

Learn French, travel to the regions in France you think you might like, not only in summer but winter as well.

Most importantly live for today as tomorrow might not come and ten years is a long way away!

[Gardengirl]

Lots of good advice here, plus a few laughs! (wish I could add a smile here; my icons have gone again; last time it happened I read here to use the torn paper symbol, but that has failed me this morning!)

I'd echo trying various departements over several years, and at all different times of the year. We knew our area from many visits - although the recent snow was a shock - 30 cms in our town (in March, too!), but we'd left for UK two days previously!

Rent in an area you think you might like to live; we did this twice when we thought we'd like to move to the Drome, which we already knew. We loved it, but we're very glad we lost the house we fell for - we bought in the Gard instead, somewhere we'd known and loved for years, but hadn't thought we could afford.

Learning the language as well as possible can't be stressed too highly. I still find chatting on the market etc difficult at times - and my husband sometimes swears it isn't French they're speaking here - and of course he's right - here it's nothing like what you learn at school, on courses etc.

Sprogster, you are so wise with your comment about living for today. Dreams are so important, but I've got friends who always had plans - and that's how they stayed - he died, and she has so many regrets for what might have been. None of us has a crystal ball - thank goodness - but health problems and money concerns can change your life. Plan for tomorrow, but live for today. ;o)

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Russethouse"]..........................and I'm personally pre disposed toward Brittany because of my hobby, [/quote]

That would be Sailors then...............[Www][kiss]

.

[woolybanana]

Funny, I thought the same thing. RH is doubtless blushing now that her secret is out.

 

[Gardengirl]

Well, they do say that all the nice girls love a sailor! ;o)

[Gin62]

We started off with holidays in Brittany and the Loire, then by chance stayed in the Pas de Calais and discovered what a wonderful part of France it was. We saw a house  for Sale on a bike ride, went into St Omer to the estate agent. They were closed it was monday and we were going home the following morning. Happily it was in their window 5 beds far too big for us. But on arrival in Uk we put our house on the Market (1998) sold it brought a smaller house in uk and brought outright an old traditional farmhouse and barn in a small village. For holidays it was superb we did sympathic renovations to let the torchy breathe and had a complete new roof.

After my husband retired in 2004, we came to live in france full time and thought we loved the house, shopping had to be carefully planned or else a 10mile round trip, and our nearest neighbours were farmers, no problem just a lack of people to pass the time with, many wave from a tractor. We kept our house in uk for 2 years to be sure we adapted to french life and had no regrets. Going  through our local town one day we saw a house we had always admired up for sale and within our price range, we had already sold our uk house, So we put our french house on the market and sold it to a french couple for a maison secondaire (2008). We are now very happy in our town house, shopping When necessary on foot and loads of people to pass the time with.

Renting is a good idea, and as others have said life is far to short to put things off. Have courage and go for it. But spend time looking at houses and perhaps take sensible friends with you to take off the rose tinted specs we sometimes wear when looking at a new life and also if you wish to live in the country, you need to consider what  your  views are on hunting.

so good luck   Gillian and Albert

[Will]

Before you go too far down the 'smallholding' route, do a search for 'MSA', particularly about registering with that body and paying cotisations to it. It's not an insurmountable problem, a lot of people seem to be able to make it work, but it's something you need to be aware of.

Horses - look at some of the other forums to see what an outwardly nice and cuddly but inwardly bitchy and unpleasant lot the British horse owners in France seem to be. Maybe it's the same everywhere, but I don't remember those feuds when we had a horse in England.

[Judith]

Only you can decide which region / department you like best - it matters not if everyone else says - I like this one best - you may not.

You have the time to research - indeed, if you do not plan to move for 10 years, it would be better to explore and try out different areas at different times of the year before even considering type of house etc.,  In 10 years time your ideas may (will most likely) have changed - ours did.  And they continue to change, we now hope to move, our requirements as we get older are changing more than we had expected too.

But you should definitely start the language lessons as soon as poss, and use it - watch French TV in England, find real French speakers (they don't speak pure French down here - its a mixture of occitan, Spanish and French) and they go so fast ..... only live TV or radio will get anywhere close to the approximation of the language you will hear on the ground - even with all my years of French learning (between 40 and 50) I am still stumped. 

And, as has already been said - be flexible.  My situation changed and I came out earlier than expected (though only a year so not much difference), but we still had to allow for it.   In 5 years time you may find your situtation has also changed, and if you've been doing the research (not just the location, but French life, laws, regulations, succession etc - all may change in that time), you will be better prepared to be sure once the time comes.

Sorry to moralise a little, but 10 years ago I wanted so much to come to France and work (I was out of work at the time) but just a little bit of research here is France showed that it was not a goer - so I stayed in England for another 9 years - as at least there I could get a job, BUT - with the knowledge that I had the time to prepare properly etc.

[Russethouse]

[quote user="Bugsy"][quote user="Russethouse"]..........................and I'm personally pre disposed toward Brittany because of my hobby, [/quote]

That would be Sailors then...............[Www][kiss]

.
[/quote]

Close - I do have a few Sailors but this fisherman is my current favorite :

[IMG]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y194/russethouse/Goudiefisherman.jpg[/IMG]

 

The artist of this piece Alexander Goudie was a Scot who found his home on the very western bit of Finistere at Loctudy :

http://quimperclubinternational.blogspot.com/search?q=Goudie

 

[Gardengirl]

He's lovely, Russethouse. Is he also Quimper ware? I've seen examples of plates etc showing local costumes, but not figures.

[Russethouse]

   There is a huge range of Quimper and much of it reflects the culture of the region - check out the blog!

For me the culture of the region is important, but it's horses for courses, which is why its a good idea for the OP to try out different areas

[connolls]

Hi Gardengirl....................so do some nice boys !!!!!! :)

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Will"]
Horses - look at some of the other forums to see what an outwardly nice and cuddly but inwardly bitchy and unpleasant lot the British horse owners in France seem to be. Maybe it's the same everywhere, but I don't remember those feuds when we had a horse in England.

[/quote]Oy, watch it , Will.[:D] Although I must say I avoid the horse bit of that forum for the reasons you state.

It rather depends what you do with your horses, and that's true in the UKas well as in France.  If you're just going to hack about and have a good time, then the horsey community (mostly French round here) is pretty friendly.  However, both my farrier and my vet reckon I mollycoddle my ponies more than the average local - I don't know how true that is generally.

As said above, everybody thinks their region is best - it would be odd if not because otherwise why would we live there, but I do think this area is good for riding and a golfing friend locally seems to find plenty of places to play.  It's still relatively good value in the northern Sarthe and parts of the Orne (a region which has a horse as its symbol, btw) also.  Certainly worth a look I would say.

[Stan Streason]

France is a big place and even with 10 years of holidays you won't scratch the surface of many parts.

Other things may come into play which may or may not be important but which may rule out big areas for you (you have already ruled out "the south".)

Proximity to a coast, climate, ease of travel to UK/rest of France etc etc - there will be lots of things.

From travelling to the South on an annual basis 25 years ago we always said if ever we got a house in France it would have to be south of Lyon as we felt we noticed a definite change in climate that far down and for our point of view what was the point in going somewhere where the weather was not noticably better. (We are actually about 35 miles north of Lyon by lattitude).

I know ours is a second home but our criteria was as far south as we could get within 6 hour drive of Calais, within 90 mins of 2 airports with flights to Stansted or Gatwick and within an hour of a major town/city.  That really narrowed our choices of area whilst still leaving us mamy many square miles and locations to look around.

[ViVienne]

would have thought that proximity to a golf course would be a good place to start :-)