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THE DARKER SIDE OF FRANCE?


brown owl

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Have just read a recent article in The Times citing resentment by French nationals to Non-French nationals buying up properties, particularly in rural areas, which has put house prices beyond the reach of most local people. I think this is talking more about those just buying holiday homes and adding nothing to the community. Is this just an article designed to grab headlines or has anyone living in France any first-hand experience of this? Conversely can any forum members rebuff such news reporting?
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The resentment round here is far more towards Parisiens than the Brits as most of the latter (and their aren't that many) actually live here and join in.  I think the resentment about holiday home "ghettos" is not confined to France.

Remember the old thing from Not the Nine O'Clock News?   - Come home to a real fire; buy a cottage in Wales.

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Corsica seems to have taken over as holiday-home arson capital.  There was yet another item on this on TF1 news lunchtime, even the French are finding that they are not welcome there (unless they are Corse born and bred).

 

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Some years ago whilst holidaying in Corsica I was told by a local that outsiders were  welcome between March and October, otherwise all strangers were 'fair game' .  I think she was joking [blink]

Even the Foriegn Legion up sticks in October as they have been known to be hunted.  Better make sure you get a clean kill though, I wouldn't a wounded one of those beggers coming after me!

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[quote user="Cat"]

Corsica seems to have taken over as holiday-home arson capital.  There was yet another item on this on TF1 news lunchtime, even the French are finding that they are not welcome there (unless they are Corse born and bred).

[/quote]

In which case they're not really French [;-)]

I just spent a week in Corsica and had plenty of contact with locals and the animosity is there, no doubt about it. They really are an island race.

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Our Maire likes the British invasion, has said directly to us that British people buy the houses that were derelict and that locals don't want. That gives the commune more money in taxes and the locality more money as the occupants - whether permanent residents or holiday home owners - inject a lot of money into the local economy.

He called in a couple of days ago to give us a list of all permanent British residents. There are 11 households comprising 30 people in a commune of around 265 inhabitants. The reason he gave us the list is because we are the only couple registered to vote in the local elections next year; he wants us to tell all British residents that if they wish, they have the right to register at the Mairie before the end of December enabling them to vote next year. That suggests to me that at the local level at least, we're welcomed.

However, I'm in southern Normandy and I do believe that the D-Day fighting and subsequent liberation of the region even now gives British arrivals a bit of leeway that may not be available in other regions.

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[quote user="woolybanana"]Yeah, check the name Gattiker in the military cemetary in Abbeville for my family contribution. Then look at the rest of his crew. Kids.[/quote]

[:(]

Our local mairie, artisans and shopkeepers etc all ech the same sentiments about Brits, (and now the Dutch too), buying up houses that no-one else wants, and then paying large sums for renovation work.

One guy who has a scierie, told me that without the Brits, he wouldn't be able to run his new Beemer!

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I agree, it really depends who you talk to.    Go into your local Bricocolage and see how many of them would struggle if it weren't for Brits .... every second voice you hear is British.    Watch what the French buy - a couple of nails is a good day's shopping for a lot of the French in there.   Not so the British, trolleys laden with stuff for their complete renovation project !!  The local supermarket has a big sign saying English Spoken (it omits to mention 'although not very well' at the end !   I know because I tried it out of devilment one day).   They really wouldn't bother unless there was good business in it for them.   I even went to our local woodyard the other day and saw another British car in there .. and its well out of the way.    Realists, in busines, and sensible Mayors accept the fact that some Brits without doubt bring value to the commune.

Others, who don't benefit in any way, probably see it differently !!

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[quote user="londoneye"]

    Go into your local Bricocolage and see how many of them would struggle if it weren't for Brits .... every second voice you hear is British.   

[/quote]

Good lord, londoneye, where on earth do you live? I can't ever remember hearing an English voice in my local bricco, and i've been shopping there for years!

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My holiday home was an abandoned refurbishment by a Parisian  who went back to Paris leaving a scruffy house to deteriorate ....Not a ruin to rebuild ....it was however in need of enough work to stop a local buying it ...they seem to be having new ones built ..loads to choose from in our and adjoining villages .  So I am not concerned about "depriving " one of the locals from having a home .....We have had compliments on how the house now looks .... and help and friendliness from those living round us .....My car was in the garage for a week during September and it was noticed I was using a loaner ...I find it amusing  when I am asked which garage has my car ...I know I am going to be asked ! ..and note the nods of satisfaction when I say its the one in the village  . We spend a lot of our time in the village through the year ...so perhaps not seen as one of the usual 3 to 4  weeks there and leave the house shut up to let the grass grow holiday home owner . A lot of the Parisian owners we have round us do not seem to use their houses so much  . One house near us has not been used for 3 years its  Parisian owned....and the cats live and breed in the overgrown garden and their fig trees grow out over the walls into the road .... You have to be seen to use the local services ...and to be spending your money... then its fine ......I am told the Dutch arrive on holiday with all they will need brought with them and dont spend locally ?....I haven't noticed .....but my neighbours have.   Our local bar/ hotel has a shop attached ....even when closed.. if we run out of anything they will open the shop for me and let me in ...so by that I assume they are happy to have us among them .

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[quote user="Frederick"]

   Our local bar/ hotel has a shop attached ....even when closed.. if we run out of anything they will open the shop for me and let me in ...so by that I assume they are happy to have us among them .

[/quote]

 

As long as you keep bringing in money,they will stay happy.Should you settle here and start competing for jobs etc. they will not be so happy.

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[quote user="londoneye"]

I agree, it really depends who you talk to.    Go into your local Bricocolage and see how many of them would struggle if it weren't for Brits .... every second voice you hear is British.    Watch what the French buy - a couple of nails is a good day's shopping for a lot of the French in there.   Not so the British, trolleys laden with stuff for their complete renovation project !! ...... 

[/quote]

Most of the French round here can't afford to spend money unless they really have to. If they only need a couple of nails then that's what they'll buy....why buy more than you need?

Locally, the Brits are seen to be unreasonably affluent, ie. reasonably young "retirees" with no visible income who love to show off how much money they have. Given the very low wages here they come across as "bourgeois" and showy and are resented by many of the hard working and low paid younger French.  To be quite honest I can perfectly understand their attitude (but then I am part French myself and also fall into the same working group).

Aly

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Wooly

You mean, I had better cover up the 12m x 7m pool in a discreet way, put the 4 x 4 in one of our many outbuildings, put the other car away also, stop getting all our 20 pairs of front facing shutters repainted this year, stop taking parties of a dozen guests or so to that chateau restaurant up the hill, stop taking my team of expensive hunting dogs on walks in the village, etc etc etc? 

What would be the point of having all these things if I am not allowed to show them off?

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[quote user="Frederick"]

I am told the Dutch arrive on holiday with all they will need brought with them and dont spend locally ?....I haven't noticed .....but my neighbours have.  

[/quote]

Our French neighbours joke that the Dutch even bring potatoes with them , but they take home their peelings!!

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[quote user="woolybanana"] a tabard[:P][/quote]

This is a favourite word on all the forums. I had never come across it until recently,  and now am beginning to think I know what it is??? Some kind of flowered overall that women wear to do housework?

Is it what the French would call "une blouse" or "un chasuble"? (The wikipedia pictures don't help all that much!)

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It's like a pinny without sleeves and without sides; goes over the head and fastens with tabs or tapes on each side of the body.

Madame la voisine wears a proper pinny which she doesn't take off, even when my OH takes her to the cooperative agricole in the next village for cat food.

When she rides her bicycle into the village for bread every morning, she DOES take it off, however.  So, I am wondering whether there is some sort of French etiquette for wearing your pinny or your apron or your tabard or whatever your favourite item of clothing is for doing the housework?

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