Dordogne

[Mike]

Is there anyone currently living in the dordogne who wouldn't mind being contacted by phone to discuss the pros and cons of the area?

Many thanks, Mike

[Mike]

Thank you Paul and Virginia for replying to my post.

I have tried to reply via the email shortcut on your emails but I received a mail delivery failure report!

I replied with the following -

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

My wife and I are looking to move out to the Dordogne as soon as our house sells.

We have a twelve year old daughter so need to find out suitable schools etc.

I am a self employed electrician and looking to do the same in France so would like to know if there is a need for this profession.

Also we would like to now what the area is like to live in. We have visited the Dordogne and Lot et Garonne to search for homes but a brief visit does not let you know what it's like to live there.

Hope you can help,

Kind Regards,

Mike & Mandy Dughan

[virginia.c]

hhm. I think a mod would have to advise there as I am about the most useless computer person on this forum. When you say shortcut, do you mean you used the pm facility? Anyhow, I can't give you any schools advice but I could put you in touch with an English electrician in the Dordogne so that you could get some good advice re workng here. I'll pm you my number.

[Bob T]

Mike, why don't you ask any questions in the various parts of the forums? That way you will get a consensus rather than an individual answer to each question.

[Sprogster]

Mike, if you research the education section you will find a lot of posts about the best age to move children to France, especially if they are not fluent in French and the general consensus is that once an average child has started their secondary education in the UK at twelve/thirteen, it is getting too late for them to properly assimilate into the French education system without the risk of damaging their education.

[Maricopa]

[quote user="Mike"]Thank you Paul and Virginia for replying to my post. I have tried to reply via the email shortcut on your emails but I received a mail delivery failure report![/quote]

They may have sent you a Private Message (PM), and you possibly tried to reply to the e-mail notification of the PM (which isn't possible).

PM's are accessed from the Forum Homepage when logged in.

[Llantony]

There a quite a few French electricians in my area (south of the Dordogne).  One has just started a burger van as business is poor. (Fewer foreigners buying and renovating.)  I suspect you need to have your qualifications accepted in France in order to work legally.  Other people know much more, but be prepared to struggle with bureaucracy - especially if your French is not good.    Don't forget you'll have to pay for healthcare and the cost of living is high, especially for people living on UK income/savings.  Apologies if you know all this already.

Good luck!

[Tony F Dordogne]

There are a couple of Brit electricians working in the south of the Dordogne (Perigord Noir) and they seem to be doing ok.  But as somebody else mentioned, there is a serious downturn in house building and renovation work here and a number of artisans are turning to other things - I know of two plumbers, both Brits, who are labouring because they can't find any other work.

To be honest unless you have excellent French and understand the French system well and have qualifications that can be transferred easily, even perhaps have a job lined up with a company (tho unemployment round here is high) I'd think very long and hard about moving to this area.

That said and for what it's worth, life in this part of the Dordogne is pretty good but then we're early retired and have a regular income so we don't have the economic pressures that others have.

Could I also add that you seem to have done this the wrong way round.  If your house is already on the market and you'd already made the decision to move, you're doing things the wrong way around, many of us did all the research and asked all the questions long before our houses went on the market and from experience of meeting younger people with families who have done what you're doing, with one notable exception, they all ended up with substantial problems from unhappy children to no work, to being wholly unable to get into the employment or health systems and many have ended up working on the black although they hopefully didn't arrive here with those intentions.

Sorry if this sounds negative but this place isn't a place to come unless you have evevrything organised and in place first and for many of us we spent up to 2 years researching the move before we sold our house.

[PaulT]

And as for being an electrician the French requirements are vastly different to UK ones so it will not be a case of installing in France as in the UK.

As has also been stated there is a down turn in the property market PLUS if you will be looking to Brits for most of your work consider that a couple of years ago they were getting 1.5 euros in exchange for their pension pounds - now they are getting a max of 1.08 so funds will be tight and rewiring will not be affordable for some.

Paul

[Builder]

Hi Mike,

I have tried to email but having them returned, so if you want a chat just pm me and I will

contact you.

Regards

[just john]

[quote user="Llantony"]

There a quite a few French electricians in my area (south of the Dordogne).  One has just started a burger van as business is poor. (Fewer foreigners buying and renovating.)   [/quote]

I'm Dordogneshire/Charente border near Riberac, and currently being quoted two months waiting and over twice the UK price to wire a simple barn conversion, see http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1/1852583/ShowPost.aspx#1852583  if this guy works to Conseil standard and is looking to quote ask him to get in touch![:)]