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The Brits are back....to the Dordogne !!!!


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I think the difficulty with that model Chancer is that it doesn't get you health cover, and if you have a family you need that. It also doesn't cover pension contributions etc. Again a consideration if you have a family.

Some of the new arrivals this way have been pretty good at attracting out of season business in the form of winter lets. There seem to be plenty of people around looking for short term rentals at the moment.
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Having said that, I do not know any of the other parts of the Dordogne, other than my own.  I was going to view a house in Piégut Pluviers and a forum member PMed me and said not to go there and I took his advice on board.

What was the advice regarding Piegut Plovers, just out of interest?
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Would be interested in Mints friends reason but it could possibly be due to the fact that it is very near the northern border of the region and some distance away from the touristy face of the region.

I suspect (and I don't mean to insult people living in the Dordogne) that certain areas are more snobbish (or vice-versa) than others.
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 There are many reasons why certain areas are not liked by others.

Sometimes it is the weather that is noticeably different.

Sometimes it is because the area simply has a very bad reputation and often for good reason.

I know my part of the Alpes and remember driving through an area near a city and it looked lovely. My Dad was with me and said how nice everything looked..... and I said, I would not like to break down there as if I left the car, doubt it would be there when I got back to it. The same place used to be on a french tv programs as a no go area......... and yet, it looked not only in good order, but pleasant.

There are other parts of the Alpes where I would hate to live, for many reasons, knowledge gathered over the years...... and yet, I bet if someone, anyone saw property for sale there........ and it looked cheaper than elsewhere and the views just as splendid...... then they would consider buying.

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and that will always be a problem for people moving or forced to move due to employment to an area they do not know.

It matters not whether it is Grangetown (close to Middlesbrough) or your area of Rhone Alpes.

Up to a point homework helps, but that only works up to a point.
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[quote user="richard51"]Would be interested in Mints friends reason but it could possibly be due to the fact that it is very near the northern border of the region and some distance away from the touristy face of the region.

I suspect (and I don't mean to insult people living in the Dordogne) that certain areas are more snobbish (or vice-versa) than others.[/quote]

Richard, it wasn't a friend, it was someone on the forum when I was asking for advice and impressions about different areas.

He said he had a sister who lived there and he knew the town well.  Said I wouldn't like it because it would be like living back in the UK.  All the market stalls, for instance, apparently have notices in French AND English.

I gathered that it was a bit of an enclave for les anglais so I never bothered to go and look for myself.  I had spoken to the forum member on the phone prior to that and I didn't feel I had to go and check out the place for myself.

So, if anyone does live in PP, look, I didn't go there so it's just hearsay so please don't give me a load of grief over it, OK?

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  • 5 months later...
Mind if I open up an old wound? No, ok

Having lived in a few areas and traveled about in our moho for me Dordogne(shire) is one of the nicest parts of France I have visited, shame there isn't a coast. It was on our last stop going home to the Vendee that we stopped in Dordogne where we said - next house is going to be here and it was but in true fashion didn't last and we upped and did one.

Most of France is nice but Dordogne is manicured.

That is probably why the brits go there.

And why not.
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Mint2 wrote:

..........Said I wouldn't like it because it would be like living back in the UK. All the market stalls, for instance, apparently have notices in French AND English I gathered that it was a bit of an enclave for les anglais so I never bothered to go and look for myself. -

-

And yet frequents this english forum to get their bit of UK like life!

Brits who have a go at english enclaves on an english forum in english hating the english, how english!
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[quote user="Mint2"][quote user="richard51"]Would be interested in Mints friends reason but it could possibly be due to the fact that it is very near the northern border of the region and some distance away from the touristy face of the region.

I suspect (and I don't mean to insult people living in the Dordogne) that certain areas are more snobbish (or vice-versa) than others.[/quote]

Richard, it wasn't a friend, it was someone on the forum when I was asking for advice and impressions about different areas.

He said he had a sister who lived there and he knew the town well.  Said I wouldn't like it because it would be like living back in the UK.  All the market stalls, for instance, apparently have notices in French AND English.

I gathered that it was a bit of an enclave for les anglais so I never bothered to go and look for myself.  I had spoken to the forum member on the phone prior to that and I didn't feel I had to go and check out the place for myself.

So, if anyone does live in PP, look, I didn't go there so it's just hearsay so please don't give me a load of grief over it, OK?

[/quote]

Oh dear, having to quote myself, how not cricket!

But since I have had a snide post, quoting me out of context, I can only assume that the writer is either deliberately trying to be a troll or is too thick to understand something written in, yes, English.

I was househunting in the Dordogne because I WANTED to live here and I love living here.  Most of the above post was quoting someone I had befriended on the Forum.  He no longer posts and I don't know what's happened to him or indeed whether his sister still lives in Piegut Pluviers.

I knew nothing about the Dordogne then but I couldn't travel too far from my previous house in the Charente Maritime and therefore I asked on the Forum for suggestions on where I should look for my new home.

I ended by saying that I was only quoting what I'd heard and that I had never been to PP.  Now I have lived in the same Dordogne village for 7 years and been a member of the Forum for 10 years.  Why shouldn't I like it, my village or the Forum?  And no, I do not need any kind of "fix" of "Englishness" or "English life" and I have never said anything derogatory about life in the UK.  Why would I?  Some of the best and most significant years of my life have been spent in the UK after all.

I have been on a visit back to the UK once for 10 days in the 10 years I have lived in France.  Just have never felt the need to go back but, if I did, I'd just upsticks and there I'd be.  It's not as though it is on another planet, is it?

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I will play Chezsails.

In another place a British estate agent who works in the Dordogne said that the average budget for expats looking to move was 150 k.....and they wanted a pool. lol

In all the places I would live in France, 150 k would get you a studio flat. The only places that 150 k would buy you something decent is the Dordogne, Limousin, Cruse, Normandy etc etc. Typically those hotspots for the British. It is all about BUDGET.

In terms of countryside (although it is all subjective), Alsace beats the Dordogne. So does the area around Aix en Provance. Parc de Ecrins, the Vosges, Sologne etc etc etc. 150 K is not going to get you anything in these places

No, the Dordogne is not the nicest region of France. Its nice, but not the nicest. Its cheap and Nice.

Now the overall best place to live when you factor in 'everything' and when I mean everything I mean everything that revolves around 'quality of life' (lifestyle, shopping, facilities, services, schooling, the people...the PEOPLE), is the Loire valley (well semi rural Loire Valley)..... Any town or city between Orleans and Nantes. There is no other place like it in France. It is certainly not the prettiest but that should NOT be high on your list when looking for a place to live in France. All the gripes people have about France will not be found in the Loire Valley. It is a different country.

The thing is, 150k won't get you much.
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I have never seen anything I'd like to live in for 150k anywhere near me, either.  And a pool?  It goes to show how we look for different things when it comes to where we live.

The only pool I wouldn't mind having would not be your average garden pool where one stroke will get you from one end of the pool to the other.  Mine would have to be Olympic size where I could get some decent exercise.  And, no, I am never going to be able to afford it.

As for the prettiest parts of France, I agree that Dordogne is not it.  I have seen lots more pretty areas.  For example, I think the Haute Savoir is fantastic for scenery and, if OH and I were younger, I'd think seriously about moving there.  There'ld be walking in summer, skiing in winter and lovely mountains to look at all year round.

BUT, when all is said and done, I love living where I am because it SUITS me.  The hills are just great for the type of walking I can still do and hope to be able to do for a few years yet.  I have friends that I enjoy being with.  When my dog was alive, she adored our house and the secure, enclosed garden.

Being asthmatic, I need relatively equable climate conditions and no air polution.  I have that here:  no real extremes in temperature and very little in the way of traffic.

You are wrong about budget being the only deciding factor.  In fact, I could afford to live in a modest house in many areas in France, certainly in the parts of the Loire you mention and yes, even in the Provence.  But I could think of lots of reasons that those areas would just not be for me[:)]

Come, ALBF, I'm more interested in pianos, have  you bought yours yet?

 

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The best place in France to live is where you find an area that suits you, your lifestyle and you where you feel comfortable. All this snobbish rubbish about not living next door to or mixing with other Brits is ridiculous, and just a wind up being carried on from other forums. To quote a very famous French Football manager who in reply to a reporter as to why he always claimed his players were the best. He said, "everybody thinks their wife is the prettiest". I think that is the same for genuine people, not the wind-up merchants, saying that where they live is the best.
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As someone who makes just about everything from scratch that I can..... all I can say is................

.........MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! salad cream, I had forgotten how good it was until I got back[:D]

I was trying to explain to someone the other day about being in a waiting room in France and I knew that the other lady waiting was english. My son had said that there was a girl in college with an english mother and hence I knew where she was from and in fact who she was. She lived along the valley from me a few villages down. Apart from the usual bonjours I said not another word to her.

I am usually VERY chatty, but not this time.

I never wanted to live near any other english and I knew where many were in my region. Firstly, I had moved to France, and IF I had lived near other english people, reckon that I could have taken the easy route by not making an effort to learn french, I knew of some who did just that, could hardly speak a word after years. So that was my guiding force, why move to France to be near other british people..... better to stay at home as far as I was concerned.

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[quote user="idun"]

I never wanted to live near any other english and I knew where many were in my region. Firstly, I had moved to France, and IF I had lived near other english people, reckon that I could have taken the easy route by not making an effort to learn french, I knew of some who did just that, could hardly speak a word after years. So that was my guiding force, why move to France to be near other british people..... better to stay at home as far as I was concerned.

[/quote]

Spot on!  There is one other couple in our village from the UK but I have only spoken to them once in the 2 or so years they have lived here.  I don't deliberately avoid them, just have never had occasion to strike up a conversation and they live at the other end of the village.

I came to France specifically to learn French and to learn about their way of life.  As you say, why move here, if you are only going to be speaking English and doing all things English?

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I have to add, that IF we ever moved back, and par hazard ended up living very near a few of the people on here, I would be very happy about that. Because I already like them on here, and have no reason to believe that I would not in real life!!!!!

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