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British in SW France


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Those of you who take French News will have read the letter about some research done over 3 years by Marie-Martine Gervais- Aguer at Bordeaux University. Did anyone see the report of this in the Sud Ouest  of Jan 29th? Facts reported : main reason for choice of SW was "quality of life" (what is that?); liking for the french 2.3%; 20,000 Brits resident in the area, which is 6.3% of all foreigners in the area; works out that these British people own .02% of the land. Excluding holiday homes, of which 200,000. Has anyone any idea how to get a copy of this research? Pat.
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a somewhat one sided view, covering the middle - older age retiring/downsizing/ 2nd house type population type as mainly found on this forum. - it doesn't for example all take into account the many Brits that have moved here as part of their job. This is the reason we are here and this is the predominant reason for brits moving to Paris, Toulouse etc areas.  

regs

Richard

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Yes, the situation must be very different for people in your situation, especially if they live in the bigger towns and cities. To go back to the countryside, I was a bit concerned yesterday when talking to my hairdresser whose husband is a farmer.  I was describing some problems we had when we first arrived and she said that farmers in the Gers are very suspicious of foreigners. Mainly because they don't like to think that their precious land is in foreign hands. I can understand this, and their lack of trust of foreigners. It's the same in UK - my uncle is a farmer in the Borders and can't stand " toonies" and Southerners. But it does show that to rural people we are always going to be outsiders. Parisians are included as outsiders. Pat.
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[quote]Yes, the situation must be very different for people in your situation, especially if they live in the bigger towns and cities. To go back to the countryside, I was a bit concerned yesterday when talk...[/quote]

There are many ex-pats including ourselves that live a very rural life and commute to do our office jobs. The issue of strangers is no different than moving to any small community anywhere.There is sometimes an initial reaction of protectionism, and there are some who will see you as easy pray, but as long as you are paying your way and muck in you'll be quickly accepted , whether or not you buy 1 hectare or 100.

regs


Richard

 

 

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