When to visit France – and where to go?

When to visit France – and where to go?

By Boris on April 4, 2012

Having just spent a very pleasant week in and around Menton it is clear that some places are lovely at one time of the year – but at other times would be intolerably crowded, a traffic and parking nightmare, or have weather that would keep you inside all week. But lots of people need or [...]

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Five reasons to move to France

Five reasons to move to France

By Boris on December 24, 2011

In these troubled times any talk of selling up and moving to France has reduced quite a lot. Apart from anything else it is now impossible to buy a studio flat in England for £50k, sell it a month later for £250k, and hope to live for ever on the profits in some quiet part [...]

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Make a living online in France?

Make a living online in France?

By Boris on December 8, 2011

A long time ago I wrote a post about the kind of jobs that expats in France do or might consider doing to help make ends meet (see expat work in France). But times and ideas move on and recessions turn up unexpectedly so I thought I’d suggest a different idea. This is something I [...]

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Cycling holidays in France: advice for the ladies!

By Boris on April 21, 2013

As soon as spring arrives here in south-west France we start to see the happy sight of young couples taking cycling holidays together, a perfect way to explore the countryside, chat peacefully and to commune with nature – or so you might think. The reality is almost always slightly different…instead of the couple cycling along [...]

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Leaving the French countryside behind?

Leaving the French countryside behind?

By Boris on April 1, 2013

I should think about 99% of UK expats moving to France end up in the countryside, usually surrounded by lovely views and in beautiful period houses packed full of traditional features – rotten window frames, lead pipes, termites and so on. Not surprising since it is the space and lack of crowding that is a [...]

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Settling in a French town

By Boris on March 12, 2013

Well, that’s already four days that we’ve lived in the French town of Bergerac and the number of cardboard boxes surrounding us is starting to recede! Can’t say we’ve spent much time strolling along the river or around the old town quite yet though! The move itself went relatively smoothly although signing on both the [...]

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Moving house in France – the downside!

By Boris on March 2, 2013

Only a few days now until d-day (déménagement day – moving day). when we head for the big city – well Bergerac, which is only a big city if you compare it with the field where we live at the moment, but exciting nonetheless. Selling gites and moving to a normal house certainly focusses the [...]

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English language bills in France, insurance and builders activities

By Boris on February 6, 2013

Here’s a couple of things for you to think about when you are getting work done on your second home in France… 1 Bills in France should be in French One thing we didn’t realise until we were having a meeting to discuss any ‘plus-value’ (capital gains) tax that might be payable on our property [...]

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Furnishing your French home and gites on the cheap!

By Boris on January 17, 2013

As D-Day for our house move gets ever closer, one of the challenges facing us is that we are moving from three houses (our own house plus two gites) to a single house, and we have a large number of things we have accumulated over the years and will no longer need. For example, we [...]

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Costs of buying and selling a house in France

By Boris on December 20, 2012

In case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been hiding these last few weeks, I can assure you that I, along with Mrs Boris, have been rushing around like headless chickens with little time for such pleasures as eating, sleeping or blogging. A few weeks ago a local estate agent came knocking on the door and [...]

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How time flies when you’re an expat in France!

By Boris on November 7, 2012

This week marks the 11th aniversary of leaving our jobs and lives in the UK and catching the slow boat to France to start a new life*. * It was literally a slow boat, since we took the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao which took about two days to deposit us in northern Spain. I’m [...]

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Finding the perfect French hotel

By Boris on October 10, 2012

Because both myself and Mrs B spend a significant amount of time travelling around France and staying in what would politely be described as ‘budget’ hotels I think we can describe ourselves as familiar with the French travel experience, as carefully avoided by the rich and prosperous. It’s not that we aren’t rich and prosperous [...]

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Summer slips quietly away

By Boris on September 18, 2012

You can always tell when summer in southern France is coming to a close – instead of being kept awake late into the night by the distant sound of music at the evening markets and campsites hidden in the woods we get woken at the crack of dawn by hunters shooting at unseen (and usually [...]

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