Boris
Cycling holidays in France: advice for the ladies!
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 [...]
Leaving the French countryside behind?
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 [...]
Settling in a French town
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 [...]
Moving house in France – the downside!
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 [...]
English language bills in France, insurance and builders activities
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 [...]
Furnishing your French home and gites on the cheap!
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 [...]
Costs of buying and selling a house in France
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 [...]
How time flies when you’re an expat in France!
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 [...]
Finding the perfect French hotel
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 [...]
Summer slips quietly away
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 [...]
Why are the French so skinny – and the British so miserable?
…and why is Scotland the friendliest country in Europe while the rest of us are rude and arrogant! You have probably noticed that when you start typing a search into google it suggests the words that you are about to type. These suggested words (called ‘autocomplete’) are based on many thousands of queries by other [...]
Holidays in France – the downside
Everyone looks forward to their annual holiday whether close to home or somewhere exotic – and it is pretty much the responsibility of the destination to make their place seem enticing so word gets out how great they are and also people come back year after year.
Testing the French Health System
As always, I’ve been going to remarkable lengths to test out all that is best about France, and this week it was the turn of the French health system and the ‘urgences’ (A and E) at the local hospital. It wasn’t possible to just turn up with any old graze or splinter, so I went [...]
A hole in a swimming pool liner
On Saturday night I went to put the night-cover on the swimming pool and noticed the water level was unnaturally low, and there were big wrinkles all across the bottom of the pool. Have you ever had that sudden sinking feeling that all is not well? It only took a couple of minutes to find [...]
Bradley Wiggins to win the Tour de France?
OK so England didn’t do so well in the football and Andy Murray couldn’t quite pull off his challenge against Federer, but behind the scenes what could be the greatest sporting victory for the English since 1966 is quietly taking place.
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