In our third (when will it end) look at why you might be behaving illegally or at least be uninsured without knowing it, it’s back to drivers again.
You know already that your car insurance might be invalid if you are driving illegally, and we have already seen that a UK registered car without UK road [...]

How quickly times can change! Until two or three years ago hardly a month passed without a new family arriving in France from the UK. Many pensioners have also moved here, for the weather, the health system, and the quality of life. Although the rate of arrivals has slowed during the last couple of years [...]

Well I’d never heard of QROPS (Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme) until I was sent this article – but they actually look quite useful if you are an expat with a substantial UK based pension fund. Could be why I hadn’t heard of them, perhaps? Read on, you might just save a few pennies…
What exactly [...]

Are you thinking of returning to the UK? I’ve got just the thing for you! You can get a ‘free trial’ return to see if all is as rosy as you remember it.
I’m tempted to apply myself, just to get a free holiday, but a free holiday in the UK with a television crew wasn’t [...]

(Note: for comments about UK expats going back to England as a result of the financial crisis at the end of 2008 please see this entry. The one below was written before the crisis ever came about!)
Well it had to happen eventually, and after six years it is now getting close – we are going [...]

Quite a few expats struggle a bit during the first few months, years, decades….the language, the culture, lack of money, missing family and friends can all make the process of settling in a new country a bit difficult.
Help is at hand! I have received a request from a group making a television series for Channel [...]

It appears that the rules about health care obligations for expats in France have been finalised (see note at bottom added january 2008). An approximate translation of the bulletin is as follows (please don’t rely on my summary translation if it has an important impact on you, seek professional advice – there are links to [...]

Tomorrow it’s my birthday, and I’ll be…a little bit older. It’s also exactly six years since we took over the keys for the house where we now live. Time to reflect on whether it was a wise decision moving to France, or whether we are frittering our lives away?
When we came to France we thought [...]

We went to a party last night for a family who have been here in France for a few years and are now returning to England. I can’t say I’m envious, I like it here!
A good number of expats do return to England – perhaps 50% within two years I would guess from people we [...]

The proposed changes in the French healthcare system applying to expats in France are a source of much discussion at the moment, and it is still not quite clear exactly who will be affected, and to what extent.
Nonetheless the implications could be serious, above all for those expats living in France who are below state [...]

A few years ago, when we first arrived in rural France, there were a few ‘downshifters’ around. Families who believed a peaceful, low-impact, low-cost, environment-friendly life was A GOOD THING.
Or rather, parents who had dragged their kicking and screaming children with them, telling them that growing their own vegetables and learning to knit was a [...]

I thought it might be useful to explain how expats in France make ends meet. Just possibly this will give you an idea of how you could earn money as an expat and enable you to make the big leap yourself.
I am not concerned here with expats who work in France as an employee of [...]

I already knew I had a memorable birthdate – when my mother was halfway through giving birth to me a nurse rushed in and disturbed the special moment by announcing that President Kennedy had been assassinated.
Unfortunately the horror of the world that was waiting for me was all a bit too much, and I refused [...]

A lot of people find this blog when they are searching in google for expat information about France. I fear they will sometimes be disappointed to find instead my ramblings about cycling and belly-button piercing.
If you would prefer some good hard facts about the tax implications of owning a second-home in France, or need [...]

I received the following question as a comment on an earlier post, but it’s too big a question for a ‘comment response’ (and not an easy question in any case) so I thought I’d give it a post all to itself…the question was:
“I came across your site while searching out how to live in France. [...]