Comments on: Five great reasons to be an expat

By: Johnny Norfolk

Johnny Norfolk — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:04:31 +0000

We were able to help the family trying to trace their roots. We had photographs of some of their family members a photograph of the family home, ( still standing) and various grave plots. They are comming back next summer to continue their search for their old family.
There are some photos of our museum on my blog here,

http://johnnynorfolk.blogspot.com/2009/04/litcham-museum-norfolk.html

ignore my political views.

By: Boris

Boris — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:56:14 +0000

Thanks for sharing your story Johnny, you are describing a village life that I suspect a lot of people think doesn’t exist anymore – I’m glad it does!
I guess we are all just looking for the place where we can ‘belong’ and it doesn’t matter much whether it’s France, England or anywhere else – it’s not the country that matters so much as finding a lifestyle we enjoy.

By: Johnny Norfolk

Johnny Norfolk — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:17:22 +0000

France is a great country to live and is by far and away my favorite. I do envy your life style and the lack of population. However having spent our life either moving in Britain and various other Europien countries. when it came to retirement we chose to stay in England. we have been very happy with our choice as it is an unspoilt part of Norfolk with few people and tourists.
We are about 2 hours from London and 25 mins from the North Norfolk coast.
Today it was a sunny mild 17C. We spent the morning continuing on the garden autumn clear up. Mrs N has just got 2 painting commissions so she has been busy painting, one of a spindle tree and the other for fungi. She is a botanical illustrator so they take ages to do.
So i can get on with the old bee hive restoration.

It is so good to hear about your lives in France we so very nealy did it as well.

I am involved in our local village museum and we are opening tomorrow to help a family trace their relations so they can add to their family tree.So that should be interesting.

Had a spin in next doors restored Mk 1 land rover 1955 in fantastic condition 60.000 genuine miles and they are only the second owners. he still uses it over the fields for shooting.it has had a few modifications including the device that in very cold weather you plug it into the mains overnight and it circulates the radiator water and keeps it warm.So it starts easy and is as warm as toast in seconds.
Ah well quarter past midnight.

By: Boris

Boris — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:32:30 +0000

It would take me a long time to think of 20 – although we do have a baker that says voila about 10 times when you buy a loaf of bread and always gives us a laugh so I should have thought of that one.
Another? TV programs like Desperate Housewives are now broadcast simultaneously in ‘version original’ as well as French – and strangely they sound much more like intelligent programs in French translation than they do in English.
Glad to hear I was twittered – hopefully I had gazillions of visitors during the 60 seconds before I dropped off the bottom of the page!

By: Leighann Garber

Leighann Garber — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:04:58 +0000

Aw, come on. I can think of at least 20 reasons to love living in France. Of course, most of them have to do with food…and I’m still in the honeymoon stage with this country. And, I’m easily amused. But still!

I’ve been using your site for my son’s homeschooling stuff, and today I saw someone linking back to this on twitter. Keep being cool. Love your site.

By: Boris

Boris — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:18:48 +0000

Hi Phil,

We seem to have avoided flooding but did at last have a good downpour a couple nights ago. I let a couple of Mrs B’s plants die from lack of water when she went away which didn’t go down well, and I started a bonfire that spread rapidly across a field and also incinerated a nearby clump of bamboo which also got me in trouble. Otherwise things are looking good in the garden.

I just received an inexplicable bill from URSSAF so normal grumbling will be resumed as soon as possible.

PS I just noticed your website – I tried to book a room for Mrs B with you when she was away in September but you were already booked up (I tried to book for the same day so perhaps not surprising!)

By: Phil in Normandy

Phil in Normandy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:11:41 +0000

Back to grumbling!!! Weather-wise France has been really mixed this year. It’s easy to forget that in summer loads of places in the south were flooded, rivers bursting banks etc., yet elsewhere there were forest fires along the Med. due to drought conditions.

Non-stop sunshine = drought, which is what we’ve had this summer on the border of Normandy and Pays de la Loire. Until last week we’d had barely a drop of rain since early June!! Good for tourists, not so good for those who have gardens or make a living from the soil.

Enough grumbling! On a positive note the weather finally turned last week, we had a few decent falls of rain, the grass is green again and everything looks so fresh. Warm and sunny again until the end of this week, but that’s okay after the rain.