Five good reasons to move to France
During the last few years we have seen the full cycle for expats moving to France.
When we first arrived, little did we know it but many others were to follow soon after. Within a couple of years there was a bit of a tidal wave of expat families arriving in France – along with lots of television crews following their every step.
This made for boring television after a couple of years, since there is a limit to how many happy smiling faces a person can bear to see when they themselves are trapped in a job they detest. Luckily the solution was at hand, as those who hadn’t enjoyed the French expat experience, had insufficient money, or were missing friends, family and shopping centres started moving back to the UK.
Contrary to popular belief it’s not all sunshine and sunflowers in France, and a large percentage of people end up returning to the UK – so the television crews were again kept busy.
Recently we have the new idea that expats are all being driven back to the UK by the tumbling value of the pound – not an idea that seems borne out by people we know, but it is true that many people are less well off now than they have been before.
So now it’s time for a radical idea – start the whole cycle again! Here are some good reasons why you should move to France during 2009:
- There is less temptation to go shopping in France. There is almost no ‘keep up with the neighbours’ lifestyle, and if you want to drive a beaten up old car no-one will care. If you choose a sufficiently remote outpost you can be a good hour or two from any shops at all. Be sure to buy a property without internet access in case you are tempted to spend online.
- The value of the pound can surely only increase as the economic plight in Europe come to light, so you will get richer each day as your pension or sterling assets boom in value.
- Living in poverty in France will be more fun than spending the next 20 years helping pay off Gordon Brown’s debt mountain. If necessary it is still possible to make a respectable (if not great) income from holiday rentals / gites if you buy in a popular area and feel a need to supplement your champagne lifestyle.
- You won’t need to watch the British news on television or read their newspapers. I have come to suspect that it is the news that is the major cause of misery in the UK rather than the actual economy.
- You can sell your story to a TV show. They will soon get bored of filming expat-refugees from France staggering in threadbare clothes from the cross-channel ferries in a state of semi-starvation, and will be looking for new ideas. And families eccentric enough to move to France to set up home could be just the thing they are looking for. Again.
If you plan carefully you could perhaps even make a decent living from moving back and forth every three years in the full glare of a television crew.
Hope that helps, look forward to seeing you in France soon!
Now this is a fine example of positive thinking Mr B!
Might I be allowed to add one?
“The intellectual stimulation that comes from having to learn a new language and the inability to watch television because French TV is pretty much uniformly dreadful may delay the onset of senility.”
Here’s another. The NHS…
I can see this thread turning out like the ‘Life of Brian’ where they talk about ‘What have the Romans Ever Done For Us’…
There may well be yet another article on the alleged ‘exodus’ in the tabloids Thursday… if it appears, I’ve money on a misrepresentation of my comments to the hack in question! I was interviewed by the Daily Express, so the storyline is blatantly obvious, whatever expats say – ie “stupid expats should have stayed put in the first place, ‘Great’ Britain has always been the place to be, why leave?” I’ve issued a preemptive denial in today’s blog, but somehow I think a few more people read the Express, unfortunately…
I’ll eat my beret if I’m proved wrong!
Gordon Brown’s bad news is on the roll, i.e., seems every newborn baby will be owing the state something like 18K GBP from the time they see light.
Your first point (distance from decent shops) is especially relevant if you have teenage girls!
Happy New Year – May 2009 be healthy and prosperous for you and your family!
xxxx
Jacqui, last weekend the rest of the family (wife + teenage daughters) drove to Bordeaux for the sales – a two hour drive. For teenage girls there is no distance too great to go clothes shopping.
Fortunately my girls are old enough to do there own shopping and, in which case, they can spend their own money.
Please don’t encourage yet more Brits to come to France to live, aren’t there enough of us here already?
Brilliant…Love a positive spin…Am I stupidly insane to still want to move to France while I am still young enough to enjoy walking the Paris streets or hitting the Cote D’azur beaches??? Even coming from the alleged land of milk and honey here in Australia? Je m’en fous….the wine and bread and attitude to life are incentive enough!
Maybe it’s not as complicated as you think. Maybe upon living amoungst them many British people find that the French are intollerably rude, ignorant and unpeasant. I shall avoid the jokes about body odour but it is interesting to note that there is less soap sold in France than in any other country in Europe.
Frankly I love the country but find its people awful. Kinda like Newcastle I suppose.
Lets not complicate things.
Daniel …. exactly where in France do you plan to live? Do you know how far it is from Paris to the Med Coast? I have driven it and it is a very, very long trip. I can do it in 3 hours from London… although not in a car.
Jeepers peeps… Open your eyes.. The country and its inhabitants are a joke, give it 2 years and the the chat will be out of the bag… The country is broke, its people go on strike at the least hint of any reforms, it can’t afford its own pensions and Tokyo has more Michelin Stars than ALL of France!!!
No longer can it keep illegally subsidising its joke of an airline God help poor old KLM… Its three main car producers, which employ so many are now suffering more than any other manufaturers and due to the fact that they are already subsidised the bail out for them is basicvally impossible.
Gig is up…. Just like at one time we would say in the Uk that all Japanese electrical goods were ‘Jap Junk’ and now we know Jap is excellent …so now we should be saying France is not the place for good food, chique and all the rest of it… Things change… the French just hid the change and bluffed their way through most of the last 25 years. Jeepers… what other country encourages its Presidents to have affairs and even gives the top job to a man who actually served in the Vicey gouvernment during the Nazi occupation???
The French have managed a facade for 50 years and now it is falling… soon to shatter…
As one might say ‘Black is the new pink’ one could say that the French are the new Brits of the new millenium… there to be detested by the rest of the world.
Thanks for your comments Dave – do you live in France by the way? Or have you?
It’s true that France has many problems and it’s often very hard for us to understand the French way of doing things (especially continual strikes, bossnapping that actually gets results etc). And yes the economy is almost certainly ‘broken’ in ways that will be very hard to fix. eg Renault cars cost an extra 1000 euros if they are built in France, because of taxes and social contributions for staff, the average tax levied on companies in France is two times higher than the average in other developed countries etc…in part to support a very large number of civil servants and bureaucrats. These are substantial problems that won’t go away, because they make French goods uncompetitive, and as you say will perhaps ‘break’ the country in due course.
But you have overlooked the many good aspects of France – the French focus on family and community values, the relaxed attitude to life, the lack of obsession with material goods, the health and education systems, the scenery, the weather. France is still a very good place to live.
I am not aware of any country that is even close to being perfect – but if it does exist let me know and I’ll be off!
Tokyo is the most starred city in the world, it is true, but does not have more stars than France as a whole (227 vs 529). But if French cusine is in such terminal decline, should we take any notice of the stars anyway?
France has been “about to fall” in the wishful thinking of her detractors for as long as I can remember and yet still manages to come in with the sixth highest GDP in the World. Give two years and nothing will have changed.
Ditto that. And I imagine a good meal in Tokyo also costs a very large amount more than I pay for a good meal around here.
There was an old joke: Group of angels were given a tour into hell. They liked the hell – drinks, chicks, casinos… so they decided to immigrate from the paradise. As soon as they entered the hell – the devils threw them into the fire. What happened to the chicks and drinks? Don’t confuse tourism with immigration
I love France – been in Paris twice – the first time 1998 during the World Cup – Zizou, people on the street – one of the greatest experiences I ever had. The idea of moving to France is a totally different thing – little everyday inconveniences can add up into a sad face
Good tale Ellie, you’re right and a lot of people confuse the two. But on the other hand I have a very happy face and have lived here eight years…
I moved to the USA nine years ago. It was difficult at first since it is so much different then Eastern Europe. It took me few years – now I love it – I’m so used to it now. From everywhere I’ve been -France is the place I remember the most. I don’t speak French – it would be an effort to adapt – it is getting harder to move around the world now with the kids. May be some day I’ll pack the cases again. Never say never