Thinking of moving to France for 6-9 months - pros/cons/advice please

[Badpups]

Apologies for the long post but I'm hoping to get some sensible advice here!

We're planning to have a big extension done on our house in the UK which would mean us having to move out for 6 - 9 months.

One option is to rent a house locally - children could stay in same school and have minimal disruption but it would be very expensive.

Another option is to move to France where we have a holiday home that sits empty from Sept to May as we can only seem to get rentals in the summer months. This house would be big enough for us and is in a lovely village near Beziers in the Languedoc. Our plan would be for the children to go to the local village school for a couple of terms. DH would continue to live in the UK (probably camp out in our house whilst the building work was happening) so I would be in France on my own with 3 DCs (twins currently aged 6 and a 4 year old) and 2 dogs.

Has anybody ever done this? I'm going to talk to the DCs school as I want to ensure that they would keep their places for them to return to and also to get their advice.

On the one hand it seems like a fantastic opportunity for us all to improve/learn French and experience life in another country but I'm worried it would disrupt the DCs education and lives too much.

Any advice please?
Thanks.

[frakkinaround]

Rushing this off the top of my head.

Food is expensive in France. You probably know this from holidaying there. How much does your holiday home cost to run? Do you have everything you need their and will you be able to transport things by yourself or will you need to ship them?

What does your car insurance say about driving in France for an extended period? French car insurance is VERY expensive and for the year. Insuring a British car may cost more than buying a French one.... On that note you may be required to register or exchange your British driving license. Are you prepared to do that?

How much infrastructure do you have there in terms of bank accounts, bills in your names etc? The French loooove their bureaucracy and if you decide to go ahead you need to get the ball rolling as quickly as possible. Do you have any liquidity in Euros or earning potential in Euros or will you be dependent on British savings and your DHs salary which is vulnerable to exchange rate fluctuations and bank fees for transferring money/card fees when using a British card. Also lots of French comapnies don't accept direct debits from overseas accounts.

Do you speak sufficient French to deal with any emergency which might arise? If you're where I think you are then not many English speakers around!

2 terms is not long to move for - it takes a while to settle into a new place and IMO it would be better to see out the academic year.

In terms of education when are your DCs birthdays? If any of them were born between Sept and Dec they will be in a different school year to the UK.

Is your 4 year old currently in reception, about to miss year 1? In France children don't start reading and writing until CP which is ages 6-7 so that's definitely something to consider for re-entry.

You plan to see DCs be allowed to go back into the same school they're in now or would they have to reapply which I think is a really important consideration. Do make them/yourself aware of the differences in curriculum between France and the UK. Will the school in the village be able to provide any kind of 'adaptation' programme for your DCs or will they just be thrown in the deep end?

Good luck!

[Badpups]

Thanks frakkinaround, some good points raised.

In terms of infrastructure I think we'd be ok - French bank account already in operation, bills already paid from it, french cards etc.
UK school is happy to keep places available for DCs to go back to so that's not a problem.
The French house has everything we need so we'd only be taking clothes and a few personal bits out with us.

I hadn't thought about the car situation. Definitely needs investigating.

We'd also need to check on the local school there - it's only just across the road from our villa and some English friends in the village sent their DCs there and have recommended it. I realise that I can't assume that they'd take our DCs for just a couple of terms and need to speak to them and the Mairie.

I also hadn't realised about the age French children start reading etc. Youngest will be starting Reception here in September so would presumably be at the Maternelle (sp?) in the village?

Lots to think about. It's not going to be easy!

Thanks for your reply.

[Bonsoir]

Your local school will have to take your DCs if you are living there - it's the law. It's easier than in the UK to get your DC into state school, though you might need to get the ball rolling now.

If you are not working, you could teach your 4 year old, who I presume will be in Grande Section next yar (was this DC born in 2005?) to read in English yourself.

[MmeLindt]

We moved to French speaking Switzerland and it took the DC about 6 - 9 months to learn the basics of the language. It was not an easy time for them but was helped by the fact that they had English speaking friends.

Since the French start formal learning later, your 6yos would be the ones who would perhaps have problems getting back up to speed when they move home.

[Bonsoir]

It's not really true that the French start formal learning later - they just do things in a bit of a different order to the English! All the children I know seem to learn to read incredibly fast once they get to CP as so much ground work has been done. My DD (in Grande Section) does lots of literacy and numeracy work and brings home her cahiers for parents to sign at the end of each week.

The real issue is ensuring a child who is going to return to the UK is reading in English.

[frakkinaround]

Your older ones will do a lot of grammar and addition/multiplication tables, learning poetry by heart and weekly dictée. IMO they won't miss anything they can't easily catch up on in the UK. The problem, as bonsoir says, is the younger one reading.

They will take the children but it may take forever to get things officially sorted. Check that you have all the compulsory vaccinations for school/state care now and the other bits of paperwork.

[tartyhighheels]

I think that this is a great idea - your kids are young enough to adapt and will be fine when they come back too. I just think it could be a great experience for you as you already have the infrastructure to move over to. Because your kids are so young this is a great idea and will be an adventure for you all - shame the Dh has to stay at home though.

[Badpups]

Thanks for all the replies.

We haven't even had the planning permission granted yet so this is a bit hypothetical at the moment but I'd rather do the ground work now to find out if it's feasible.

The DCs school will probably give them some literacy type work for the DTs and some Reception books (ORT Biff & Chip etc!) for the youngest so we can keep their English going.

I think it could be a fantastic opportunity but would we want to return to the UK?!

[googietheegg]

Oooh Badpups, how exciting!

I must be rather near your holiday home.

About the car - I can give you details of our insurance company that is insuring our English reg car while we go through all the hoo ha of importing it, although our old English car insurance co would insure it for the first few months, so maybe just phone your current insurance company?

Food is a more expensive, but you can work around it by cooking in bulk, in season etc, not too much meat...there are no BOGOFFs really, but I prefer it, especially if you shop at the market