Move to France/Europe - would you?

[RiderGirl]

I don't want to go into too many details, but if you realised that you could move to Europe with no visa requirements (we particularly like France), would you? DH just realised he can get a German passport so we could go. It would mean we could actually own a property rather than rent. I've a close relative there who loves it. No hope whatsoever of ever owning a property or retiring before 68 while we are in the UK and there has to be more to life than this!

I did, dh is French, but we didn’t stay there permanently and ended up moving to a different country (with English first language) I just didn’t get on with it, my level of French was never good enough that I felt at ease, could do drs appts etc without having to take along DH, make friends on my own etc for me the language issue was a huge problem and I always felt awkward/outsider, if you’re good at picking up languages hopefully it won’t be.
yes there are lots of people who get by with little to no French but I don’t understand how they cope!

I moved to France with my dog seven years ago. Absolutely no regrets, amazing friends and neighbours, great social life, superb healthcare, roads etc etc….

Feel free to PM if you have any questions.

This is incorrect, only your DH would have no restrictions on working. You would. Unless you'd also receive a German passport through marriage?

You'd get a spousal visa which shouldn't be too hard to get. At least it's not in germany. The burocracy is horrid and I must warn you that they sometimes don't even speak English at the Auslaenderamt. Overall our standard of living here is way better than it was in the UK.

As long as you have the option to go back if it doesn't work out and you can get work, I'd say go for it. It's a fun adventure to try and live somewhere else.

I'd potentially go to France, I am half French, speak the language pretty well (used to be fluent when I was little) and have family there, I would love a rural property and DH can work remotely but I cannot and I'm not sure I could work there in the same way as I do here. In the future we may well move though, once the DC's are all set up and established in work etc.

I love France but I wouldn’t go if I was still earning. We always joke that ‘France is shut’ which is great in many ways but terrible if you need a job.

Having lived many years in various French cities over the years I would say it’s very difficult to secure employment without a good level of fluency in the language. Life is much harder without the language skills

Just replacing this as I’d suggested something friends used to get a visa but then realised you don’t need one! But they do property maintenance for holiday homes - might be something you could look into offering depending on income levels required, particularly if you might end up in the Dordogne. You could market yourselves to British people who need caretakers on the ground, where English might be an advantage in communicating with guests.

The problem with buying property in France is that you could be completely stuck if you wanted to move back here. House prices are pretty stagnant generally, DIY is expensive and it’s nigh on impossible to get tradespeople in. Also, if you did want to return in say 20 years, your French house would not have increased in value much so you’d struggle to get an equivalent Uk property,

This op.

I think its sounds as thought you want to, your Dad has taken the plunge so you likely have the explorer gene too! Be brave. The alternative is to stay put with the prospects you have outlined.

I’d go for Germany rather than France.

I lived and worked in France when I was younger but not sure I would do it again. I never felt settled and at times, felt like an outsider. My French wasn't sufficiently fluent so it was a constant struggle despite trying to improve.

If I could afford it, I would have an apartment in France so I could spend my free time there as there were aspects of the way of life that I loved, but I wouldn't go back to work in a non-English speaking country again.

No, she wouldn't. I arrived in France via my DH European passport. He effectively was my sponsor. When my carte de sejour came through, I had full rights to work etc as the spouse of a EU citizen (he's not French). OP would be in the same situation presumably.

OP, we moved after Brexit to France. I love it. Healthcare is amazing. I'm blown away by fact I go for a scan, and results are printed out before I leave, or emailed to me upon getting home. Transport is excellent. i love that my local supermarket has a tank with fresh, live lobsters and crabs. Food is roughly same cost but excellent quality.

No, I don’t like to be too far from an M&S foodhall.

I'd do it, we enjoyed living in France for a few years and may retire there (DH is French). The quality of life is generally much better especially health care, though of course there are different problems to deal with.

BUT I think you need to do more research on what you would actually do there. Your DH can work right away but you need to go through immigration process as non EU spouse of an EU national, that means some months before you get the piece of paper confirming your right to work. French employers are also notoriously reluctant to hire people without excellent French. Your qualifications will not be recognised. You need a proper plan! Starting with where you would live because that will make a big difference. The Dordogne was 40 degrees this summer also, I'd be tempted to go a bit farther north.

Just a couple of observations:

• my parents moved away when I was 17, my two sisters were older. It had a massive and long lasting detrimental effect on all of us and they only moved from London to the midlands! 😹
• - I have many friends in the UK from other countries and they all speak good English, some as fluent as possible. But they still struggle with slang, references and idioms. I think we usually understand what eachother is SAYING but not necessarily what we MEAN

In all honesty you must use quite a lot of slang if fluent speakers can't follow.

My American family often can’t understand me and they are obviously native English speakers themselves!

The moving away thing is something I’d query though. It’s incredibly common for people to move once their children go to university and it doesn’t normally have such profound consequences. I assume there were other factors at play. I’d agree that considering the implications of an international move on children is always important though.

I'm off to France when my responsibilities in the UK end. The main driver is that I prefer it there and already consider it home. Since the referendum result came out, I have felt very displaced living in the UK. It's not a comfortable feeling.

@Calliopespa we do use a lot of slang. My French friend loves learning new sayings and slang (she is a translator) and there’s never a shortage of expressions that are new to her or, indeed, to some English people I know 😹

Loving these replies, generally feeling quite positive... Generally we are quite resourceful people with a fair amount of skills/willing to give anything a go and I'm sure could be quite inventive and flexible when it comes to an income stream. My understanding is that I'd be able to work over there without many issues once the paperwork is sorted out, can't say I care about continuing to be a nurse either.

Depends what you mean by fluent speakers. Someone who has only just arrived may well not fully understand if they have mainly learned English at school/University. But after some years they will. Or perhaps if they already watched a lot of English tv, films etc. I have students who come from all over the world and their language is fluent, but they still don't have quite the same understanding as a native speaker. But my colleagues who have been here some years (and my husband who has been here 30+ years) do.

We moved to Britain from Aus 2018 and we're finally feeling settled. People are baffled as to why we left which is always so funny to me. I think a lot of people who want to move from the UK don't appreciate what a strange place the UK is in a good way. In a lucky way. There's so much negativity online about the UK that it's actually a bit weird. Why that is I don't know... my guess is maybe because the Internet is in English? Or because British nature is sensitive. The UK loves to think no one else has problems. I personally can't think of any place more worthy of staying and trying to save, maybe that's because I'm ethnically British so it feels kind of essential. I'm not blind to reality. UK is currently a mess and I've realised it's a mess I quite like. My advice would be to give France a try and if it doesn't work you can always come back

I think you aren't happy with how things stand op, and so why not try to address that? The alternative is to pass up an opportunity.

It isn't a life sentence if it doesn't work, but staying put is, in it's way.

Just to say the UK is in Europe…