Anybody in Clermont Ferrand by any chance?

[EmmaNicole]

Hi, I've just moved to Clermont Ferrand and was wondering if there are any other mumsnetters here? x

Hello :)

I posted the other day about living in Brive (or rather moving there shortly); I guess there can't be many mumsnetters living in the South of France!!
How are you enjoying living in CF? We had looked at several placed south of CF a couple of years ago before settling on the Correze. If you ahve children, how are they settlings into their new life and language?

Cookiemonsterscousin

No but I'm in its twinned city of Salford. I'm betting CF is nicer? Unless they loot pound shops & Farm Foods there, too?

@CookieMonstersCousin - just seen your post. Collognes La Rouge is so beautiful - we holidayed in that area last year - also visited Turenne, Rocamadour (great cheese!) We are enjoying CF very much, my husband works for Michelin hence our move here (probably for 3/4 years) we have taken an apartment close to the town centre and are enjoying city living - bars, restaurants etc. The weather is just great and the food wonderful. In fact, the only thing we are missing is UK TV. I have 1 daughter who is 2 so she has been fine with the move - too young to realise properly and will hopefully learn French alongside English. I hope all goes well with your move - the process can be stressful! We put some stuff into storage as the place here is smaller than our house in UK (which we've rented out) and we keep thinking of things we which we had brought with us.

@iklboo - haven't seen any pound shops yet....which is a shame cos everything is very expensive here! We live in Staffordshire in the UK and are seriously going to miss shopping in Manchester.

I'm in Provence, think I'm one of the nearer MNers in France.
A bit far off, though...

Emma- what things have you been able to do with your DD? Are there any activities for you to do, do you speak french yourself? how have you found meeting people? Sorry for bombarding you wiht questions, I'm only asking as Frenchfancy had responded on my post that playgrounds/softplay are fewer and farther between than mumsnetters in france! and I don't speak much french at the moment so imagine it will be hard to meet many french mums initially.

AuldAlliance- how long have you been in France? Do you enjoy where you are?

I've been in France for 16yrs, in Provence for 6 of those.

I do like it here, the climate is great and the countryside gorgeous.
But as a Scot I find the whole Mediterranean/Marseillais mindset hard to get to grips with, TBH. And it's quite difficult to get to know people, though after 6yrs we have slowly built up a little network. Oh, and don't talk to me about house prices in relation to salary...
Two soft play places have opened up in this area over the past 2yrs, so there is hope. We also have a ludothèque, which is a great way to get out of the house and meet people. But if you don't have much French yet, it will be a bit tougher...

@CookieMonstersCousin, I speak a little French, studied it to A level but that was a long time ago! I've found a couple of in-door soft-play places in Clermont - not been yet but they look ok on the internet. I've joined the International Womens Club of the Auvergne and went to my first Mother and baby group today which was great. Lots of English-speaking mums from all over the world. Clermont is the HQ of Michelin so most of the ladies there have husbands who work for Michelin (as do I) But I'm conscious that speaking English all the time won't improve my French so I am hoping to find some other groups with French ladies but I'm discovering that Mother and Baby groups are not a big thing in France like they are in the UK. I have found a French website like Mumsnet and I posted a message on there (with the help of Google Translate) asking about local play groups. How old are your children? I should imagine that if they are school age then you will meet lots of mums through the school.

This is the website I found...I think it's like mumsnet (from my limited French) :

www.forum.doctissimo.fr/grossesse-bebe/mamans-ville-par-ville