Want move France, any mumsnetters in france?

[divamummy2]

Hi,
We would like to move France, DH got in position that we can live anywhere in EU, so decided France will be the most suitable choice.
DH thinks Bordeux area, where he is got friend. I dont speak French, but Dh got basic. We got dd 2.8y and ds 4m.
Have looked old threads, will go France and look for property. We think renting for the first a few months is good idea.
Hope to hear from other mnetters, got loads to ask.
Happy new year,

there are loads but theyre names escape me at the moment

MrsJollyBalls (aka MrsJaffaBiffa) is in France, I'll do a link to this thread on our postnatal May 07 thread.

ggglimpo is there

yes, I live in Bordeaux.

What do you need to know?

Hello

We are in the Charante, about 200k North of Bordeaux. We have been here just over 3 years. We have ds(5), dd1(2.5) and dd2(7mths) It has been a good move for us, please ask away any questions you may have.

Waves to ggg. Think about you lots down there in Bordeaux, I give you a wave from the car when we go to Ikea. xxx

I'm in Paris and have been here since 1992.

What kind of things do you need to know?

Hello everyone
Thank you all,
Nice to hear from people already living there, seems less mumsnetters in France than other EU countries.
We need to locate somewhere near or close to airport. It doesnt have to be Bordeaux.
Probably stupid question but whereabouts in France is the best location. Would be ideal somewhere rural but close to town, close to seaside, good summer, snow in winter, biggish house with land and pool, probably with annex. Are we asking too much

We decided to go France next summer for 2-3 weeks, to look houses. Looked thru english estate agents, but friend advised that looking direct on french estate agents is cheaper.

Im SAHM, busy at the moment but i decided to learn French as much i can. I dont know what i should be first. Any recommendation on book or ideas of learning beginners French will be greatful.

Thank you again

If you want snow in winter, you need to be near the Alps or the Pyrenees. Frankly, I wouldn't want to live right down in the South West of France - places like Pau are very poor and there won't be much to do in the way of entertainment unless you are seriously into nature.

Annecy is lovely, right on the lake and close to ski-ing. If I was going to relocate to the provinces I might want to go there.

A place that has improved hugely in recent times, with lots of inward investment, is Nancy. The town is architecturally stunning and the TGV has recently linked it to Paris, so very accessible for airports/Eurostar.

If you have names of towns, give them to me and I'll give you the lowdown.

We are in S:W France, but not very south iykwim, we are right on the border of the Charante, Deux Sevres, Vienne regions. We are an hour from the coast, 4hrs from Paris by road, 50mins from Poitiers Airport and 1.5hrs from La Rochelle and Limoges airports. 2 hrs from Bordeaux, 6.5 hrs from the ports linking with Dover. 4hrs from the Massif Central for skiing. We have had snow the last 2 winters here but tbh not more than a day or two each winter. The summers are beautiful, we have a small pool in the garden which gets well used between June and Sept. We are in Agricultural land, fairly flat, fields, woods and lots of tractors.

Ds has been at a local village school for 2yrs now, he is now fluent in Franch and has NO difficulties at school. Dd1 starts Monday. Woo Hooo. They can go to school here from the age of 2 providing they are clean and dry. It is obviously more like playschool at that age, but within the main school, same teachers, playtimes, lunch together etc... There are a lot of English in this area, our school has 52 children total, between 2-10yrs, 7 of them are English! However the teachers do not speak English so the children learn French fast.

It is difficult to get the opportuntity to speak French tbh, most people here banks, dr's, hospitals, tax office etc speak English and want to as they like to practice. Not helpful when you want to speak french. I have had many conversations here with me speaking french and them answering in English and so it carries on until one of us gives up. lol There are lessons available all over, I have weekly French lessons here for little cost.

House prices in some areas in France have risen in the last 3yrs, but still nothing as ridiculous as in the UK.

Hope that helps a little, please ask anything else.

Anna8888, You are right Annecy is beautiful, I have swum in the lake a few times, we are skiers and drive to the Alps each year from here. It is along way east of the Bordeaux area and I feel maybe a little more expensive. Absolutly beautiful there though, if we could afford it it would be lovely place to have a holiday home.

Thank you Anna88 and Mrsjaffabiffa,
Thats very kind of you. We will be looking Annecy, but dh also suggested Toulouse.
I thinking to get Muzzy dvd for dd, im sure she will get it quickly. I find i will be having pressure to learn French as dh will working away from home couple of days and back for a week or so.
I must go down to library and have a look for beginners book.
Meantime i will happy to hear from you lot.
Thank you again.

Hi, I live in Burgundy. Not near the sea but hot summers and snowy winters. We've been here for 3.5 years and love it.

Ask away ...

hi trulymadlydeeply and others,
i was looking for place to rent over the sept,nov,oct. but i seem to find holiday places,which looks like cheap b&b.
and also, you girls, when you first moved, did you go somwhere you have friends and people you know. or just moved somewhere you dont know at all. how did you prepare for move. share you experience please?
it got to be close to seaside, at least 1 hour drive. we often go north wales caernarfon which takes 2hours, and its hard work
hope to hear loads of stories
diva

Hello divamummy2, don't think I'll be much help because I'm in northern France. There are quite a few mumsnetters in France. I didn't respond to your OP because it mentioned Bordeaux and I don't know anything about it.

Can I just hijack to ask TrulyMadlyDeeply where are you exactly? I love Burgundy, spent my year out working there and still visit friends there.

I'm in Provence; boiling hot in summer, a little over an hour from the Alpes de Haute Provence if you want snow in winter.
But house prices here are, IMO, loony.

If you want lots of land, you'll need to be looking further away from big towns.

Toulouse is really nice, cheaper than here, lovely, vibrant town and beautiful surrounding countryside. A bit far from the sea, though. TBH the geographical layout of France is such that unless you're in the hills quite far above the Med or right down in the Pyrenees, it's hard to be sure of having snow while simultaneously being very near a beach, I think. Unless you're counting lakeside beaches.

Temporary lets do tend to be holiday-type ones, IME; the usual lease is three-yearly, with three months' notice needed to cancel. Otherwise people settle for renting over the holidays, at vastly inflated prices, and leave their property empty the rest of the time. Although it should therefore be easy to rent outside peak season, it's hard to find ads.

Have a look at websites like seloger.com for house prices all over France.

HTH

House prices near the sea are always high - i think the cheapest area in the south that is close-ish to the sea is around Carcasonne or the Minervois.

We don't mind not being near the sea, and we didn't know anyone when we moved here (to Burgundy). Our dcs were 6, 3 and 1 and the eldest was speaking with few problems within 6 months, although those 6 months were quite hard on him.

There aren't that many Brits here, so we've become very reliant on each other, and very close as a family. We sent our 6 year old to French club in the UK before we moved so he'd have some basic vocabulary. We didn't buy a house for the first 2 years, but wish we had when we think how much prices have increased in the interim. But we took the time to discover where we actually wanted to be in the area, so that time paid off in the end.

We love it here, and the kids are happy and settled. Love visitng the UK, but wouldn't really want to live there again ...

Let us know how you get on.

We too are moving to France in 3 weeks!! with our 4 daughters. We have bought a house in Deux Sevres 33km from Poitiers.

We are about 50 mins from La Rochelle and found the house prices in this area quite reasonable.

We have spent time in France before and loved it. So decided to live there.

We speak average French and have been listening to the Michel Thomas cd which I find great.

Bit nervous as departure date is in sight but I guess thats to be expected!

Best Wishes with your move!!

joedar, it's a lovely area, there are alot of brits here though. We are in the Charante on the border of the Deux Sevres about 15Km East of Chef Boutonne and 50k South of Poitiers fairly close I think to where you are heading.

Really good luck with the move, if you want to get in touch when you are here then plase e-mail me at cathalix2004 at hotmail dot com.

All the best.

Thanks Jaffa ,

We are in a village near St Maixent Lecole, do you know it?

We have friends in Melle is that close to you?

Its so nice to hear of a family getting on so well and to get positive feedback.

joedar, Yes Melle is not far from us. About 20mins. tbh everything is about 20mins away lol, we get used to having to travel to get places and took for granted the closeness of everything convienient when we were in the UK.
Would be great to hear from you when you come over. We have 3 dc's. Ds (5), dd1 (2.5) and dd2 8mths. Send me an e-mail some time, maybe we could meet at some point.

We are in Southern Brittany, about 10 mins from Vannes. Our DS was 2 when we arrived and went straight to school, he's 6 next week and I could not wish for a better environment or school for him at this stage...there are loads of forums for Brits in France which may be of help to you (but you have to weed out a lot of rubbish advice too!) try www.livingfrance.com www.angloinfo.com (you can narrow the areas down to be more specific) or totalfrance.com Living here does not suit everyone, but for us it was the right thing absolutely - I have a fab life! Good luck however it works out.....

Hi,

I don't live in France at the moment but am hoping to relocate there in the next 5 years or so. Me and DP have just finalised the purchase of a house in the Cantal (Auvergne) - this is pretty much bang smack in the middle of France, so not near the sea, but stunning countryside; the town in which we have bought a house is about 20 minutes from the Dordogne (and stunning towns along the river) and also 'barrages' of the river Maronne, which effectively have turned part of the river into huge lakes, which have beaches in the summer.

The reason we chose this part of France is because the air is so unbelievable clear, and is also close to a mountain range so skiing (yay) in the winter. It is easily accessible (about 1.5 hours from both Rodez and Limoges airports, both currently covered by Ryanair, and there is hope of another air link opening at Brive La Gaillard airport, which is 20 minutes away.

Another thing that made us choose there is because it really seems 'undiscovered' - we did not want to go to an area of France that was filled with Brits all over the place. It is reasonable unspoilt; there is quite a bit of tourism in the summer, because the place is so beautiful (and full of stunning villages, the architecture looks almost swiss/northern german), however the area is never really manic and the roads are clear.

Also, the property in this area of France is still very reasonable; our new home (which is a 3 bedroom townhouse which goes back to medieval times) cost just under ?70,000 including all fees. It needs some restoration but is generally structurally sound.

Good luck with your decision!

That's 70,000 euros by the way!

Kitty, Congratulations on your house purchase. lol, we thought that about the Charante being undiscovered. haha. It is quiet, calm, traffic free etc but it's tricky to not hear an English voice whilst shopping now. There are 8 English families in our small village and thats a small number compared to some villages around the Deux Sevres and Charante. When we bought the house 3yrs ago there were only 2 other familys.

The Dordogne dept 24, is one of the most british populated area's of France at the moment, but you sound far enough away to be out of it but still close enough to benefit from the touristy side when you want to. I think the numbers are increasing very quickly in all area's as so many Brit's are after the "French" way of life. I hope you find it is still undiscovered when you are able to make the move out here. If I'm honest though, I quite like having the network of Brits out here, we integrate as much as possible with the neighbours and parents from the dc's school and I have some good French aqaintainces but it is nice having British friends here to be able to chill with a bit.

[discovers thread ages after everyone else]

I'm in south Brittany too, about 35 minutes from Vannes. It's quite a touristy area in summer, v quiet in winter though. The dds are too young for school so don't know about that yet. I'm happy here but I'm glad I speak french as don't know any other Brits here!

We are in SE corner of France, near Italian border on the seaside. If all you need is a nearby airport, I recommend this region - year-round pleasant weather, no traffic, no pollution, sea & beaches right in front of you, mountains behind you. 1.5 hours drive to Isola 2000 (France) or Limone (Italy), both of which have pretty good skiing and generally good weather.

If you were to live anywhere from Monaco to Cannes, you would be within a 30 min distance to the Nice Cote d'Azur airport.