Thinking of moving to France. But I know nothing about it - help

[Flighttattendant]

Hello,

this is a sudden thing that came upon me the other day when ds1 started asking about living elsewhere. He mentioned America, then France.

I suddenly thought 'why not?'

I've only been a few times but am very fond of the place. I have A level French, am a fairly good linguist though obv would need to get back into it.

I'm thinking pragmatically...when is the best time to uproot the kids? Ds1 likes his school, he is just 7. Ds2 hasn't started anything yet and is just 3...he begins preschool in sept.

I am looking to go back to work, not sure what as, but something. But currently we have help from the state.

I am worried about 3 things. 1, how easy is it to live there if you don't have the capital to buy a house? 2, is it possible to work part time, is there any kind of subsidy available for a single parent? and 3, what is health care like, including dentists...is it all private?

I think it might just be a dream given that we have literally no money and not a lot of support. But I would like to consider it in the future, anyway - if not quite yet.

Thanks for any advice or thoughts.

overthemill.

I'm sorry you found my comments offensive. Wht you asked originally was what was the best age to move your child, my answer is that the best age to move you child is under 8 years old, after that you are asking for trouble.

I have been here 7 years and have seen lots of families come and go, but I have yet to meet one who moved children over the age of 8 who were happy. Language centres in childrens brains stop developing at that age, and then learning the languages becomes the same as an adult, which means becoming truely bilingual is very rare.

I personnally think that moving you and dd to france whilst dh remains in the uk is a recipe for disaster.

If you want more opinions why not try out the completefrance forum. Maybe it will give you a clearer idea as to why I feel like this.

Don't ask the question if you don't like the answer.

frenchfancy i asked what was the best stage not age. In English that is quite a different question.
I merely wondered about the stages of French education system, Ithinking of the equivalent here, say GCSE or A level.

It doesn't really matter but your comments were judgemental and lacking in thought. We wouldn't be 'moving' our child - it is she who has begged us to move to France for years.

btw, we live in an extremely rural area now - no shops or schools close by. We may be idealising the french part but not how hard it is to live in the countryside - last winter when it snowed we were snowed in for weeks.

I don't contest that there are a lot of people who find the 'French dream' is not what they imagined. However, I know a few people who have started learning another language age 11 and gone on to obtain qualifications a few years later in their second language. Although not strictly bilingual, they haven't been disadvantaged by taking exams in a language that was not their mother tongue. It is not necessarily asking for trouble.

i agree - if you have the motivation it is possible I am sure and at least my dd has some basic French and an ear attuned to it from age 4 (and a step grandma who learned french from scratch at age 50 in order to converse with her husband in his first language!)

We moved 4 years ago with a 9 year old. She went into the class for her age, no putting her into a class dependent on her level of French as they used to.

Only after she went to college was there any help with French for non-francophones, and that was only as a result of a move by a new college principal.

As for what they study at school there are loads of Hachette guides that parents buy for their kids. Try on amazon.fr and search under CM2 or 6eme. If you're not registered with the site it works just at the uk one does. It will give you an idea of the subjects and the level.

In 6eme, she had english, french, technology, earth science, history+geography combined, art, music, maths and games.

In 5eme she started physics and chemistry as a combined subject and latin. Just about to go into 4eme she has dropped latin - hated the teacher, and is to start spanish.

There is also this site
www.academie-en-ligne.fr/Default.aspx

Regarding healthcare, we have our carte vitales for 70% but our top-up mutuelle costs about ?1600 a year for the 3 of us.

You will find a lot of info on www.totalfrance.com about healthcare, education etc, also www.frenchentree.com.

The main tip I could give for moving is to try and move from like to like ie city to city. We moved from a town of 2,000 to a village of about 1,000 all hamlets included. However, it does have a shop, hairdresser, vet, doctor, dentist, butcher, pharmacy and bar.

tb, thanks for the links - really useful and I will check out the hachette guides at the weekend on our next trip to check stuff out.

i agree like to like although we are hoping for somewhere slightly larger than we are now - I'd so love to be able to walk to a shop!

Hi,

Here is a website that has a lot of info, there's a forum on it too.

www.expatica.com/fr/main.html

About the language, I moved to a different country at the age of 8 and am now fluent in that language.
However, I live in Holland now and loads of adults, including me, who come to live here have picked up the language pretty fluently, able to work and deal with the kids' schools etc.

May take a long time, and depending how intensively you learn, also people have different "feeling" for language, so it's all relative. Still, it is doable as an adult.

Also easy to be lazy here and not bother at all cos just about everyone speaks English, and wants to (not like France lol).

Also be aware that you will have no health coverage unless you have contributed (worked) for a certain amount of time. It used to be one month full time, it might be more now. You still have access to doctors,etc. of course, but on a strictly private basis.

Do not assume that it is easy to find a job, it really isn't, even for native speakers.