want to live in France

[DavidB]

Originally Posted by giantpanda

Hi!

Unfortunately the law has changed.

Hardly a good counsel, to come and hope for the best.

Better to know what you are up against.

I am not in favour of hiding the effective obstacles, especially that in many cases, some people, thing if they start again somewhere else, all the former difficulties disappear.

Yours,

giantpanda

Hardly helpful advice. She has worked in France before, she speaks the language and she wants to succeed. For every person who fails there's another that succeeds. Sometimes people do need to start afresh, I know I did and it was the best thing I ever did.

[mmm]

yes i must agree if zoed wishes to move to france should write a list of prorities that need to be orginised before going eg childs education, tax laws, job opportunities and accomodation among others. is there a particular place in france you wish to move ?

[minesthechevy]

I can see both sides of the argument.

As someone who has visited France more often than my local (UK) cinema in the last 30 years, with a good circle of friends here, and a reasonable grasp of the language, I thought it would be a LOT easier than it has been.

That said, I would not swap one second of my 'new life', and I can only hang my head in wonderment at how much the british population will put up with before they start their revolution.

Zoed, my advice would indeed be to 'go for it'. BUT, prepare, prepare, prepare. Make lists of things to think about and research. Seek out the folks near you who have done it and returned, analyse their reasons, and see if any of those reasons are applicable to you.

Try and come out for a couple of trial runs in different areas, you might strike lucky and fall into your 'dream situation' first time round, but you might also struggle; be prepared for it.

Come here with ALL your determination, don't let small setbacks get out of proportion, but don't expect your new life to be something you'll realise without an enormous amount of hard work.

In the winter here, with a 450m2 house to live in with no heating except an 80-yo woodburning stove, my Missus still working in the UK, and an outside temperature of minus 10, it got quite disheartening at times. When it did, I looked out of the window at Mont Blanc, and thought of the daily M25 traffic jam. It's funny, but life didn't seem /that/ bad whenever I did that......

Be prepared for a massive drop in income in the worst case; but enjoy each new experience and build on it.

Use the Internet like it was your only friend; this forum is only one of a quadzillion sources of information.

Good luck!