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Vanessa

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 07 6:11 pm Post subject:

Welcome to France! Top tips from me for learning the lingo (we've been here just over a year) - have ONLY French TV, and watch it with the subtitles on ... and get out there and just talk to the neighbours, however badly! They'll appreciate you're making the effort, and will comment on how you're improving after a while.

We're in the Correze, about 50k south of Limoges ... so about 140k south of MadMonk

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 07 6:39 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the watching tv with subtitles tip - I will try that once I can wrestle the box back from my rugby mad OH. I have already taken the step of talking to neighbours, mums at the bus stop, market stall owners etc etc. I've also joined the library and have french radio on in the car. To learn words I've taken to doing the crossword in the local paper (assisted by french and english dictionaries, french thesaurus and french verb conjuating book) - that way I get to look up lots of words, their meanings and their synonyms - some weeks I even get about half of them right.

Vanessa

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 07 8:14 pm Post subject:
I'm impressed with the crossword bit! WOW!!

NannyP

Joined: 26 Aug 2005
Posts: 118
Location: Vienne, France

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 6:19 am Post subject:
Oh blimey, I've been here 15 months and you won't find me being so good with a crossword I played online Scrabble (one game) in French the other day....boy it was tough. Welcome to France....you sound like you're here for good I am in Vienne, about a couple of hours from Vanessa, a little nearer to madmonk and a long way from you. 40 mins South of Poitiers.

Vanessa

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 6:48 am Post subject:
I love this "virtual map" that's being "drawn" here. How far we are from each other ... it's cool

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 7:05 am Post subject:

vanessa wrote:

I'm impressed with the crossword bit!

WOW!!

Only managed about 20% this week mind you and that took me a couple of hours. I do now know that R�a is some type of animal fodder, avide is greed, ferrure is iron and troc is to swap. Whether I will ever remember these is a different matter - it is not often one gets to say I'm greedy so can I swap this iron for some animal feed!

As for working out where we all live I am off to find a France Map - we have friends in Poitiers but have not visited yet and do not really know where it is.

So what is everyone doing out here? We are going to set up eco-gites - green holiday homes for sustainable holidays - looking forward to learning the french for "is it locally sourced/recycled?, what is it's carbon footprint? and do you do discounts?" Wish us luck.....

Anders

Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Posts: 317

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 9:07 am Post subject:

We are not even "here" yet, - but we'll move over as soon as we can. At present we just visit our place when we've got time, - cut grass, prune trees, collect firewood, we even got one of the barn roofs fixed last time we were over.
Last summer we managed a little bit of a downsizer meet while we were there, really nice and it cleared out our surplus of schnaps. Maybe we should have another one next year. Also went for a visit to see Zoe, Simon and the sprogs. Nice stay. We kipped in their gite and had great home-made bacon for breakfast.
Next time we'll see if we can locate madmonk.

See ya,

Anders

RoryD

Joined: 02 Jun 2005
Posts: 692
Location: West Yorkshire

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 10:08 am Post subject:

We were in Antibes/Nice last weekend. If we sidestep the irresponsibility of having a 4 day break (flights carbon footprint etc its our first in 4 years because of the kids and we just wanted to have a quick break and sip some nice coffee and talk like adults I thought we were sidestepping this ).....

We loved the climate, the quality of the fresh produce, the patiserrie the butchery, the non boozy but nice culture, watching the rugby in the square, the climate (again) wandering around in shorts & t's in September the familyness. Well just about everything really. We could presumably move to vast chunks of France for less money than it costs us here.

But it is ( I think the family thing that holds us back. How did you get over that and are we wrong to make that so important in our decision making? My Mum and oh's M+D would be heartbroken i think if we moved away. Work i think I could do as I mostly work online at the moment. We have a great circle of close friends here too, a really great support network, and we'd leave that all behind. But can i really do that to my Mum?

So, the question to you French D'sers is how did you get over the family/friends thing?

Anders

Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Posts: 317

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 10:41 am Post subject:
The main problem about family last summer was that they all wanted to come and stay! We could have done with a week off, haha.

Vanessa

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 12:32 pm Post subject:

You get over the family thing when things in your existing life push you hard enough!

My parents are both in their 80s, and although we lived 2 hours away, we visited often to do little jobs for them and cheer them up. My mum is one of my best friends. MOHs mum is widowed, but 10 years younger than my parents; however, MOH is almost as close to his mother as I am to mine.

Then there are our children. Mine are grown up (early 20s), his are younger and live with their mother. My daughter is another of my best friends - and although MOHs kids never lived with us, they stayed most weekends.

So, the wrench was always going to be a biggie!! We planned to move over 10 years after buying the property - but we moved after just 2.

Why?

Because too many things got in the way of life. I was being badly bullied at work, had had loads of time off, and simply couldn't face returning. MOH was fed up with his new job which didn't really turn out how he thought it was going to, and the house we'd planned to buy ... well, basically it would have been a money-pit. One evening, MOH just said "what are we doing? Why don't we just go and live in France?" ... and that was that!

Sure, we miss the family, but we see them from time to time, and ring / chat online all the time. We could be further away in terms of travelling time and still live on mainland UK ...

So there you have it ... from our point of view, anyway.

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 7:20 pm Post subject:

RoryD wrote:

But it is ( I think the family thing that holds us back. How did you get over that and are we wrong to make that so important in our decision making? My Mum and oh's M+D would be heartbroken i think if we moved away. Work i think I could do as I mostly work online at the moment. We have a great circle of close friends here too, a really great support network, and we'd leave that all behind. But can i really do that to my Mum?

So, the question to you French D'sers is how did you get over the family/friends thing?

My OH's parents are both dead and mine lived the other side of the country to me and we never saw them that regularly (we are actually closer now we are in France!). Other members of our families were already in far flung parts of the UK and Ireland and most of out contact was by email and SKYPE which just carries on now we are over here. Friends also keep in touch this way and only being in Normandy makes week-end visits very easy for them.

Our children are only 4 and 5 which is the perfect age for learning a new language and making friends (which they are achieving admirably). So with all the positive benefits you mentioned the decision was not a hard one. Go with your gut feeling and remember that the world is now a much smaller place thanks to technology and transport improvments.

ejc-free

Joined: 19 Jan 2005
Posts: 117
Location: Near to Cerizay in la Belle France

Posted: Mon Oct 01, 07 10:20 am Post subject:
Welcome to France, we're in Deux Sevres & have been here since January, I know we're still in the honeymoon phase, but we love it.

RoryD

Joined: 02 Jun 2005
Posts: 692
Location: West Yorkshire

Posted: Mon Oct 01, 07 10:28 am Post subject:

Green Rosie wrote:

RoryD wrote:

Gut feeling is that its not really fair on other people.

Thanks anyhow

Merlinn

Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 27
Location: Limousin, France

Posted: Mon Oct 01, 07 12:03 pm Post subject:
Welcome to France, we live in 87, Haute Vienne. Ours is a tiny hamlet with 8 residents, one of which is a woman!! Merlinn

Merlinn

Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 27
Location: Limousin, France

Posted: Mon Oct 01, 07 12:03 pm Post subject:
Welcome to France, we live in 87, Haute Vienne. Ours is a tiny hamlet with 8 residents, one of which is a woman!! Merlinn

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