Spain or Portugal or France?

[southeast-isher]

Anyone over there? Would love to ish out there. Can anyone offer any inspirational comments? Thanks.

[Millymollymandy]

I'm in France. What do you want to know? Do you want to move to one of these countries?

[southeast-isher]

Yes i really would love to move to one of these countires.

[eccentric_emma]

Hi, I just did WWOOFing (www.wwoof.org) / HelpX (www.helpx.org) in Spain - Alpujarras Region and Portugal - Coimbra Region and it was great. Hot but really relaxing and inspirational and nothing seemed like hard work in such beautiful surroundings.

[southeast-isher]

Wwoofing looks very good - what sort of farm were you working on? What sorts of things were you doing there?

[Clara]

I'm a wwoof host in Las Alpujarras and my house is for sale.

Please ask what you would like to know. I think self-sufficiency is infinitely more doable here than in the UK as there are fewer restrictions and cost of living is much lower (for example I pay less than 9 euros a year in council tax!!).

[Millymollymandy]

However in France property taxes can be sky high (we pay about €1200 a year) and the restrictions made England look like a doddle! No selling things at your gate here or on market stalls unless you register as a business to do those things, and that's a very costly business indeed.

There's a huge amount to be taken into consideration when considering a move to another country - not least the language which is REALLY important to learn, and then how will you find work? Unless you are retired when it would be a lot easier except you must take into account the exchange rate fluctuations if you have a pension paid in Sterling. Also it is worth noting that France is not cheap, never was, it is only cheaper for property here. Food and toiletries are astronomically expensive compared to the UK.

It would really be worth taking some months off and touring around the countries that you are interested in moving to.

[southeast-isher]

Thanks all of you. Yes Milly lots of things i need to consider instead of jumping in at the deepend. Maybe i will take some time off within the next couple of months to get out there and see for myself some of these places again with a different outlook what with what i am now considering.

Clara, i love your property - really is a dream place for me. If only i had the finances for it right now!