What is it like to live in France?

[getting there]

I've been toying with the idea of moving there with my daughter for a couple of years now and am finally gonna start looking into it.

[Millymollymandy]

I wouldn't know where to start to answer your question! There's so much to living and working in any new country. Your best bet is to buy a book on the subject.

Can I ask why you want to move from NZ? There's also the problem with being allowed to live there if you are a NZ citizen - even more red tape and no guarantees that they'll let you in!

And then of course there's the language to contend with! And dreadful unemployment - that's for the French. Chances of getting a job as a non French are ten times worse unless you want to work in an abbatoir, and even then you need to speak enough French to get by. Starting your own business is costly and more than half of what you earn goes in social charges. It's really better if you are retired - and with the new rules about state medical care for the early retired, you need to be retired and over the retirement age!

[getting there]

Hmmm... maybe it is as bad as the news makes out then.

New Zealand is great and a wonderful place to live and an excellent place to raise a family. No matter where I went in the world I would always come back here eventually.

This is going to sound silly but I've always wanted to see the world and planned to do it as an au pair then I made some silly mistakes. Now I have a daughter and I really want to raise her bilingual english/french. The one person in town who is fluent in french won't teach me or her. I figured France borders with several other countries...

you can see I haven't thought it through properly lol.

[Chickenlady]

How about Canada?

(Just a thought!)

[Martin]

never understood the antipodeans......New Zealand is a wonderful, beautiful, relatively unspoilt country, why do they all clutter off globetrotting?

[getting there]

Chickenlady I have thought of moving to New brunswick. I qualify on their points system I think Canada's landscape is gorgeous too.

Martin we go globe trotting to see other places. Many countries share a border with at least one other country so it's relatively easy if they want to see another country whereas for us the nearest country is a three hour plane flight away. We also do it because of massive student loans and other countries offer much better pay. And we also do it to appreciate just how good it really is in NZ

[hamster]

France is the only country in the world where you can do an internet search for a casserole dish and come up with a DVD of 'Chicken Run'!

You have to fill in 10,000 forms just to open a bank account, but the goat's cheese is cheap. Wine is excellent, tea is terrible, coffee isn't as good as they think it is and public transport is very good and very cheap. Show an interest in speaking French and people will be 10 times nicer to you.

I've only lived in Paris (and Lyon for a while) and if you wanted to live somewhere else or somewhere rural it would probably be very different though.

[mrsflibble]

I can agree with the showing interest in speaking french thing. Also, outside of the big cities like lyon, nice, marseilles, paris etc the people are incredibly friendly and helpful.

[theabsinthefairy]

Been here in rural France for nearly a year and LOVE IT.

as they say 'je ne regret rien'....


It is easy to sit on the sidelines and listen to people's tales of woe of French red tape and hassle with the language, but until you try it you will never know.

However, any sort of move has to take into consideration a huge variety of factors and will influence whether you will be happy. Not least of all your expectations of another country and what it is you feel you want to move away from, and what you think you will gain from the move.

Best wishes Monika

[chadspad]

We have been here for just over 3 years and absolutely love it The French are super friendly and where we are is so safe for my son - its like living in the olden days sometimes. M3 is right about the horrors of the work situation altho my hubby has been employed all the time we have been here - thru an agency working in a factory (with very little French language when he started), the Cheque D'Emploi system doing DIY and now as a self-employed gardener. It is definitely worth looking into tho.

I would recommend France to everyone!

[Millymollymandy]

Unfortunately I don't find the French very friendly at all! Some of them are just downright grumps.

Also we're looking at it from the point of view of someone moving from New Zealand, so there's no point going on about the lovely quiet roads (much quieter there). As for friendly people, you can't get any friendlier than the Kiwis so the French would seem quite reserved and unfriendly in comparison. Can't wax lyrical about cheap housing here either as I expect it is more expensive than NZ!

I've been in France over 10 years so there's nothing here that excites me at all (though of course I did love my first few years here). I wouldn't live here any more if I had lots of dosh so I could have a similar property in the English countryside.

I do think it is a fab country to holiday in though - and of course there is the history and lovely old buildings, that you don't have in NZ, so there's a plus point there!

[chickens]

We have been here for 8 years and yes there are disadvantages - being self employed is very expensive as the charges are astranomical and you can work all the hours god sends but end up with very little (as unfortunately we found out), employment is difficult even when you do speak fluent french
BUT and this part is very important we think
our children have had excellent education
our children and ourselves feel secure and safe (very little crime)
the healthcare is incredible

because being self employed is so dear we have taken the plunge this year to try and go completely self sufficient (obviously selling some of our produce to help pay bills you cant avoid)

Moving to france is excellent provided your eyes are open to the advantages and disadvantages

Good luck with whatever you decide...

[theabsinthefairy]

Hi chickens - whereabouts in France are you?

[oldfella]

I have lived in France for close to 20 years now and I can only tell my experiences. I live in a very small community on the borders of the Lot and the Dordogne. I arrived here with a 12 yr old daughter and speaking no French and knowing no one here. I was married at the time but owing to contract difficulties my wife was unable to travel with us. This made things a little hard for at that time there very few English folk (in fact I lived here for 2yrs before I met one) The house we had bought had been empty for 4 years and neglected so the brambles around the house were up to roof level I spent hours just trying to clear them to enable me to open the windows. On the 3rd day at 6 in the morning I heard a tractor and some machine outside the house (which I must tell you frighten the live out me) I stuck my head out window to see a some chap driving around the house and the field outside the back door cutting down everything in his path, brambles, grass, bushes you name it he cut it.
When I got outside he waved and shouted something, what I don't know, but as he was nearly finished he waved again, shouted again, and drove off down the road. In twenty minutes he had done what would have taken me four or five days to do and I had never seen the man before.
That day I had arranged to go to the local college to enroll my daughter into class, (this was going to be difficult I thought) when we arrived at the college the Headmaster took us into his office bought in tea yes that's right tea and in really good English explained that as Keira my daughter spoke no french he wanted to put her into a small class with young Arab children to learn French, and explained that she would be there for 6 months and then be put into college. She was to start the following Monday and the school bus would pick her outside the house at 8 o'clock. So that problem solved and no pain; But I like many other, thought that all the problems came with the french forms and looking for work and, as at that time you had to have a Residents Permit and that required marriage certificate, birth certificate, mothers birth certificate and they all had to be translated into in French, so, this was going to be HELL


I realize that this tome which I started to write, to explain my love for France and her people was due to me watching the news on Sky TV news tonight and the report regarding the young and the drink problem which I find so sad when I see the closeness of families and the respect that the young folk show to people in my neck of the woods. So if if you would like me to tell you the rest of my story let me know, and if there overwhelming interest I will write more;

[Annpan]

Please do write more