Returning From Living in France?

[Doofus]

There seem to be a few threads on this matter of late.

We're beginning to plan our permanent move from UK to France (having owned a second home there for almost 20 years). I'm now interested in the drivers causing other people to leave France.

I know there has been some loss and grief which is no doubt a big reason, but are there any other things we should be considering that are causing others to move away? As I said, we've had a place there (87/24/16) for ages, but a couple of months at a time isn't the same as living there full-time.

[Doofus]

Of course, a major life event, and being left alone will be really hard, but we can't plan for those.

Winter in France can be harsh (although we've never done it ), but we'll be keeping a property in the UK - where the weather is usually miserable for seven months of the year anyway.

[Doofus]

Mr Magooagain said:

I can only speak for myself and my wife. We’ve been here well over 20 years. I’m just coming into retirement from construction now but my wife is still working as a bus driver for a large company that gets the lion’s share of school transport in our region.
We’re both integrated into French local life but my wife more so than me. She was a member of our commune council until Brexit! We still both do some volunteer stuff for the commune but I would say less than before.
We like our own private space so don’t crave to sit in a town square watching the limited world go by.

I’ve got plenty and more to keep me busy for the rest of my life here. I had 44 years in the uk and I’m hoping for the same here.

We are both French speakers but I don’t care if I speak it on a daily basis or not. We’ve got some French people we know well but I wouldn’t call them friends, same with other nationalities.
Plenty of frustrating things happen but no more than it would be in the uk.

Speaking the lingo is key really as if you haven’t got that you’re on the road back to Blighty at some point.

I don’t think we’re trapped here. But for sure I wouldn’t be able to buy back what I left in the uk in 2002 , but that’s because of divorce reasons back then.

It seems as though some have come here and Spain possibly, and spunked their money with no plan for the future.

We've certainly known Brits who moved to France in the early 2000s when the exchange rate was well in their favour, and got into a real mess when it went bad in 2007-8.

We speak French, and don't need to work or rely on either the UK or the French governments, so feel insulated from those concerns. I know there are administrative ball-aches, but we think those are at least equalled by the things we consider undesirable about life in the UK.

When we're in France we don't miss anything about the UK (apart from grown-up breakfast cereal), so we're pretty confident.

[Doofus]

The house we own is rural, but we'll be selling that and buying something in/on the edge of a small town where everything is potentially within walking distance and the Pompiers are fewer than 30 minutes away.

In theory that will future-proof the place for us (I'm 55 this year and my wife's a couple of years older), and also improve saleability when/if the time comes.