"A tiny French village with just a boulangerie and cheap wine in the cafe sounds wonderful - the reality is usually an uncomfortable experience for a foreigner to adapt to - and the cafe wine is never cheap and always very bad. Find a village full of ex-pats and you are approaching my personal idea of a nightmare not a dream (braying, boasting, bonking and barbecues). "
Are you sure you want to make the move? For a real world look at what life in France is about, I thoroughly recommend Tony Tidswell's FranceVoila blog and newsletters. As he says "More than a decade and a half ago my wife and I came to live in France with our two very small children. We got married in France and our three children have grown up as French citizens.
We left England because I believed that the "quality of life" for a family would be better - and my conclusion - we were right. Raising a family in a rural village in the South of France is a positive thing and has benefited us all.
Sixteen years of struggle, making a living and raising three kids is enough time to begin to see how things really are - the "rose tinted specs" have gone and our experiences in creating a home, surviving and dealing with life in an environment very different to the one we came from, gives us some insight.
We have had our problems, we are and always will be, immigrants, foreigners, strangers in a strange land, ex-pats and outsiders. But this is our home. What I say in this newsletter is from the heart and meant to help, I am delighted to be contradicted - it makes me think deeper about the reasons we live in France. I am happy to change my opinion - if some positive criticism persuades me to. "
Read more at www.francevoila.com
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