General Meeting with other Barchetta clubs. france

[KC3]

Hello all,

Now that we have Pascal , new member to the forum and moderator/organiser of Bclubfrance , be great to try and arrange a super gettogether. trip to france maybe.

 

[Richpea]

Hello all,

Now that we have Pascal , new member to the forum and moderator/organiser of Bclubfrance , be great to try and arrange a super gettogether. trip to france maybe.

Sounds good. Driving in France is superb, great scenery and relatively empty roads. Mind you last year I did pick up a 90 Euro speeding fine and it seems you are breathalyzed as a matter of routine. Hoping to sell my UK home soon so as to live permanently in South West France.

 

[Shelxs]

Sounds good. Driving in France is superb, great scenery and relatively empty roads. Mind you last year I did pick up a 90 Euro speeding fine and it seems you are breathalyzed as a matter of routine. Hoping to sell my UK home soon so as to live permanently in South West France.

Do you have an area in mind? Round where my Mum and Dad live is beautiful. Quite near Montcuq, Tarn et Garonne. You have to be careful how you pronounce Montcuq!!

xS

 

[Richpea]

Do you have an area in mind? Round where my Mum and Dad live is beautiful. Quite near Montcuq, Tarn et Garonne. You have to be careful how you pronounce Montcuq!!

xS

Tarn is lovely. We are looking to be within an hour or so of Toulouse airport so as to make it easier for me to come back to the UK on business every six weeks or so as alas still have to work. Love the villages around Lannemazan and a view of the Pyrenees whilst having my evening Pernod on the patio would be ideal!

 

[BIKER-BITZ]

We are about 3 hours North of Toulouse and if anyone wants to stop on the way down (or back).

Fantastic roads, fantastic food, fantastic wine, fantastic people......




.......... in fact just FANTASTIC

 

[barcaba]

Where are you in the Dordogne BB? We do the Barcelona-Normandy run a few times each year (and the Barcelona-UK run a few times as well) and if we are in my B or on Mr. B's bike, we normally stop overnight somewhere between Toulouse and Limoges...

I love driving my B is France, especially in the South. People seem to really like it,lots of waving etc (and no, its not my driving....). The other day, someone pulled out to overtake me on the motorway between Narbonne and Perpignan and, when they didn't seem to surge ahead, I looked across to see that father was holding his car at my speed so that his daughter could take a photo of my car!!

 

[LittleRedB]

I love the Languedoc-Roussillon region, we have a friend with a house in St Nazaire just outside Perpignan and try to get down there when we can, in fact this is their place;

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=perpignan&countryCode=GB#map=42.67002,2.98777|20|32&loc=FR:42.67001:2.98746:20|perpignan|

I would move tomorrow but wifey is having none of it (yet, she is gradually getting more and more disillusioned with the UK - I am just going to keep chipping away at her!!)....

KC, excellent idea!

 

[BIKER-BITZ]

Hi BARCABA,

We are about 1 hour south of Limoges - see the link below for full details.

It would be great to see you and the roads around here are great.

Lots of places to visit and explore, or just chill-out.

Cheers

Glynn

 

[Robot]

I would move tomorrow but wifey is having none of it

I thought you wanted to move to Cornhole




...or was it Cornwall

 

[LittleRedB]

I thought you wanted to move to Cornhole




...or was it Cornwall

If we stay in the UK I would like to move further towards the South coast, I love Cornwall but there is no way she would move that far, might get away with Dorset and maybe even Devon!

I am a little disillusioned with life in the UK and would hope across the channel to the South of France tomorrow if I could!

 

[Robot]

Might it not just be a case of the grass being greener on the other side? I'm sure you'd be just as disillusioned after a few years no matter where you moved. The weather would most likely be an improvement though

 

[LittleRedB]

Might it not just be a case of the grass being greener on the other side? I'm sure you'd be just as disillusioned after a few years no matter where you moved. The weather would most likely be an improvement though

Grass might appear greener, on the other hand it might actually be greener!!!

It's not just the cost of living in the UK (and especially in the Thames Valley where I live), its also the pace of life and the level of one-one-upmanship!

The thing that always hits me in the South of France and to a lesser extent Dorset, Devon and Cornwall is the fact it is a lot more social centric than where we are currently living (actually we live in a village with a real sense of community but everyone seems to live to work)..............

The pace of life in the Thames Valley is quick, its a very materialistic place to live - a lot of value is given to the number of bedrooms your house has, the age and badge on your car etc - stress levels are high, tempers are short and I have lost quite a few friends of colleagues to stress related illnesses over the past 5 years!

It really hit me last year when we drove back from Perpignan! Despite being Brit's we got on very well with everyone in the village we stayed in - on a couple of occasions were invited in for a glass of wine. People on the road were not aggressive and actually let you in while queuing in traffic, not everyone was driving a new BMW or Merc and because of that nobody really cared about visible material stuff............I like nice things because I like nice things, I have friends who have expensive nice 'stuff' because their friends do!

I think there is a lot to be said for quality of living over the standard of living - and the two are often mixed up!!

 

[Richpea]

I think you are right about the quality of life in France but perhaps not about Devon & Cornwall.
I owned property in very rural Devon for many years and also lived there permanently for about 7 years. 25 years ago it was lovely and certainly different to the London area. Now it is busy, house prices have rocketed up wards and I fear that the region will have problems soon. For example, my son who lives in North Devon, despite running a successful business, is really struggling to find an affordable home to buy. He is on the point of resigning to the fact that he will not be able to do so, at least for a long time. One reason could be that as London gets more expensive and crowded it expands more and more into the countryside. Also, there are a large number of houses used as holiday homes by wealthy people from London and the Midlands as weekend retreats and the roads are clogged up by their ridiculous BMW X5's, Landcruisers and the like. The scenery is fabulous in the West County but I do feel that so far as the quality of life is concerned it is pretty much the same as the rest of the UK.
I travel to the West Country on business regularly, was there yesterday, and really have noticed huge changes over the last 25 years or so, mostly for the worse which is a real shame.
Life is what you make it, wherever you live.

 

[RnRollie]

I'v said this before i think, but do not underestimate the culture shock, it is still quite a different thing between going on a (long) holiday somewhere and actually going to live and work there (and struggle with the local bureaucracy and regional corruption and law and social rules)... anywhere you go.
While there is a lot of positive testimony from/about people who actually went away, you have to keep in mind that people also not readily admit that it might have been a mistake...

oh, it all depends on mindset... wherever i lay my hat is my home... but it surely helps if besides that hat you also have the savings that will see you through the first settling-in year... or through the struggling 5 years later when the homesickness kicks in big time or the kids going "why are we living in a daft boring place? and not in brilliant britain?"

Anyways, for those looking towards more social and rural places to live... there is always Norfolk or the Shetlands ... they are all one big family
Keep in mind that in some of those more sociable places even your greatgrandchildren will still be "not from around here"

But i advise anybody to at least try it once, to go and work and live abroad for a few years... Just do not overdo the hooking up with other local expats, you'll only end up with imperial snobberism in the local gentlemans club

 

[LittleRedB]

You are of course both right - I have been going to Cornwall for 20 years now and am amazed at the changes that have taken place. I know Mullion very well and about 10-12 years ago the local economy collapsed on itself, shops closed and it become a very deserted place - a few years ago things picked up again but only because people out of the area moved there to get away from things and opened shops and eateries!

I think I could adjust to the South of France (as could the kids), of course home-sickness is not something you can cure and everyone would suffer from it but the balance of life is much better and more focussed towards family and friends.

There is no doubt that Devon and Cornwall have suffered very badly from people in London and the Thames Valley investing in property down there that remains empty for most of the year, I have a number of friends with second or third properties down there that they use maybe twice a year, the rest of the time they remain empty!

The market difference with Devon/Cornwall and to some extent Dorset is the one-upmanship that is so prevalent in the Thames Valley and London - also there is much more of a sense of community.

As Rich rightly points out life is what you make of it, you can spend far too long thinking about what you don't have or what someone else has that you want - there is always someone worse off that you!!