Calling any OSers living in France

floss2

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Mioliere your blog is making me very envious. :T

Ooh, please would you PM me details, Mioliere? Thank you!

Norman_Bean

Mioliere - ah yes, choice!! That's the best thing about British supermarkets :T
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I have to smile at this Norman. I was in Normandy in July and was blown away by the choice available in French supermarkets and in the street markets. It seemed to me that there was far more choice of real foods -cheese, meat, fish, fruit and veg, bread than in UK supermarkets. In UK supermarkets the choice is vast if you want ready meals, confectionary and crisps.

I did find prices high though except for wine which was a lot cheaper.[/QUOTE]

Really? I suppose maybe cheese but I'm from Birmingham so all the supermarkets were huge with loads of choice. I don't buy ready meals or crips etc so don't know about those.
I often see a recipe in a magazine that I fancy trying but can't because I can't get hold of half the ingredients here.
Norman x

thriftlady_2

But you can buy all sorts of different cuts of meat, offal and game in the supermarket (the one I'm thinking of was a small 'Shopi'), the deli counter had all those lovely charcuterie items-rillettes and pates, and the fish selection in an Intermarche was amazing -cockles, whelks, live lobsters and crabs swimming about in a tank. The salad stuff was beautiful- all sorts of different lettuces with the earth still on them, fruit juice too came in an amazing variety. I loved it!

Norman_Bean

:rotfl:true there is a great selection of fish. I buy my meat in bulk from the butcher which is better value than the supermarket.
I guess when we're on holiday we don't do a 'proper' shop, I pick and choose what is cheaper in the UK and when someone is on holiday in France the supermarket/market is a big part of the experience.
So glad you enjoyed Normandy - make sure you tell your friends
Norman x

mioliere

Hi Floss and Norman Bean

Thanks for your interest in my blog. Just click into my name at the side of my posts, and go to 'visit Mioliere's Homepage'. I only started the blog recently, using Weebly as the host, but I've struggled with it, and have just transferred it over to Blogger. It's a bit disjointed at the moment, though, but I will tidy it up soon! I have some more renovating photos to post, too, so watch that space!

Norman Bean - are you renovating a property? Would love to know what your life is like in your corner of France!

ladymarmalade

Hi I lived not far from Rouen from September 08-april 09 and I was shocked at how much miney i needed to spend to survive!

Here, for me and my boyfriend, we eat lovely nice fresh food:salmon, steak, lamb etc and we spend no more than £50 a week.

In france I lved on my own and I spent between 30 and 40 euros each week and my meal tickets for my school meals as a teacher...and the food I was eating was not as nice as what i eat at home....I was vey shocked!!!!

Norman_Bean

Mioliere - fab blog - the house looks gorgeous! Do you have much more to do? We've renovated a property but have now run out of money so still loads needs doing but the main stuff (electrics, heating) are done.
I love it here - but still really miss my mates - not sure if we're allowed to chat in a thread or not? but woud love to hear your tips and take on things x

Ladymarmalade - that's another expnsive thing - lunch in the canteen for the girls is €4 each per day! They have lunch at home the majority of the time (rubber chicken etc of course!) as it's too expensive in the canteen.

mioliere

Hi Norman

Thanks for your lovely comments about my blog. We still have loads to do - we bought the house four years ago, and just made three or four trips out here a year to work on it (well, my DH does most of the work - luckily, it's his line of work; I would never have taken such a huge project on if he couldn't do most of it!).

We moved over here lock, stock and barrel, in March this year. Most of the important basics have been done. We installed central heating and re-wired (although the electrics are an ongoing work-in-progress as we open up more of the house). We had to have a new fosse septique installed (a bit like digging a huge hole in the back garden and throwing €7,000 into it!).

When we first bought the house, the loo was in a great big room with a leaky ceiling - at its worst we had eleven buckets catching the drips during heavy rain.We've now turned that room into three - a big hall, a utility room and a downstairs bathroom. We put in a new kitchen (but that's not finished yet, we have a ceiling to take down in the dining room bit - a project that will be started this week, so I've been told!) and the units will be re-arranged, a door will be blocked off, and I've been promised a walk-in pantry. At the front of the house, we have converted another huge room into a hall, with an office to one side. We opened up into the attic space - previously accessed by a rickety outside staircase, so we had to put a new staircase in and form a new landing which leads into two bedrooms. We have more attic space next to that bit which we will break into next year and make two more bedroom en-suites (funds, time and energy permitting!). We don't have a proper sitting room yet; we have an old sofa, my PC, and the TV in the dining area of the kitchen at the moment - really handy for the kettle! The sitting room is another work-in-progress. It's a huge room but needs a lot of work - we've just had some brick piers made in there ready for a new floor - the existing one is just earth at the moment! That room will be vaulted because the beams are wonderful in there - that part of the house is at least 400 years old.

The whole house was a farmhouse originally - the farm owned the whole of the hamlet, but that now has around twenty-five houses and bungalows in it. We bought the house and around two acres for less than £50,000 - we would never in a million years have been able to afford that in the UK. You get a lot for your money here, don't you?! We've sold some of the land off as a building plot, and have planning permission for another two plots which are currently up for sale. Our local Mairie is very keen on developing the hamlet so was more than happy to rubber-stamp our plans. Even when all the plots have been sold, we still have a huge garden - but that's another project! It's been very challenging here but we are gradually settling in. The worst part for me is that I miss my family dreadfully - my Mum has just moved to be nearer to my sister so I wish I was closer to her now that she is less independent, plus I have two sons who are married to lovely girls, and between them they have given me three grandchildren (one only born eight weeks ago) and I really really miss them. We were back in the UK in August, when the new baby was born, and I really could have stayed there! My only consolation is that it's not too far away, and they will start visiting next year. We will go back as often as we can.

My only gripe here is that I think the French driving is appalling, really appalling! Only last week I watched someone get halfway round a roundabout and do a u-turn on it! Oh, and France Telecom who took eight weeks to get me online! Apart from that, I love the peace and quiet. We live next to a lovely farm, have wonderful neighbours (all French - we are the only English people in the village!), we are in the countryside yet just five minutes drive from a town which has everything we need, and, apart from the drivers here, the roads are congestion-free, even in the French rush hour! Plus there are lovely places to visit, including vineyards!

Haven't I rambled on - well, you did ask! I'd love to hear about your life in your part of the country!

Kathy

Norman_Bean

Wow! Sounds like a massive project but it'll be amazing when it's finished.
Great idea to sell off plots to fund the project.
We will have been in France two years at Christmas - the first year we rented and then moved into our 'forever' house last Christmas.
I really like the French way of life - we lead a much more chilled and basic life here and it's so nice not to be caught up in all the consumerism and spending that we were in Birmingham.
We basically moved here because of our children - I wanted to carry on being at home with them and there was no way we could afford to get a bigger house in the UK even if I went back to work. We wanted to bring them up in a more rural environment and we now live in a large 3 bedroom (one day 4! :rolleyes:) detached house in a hamlet. The garden is plenty large enough for us but certainly not the acres that others seem to have but is perfect for us - I am going to start a veg patch next year and get a few chickens (predictable? moi!?)
Our area to live was/is dictated by where my H found a job - we thought it'd take ages as we had so many specific requirements for location: within 4 hours of Calais, small market town, NOT Paris etc etc but he found a job within two months so it was all quite hectic.
I miss my friends and family and the naturalness of having a conversation in english but my French has really improved and I can easily get by with day to day conversations but I want to jump up to the next level now and become fluent - not sure if it'll ever happen but I am practicing every lunch time with my H and children so hopefully one day!
How's your French?
It's great to hear how others get on and what they're doing - I'm looking forward to swapping OS tips in the future x Do you know if there any other FOS?
Speak soon
Norman x
ps: probably won't get on here much today as it's Wednesday (worst day of the week!!!!)

morganlefay

We have a v small cottage near Bergerac in the Dordogne. have had it for 19 years We let it in summer and that pays for all overheads (or used to - it's getting so that we only just break even because of the weak pound versus the Euro now). Now my OH has retired we go there more often and spent 8 weeks there this summer. had planned to move there permanently when he retired but now have a granddaughter in London and couldn't bear not to see her and her Mum regularly. This summer we found food had gone up a lot, but I managed to be quite economical by taking the remoska and eating lots more veggie things, with meat as a treat. Also we stopped going out (to very modest places ) at dinner time and went at lunchtime instead. This often gives a real bargain - lots of French people eating their big meal then, sometimes no choice, but often with wine included. I love France, but I would miss England too. One thing we really liked there was that no one seemed to be obsessing about swine flu - I've had hay fever or an allergy all summer and sneezed a lot, and each time I did it here some bright spark would say 'I hope that's not swine flu' - no one said anything in France !
Really interested to hear other people's experiences of France - good thread !! :T