Dear John and Harriet

I have this morning read with great interest your website and some of the responses.

Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on the very useful, informative and well presented information and views.

It sounds as though you have lead a very interesting life; full of exciting and different experiences, and that for me, is what it has to all be about at the end of the day.

As a family we came to France in May 2003. Stuart and I have 4 children: Harriet (12), Oliver (nearly 10) Lewis (7) and Spencer (just 5). We were living in S E London (Dulwich) and had taken the children out of school a couple of years before coming to France to home-educate them. This in itself was an enjoyable and rewarding experience and we met some very interesting families doing the same. Having stepped outside the "norm" the decision to enjoy an experience of living in France for a while was relatively uncomplicated. We decided to use our savings, come for a 6 month adventure to see if we thought it might be something we would like to investigate further or just return and say "that was fun".

As things turned out I responded to an advert to renovate a farm house for someone (an English person) in exchange for rent free accommodation. Stuart is a plasterer and after a visit to view the property we were "selected" to carry out the works! The accommodation was the property that needed renovating - when we arrived there was no water, no sanitation, only a supply of electricity from the barn, 2 rooms downstairs, and a large open space with a very leaky roof upstairs. Stuart rigged up a toilet in the chicken shed (bucket with wooden surround and proper toilet seat) and this was it for 4 weeks. It was 4 months before there was running water in the house so we had occasional showers at the local campsite and the rest of the time showered outside under a hosepipe connected to the one outside tap - fortunately due to the incredibly hot summer last year this became almost a pleasure! We all slept in the same room for 5 months and washing up was a long drawn out process of heating water on our camping stove, washing up in a bowl then emptying water outside - I hadn't realised before how much for granted we take the most basic of things such as a kitchen sink, let alone running water!

The "project" was initially for 6 months but due to delays that were not to do with us (new roof, fosse sceptic, plumbing) the rest of the renovation works took longer, but eventually we transformed the old farmhouse that hadn't been lived in for over 30 years from a 2 room wreck with nothing in it into a beautiful house with: 4 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs; a living room with woodburner; fitted new windows doors, and fully insulated and electrically wired the entire house. Many people thought we were mad to do this for nothing (payment being rent-free accommodation- but then who would pay rent to live in the conditions described above!) However it suited us at the time to gain an incite into French living; in the security that we still had our house in UK to return to should we want. It also gave us time to sort out things like Carte de Sejours (no longer needed apparently) and get registered with the Chambre de Metiers - all of which took the best part of 6 months.

I could write pages in connection with the "project" we undertook and the ensuing events (including a summons to the Gendarmerie) but there lies another story........all I shall say is we have decided we would like to stay in France, but not in the house we renovated!

So, we made the decision to buy a small property of our own; sell our place in UK; and here we are happily living, working and enjoying life in France. As I write this, Stuart is in the process of replacing our roof with the help of 2 French friends (one is a Gendarme who is actually on holiday!). The other, interestingly has 3 children who are being home-educated (quite unusual in France) and I spend one afternoon a week with his children playing English games, singing songs and having fun!

Our children are coping well at school despite the initial reservations and desire to continue with home-educating (not practical because they need to integrate and learn the language if we are living here).

Stuart is legitimate here in France and is paying all his social dues - and yes they are a lot, but I think they are in UK too! We have had plenty of grumbles about French bureaucracy, administration, and if I started I could probably go on for ages about education!! But then don't we all grumble about these things in UK too! On the other hand there are plenty of positive things about life here in France - just as there were in UK!

Plenty of our French friends ask us "why" have we moved to France and I can't say there is any single reason for doing so. We had a happy life in UK, we liked our home, our friends, Stuart had plenty of work etc etc etc. Now we are enjoying a happy life in France, and are enjoying making new friends, learning a new language and renovating our new house. We have not come to France to leave negative things behind, nor have we come to France to benefit from "cheaper" housing. Life is what you make it; if you have the desire and opportunity to embark upon something new, providing you are responsible and realistic about what you are letting yourselves in for, you shouldn't end up disappointed.

We have made English friends and French friends - I can say that all the French people we have met are very helpful and willing to make allowances for grammatical errors and try very hard to understand and be understood. Stuart has done work for English and French people and I'm sure the old saying of "treat others as you'd have them treat you" (or however it goes) is internationally recognised!

Your site gives sensible and good advice. I think it is much easier for someone to move to UK and set up work than it is to move to France - we found ourselves for ages in the catch 22 situation of not being able to register with the Chamber de Metiers because we didn't have a Carte de Sejour; but we couldn't have a Carte de Sejour because we weren't registered with the Chambres de Metiers!!!! We then had to attend a weeks course (in French) to do with being self-employed, produce documentation relating to Stuart's qualifications as a plasterer and did find ourselves wondering whether we were doing the right thing or not! Then there was the issue of Driving Licences! The Gendarmerie saying you MUST have a French one, the Prefecture saying NO your European one is valid!!!!!!

Anyway John, I hope I haven't sent you to sleep with my ramblings. It's just I found your site and comments very interesting and felt motivated into replying! So enjoy the rest of the weekend

Kind Regards

Janet T