Sharing France with you

5 ways to make settling in France easy!

1. Relax, don’t expect to feel at home and integrated all within the first week! Take baby steps and congratulate yourself each time you achieve something new, whether that is getting the right thing at the bakery, signing up with the local doctor or re-registering your car!

2. Believe us when we say that a little French goes a long way. You won’t be able to spend 5 years using the same three phrases with your new French neighbours but try them out in the first week. By using the language in real situations and by listening to the responses you’ll learn more than you ever picked up in a classroom. Bonne chance! 

What a Cock-A-Doodle-Doo

A noisy rooster called Maurice is taken to court! 

First published July 5th, 2019:

A rooster named Maurice has been put on trial in western France after his early-morning crowing got under the skin of his neighbours.

The copper-feathered cockerel is the defendant in a court battle where he is accused of causing noise pollution by a retired couple.

The case was heard by the court in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime on Thursday.

A verdict is not expected until September 5th.

UPDATE September 6th

It's still your move

The latest is that the government has been forced to scrap plans for a law that would’ve ended the freedom of movement - a heavily criticised proposal by the home secretary, Priti Patel. The new law would’ve seen freedom of movement end at the stroke of midnight on 31st October in the event of a no-deal Breit. 

As it stands now, the free movement of EU citizens does not end automatically as a result of a no-deal Brexit.

More from The Guardian

So, what's your budget, then?

How do you know how far your money will go? Tim Williams, Finance Director of Beaux Villages Immobilier, gets down to the pounds and pennies.

Scroll down for our budget calculator.

Is it just me? I dislike that question. It feels intrusive. And I’m an ‘insider’. I work in the industry.

What I like to hear is, ‘How much would you like to spend?’ I’m a sensitive flower. And of course my standard response would be, ‘As little as possible!’ We’re no further forward………..

So - truthfully - how is an estate agent expected to help me (you) if they do not know the answer? (Let’s put aside for now those agents who do know the answer and promptly ignore it……..)

Now - what IS your budget? Maybe this all seems obvious. Possibly patronising? Conversely, it is quite possible you do not actually know. I didn’t. Looking back and with the great gift of hindsight.

Perhaps it varies greatly according to fluid personal circumstances. ‘Buying on a budget’ is all relative, whether you have €50,000 or a million. You will have expectations. You will have more, or less, local knowledge.

Don't mind if I do

We always made sloe gin in the UK. I love furtling around a hedge gathering these tiny wild plums and then transforming them into something rich and fruity to enjoy at Christmas after a bright but cold walk.

Sloe season comes early here. In England the wisdom is to leave them on the blackthorn bushes until the first frost nips and softens them. Here they are ready late August and if you leave it a little too long they shrivel to nothing before you know it. A wander around our boundary last night confirmed that it is time to get this year’s production underway.

Create French Style

All the fun and the flair.

What says French style to you? The chateau look with panelled walls? The painted house with upcycled furniture? The rustic cottage filled with brocante finds? Julie Savill talks you through giving your home a little oh la la.

Something odd happened to me. When I lived in England, I had a lot of free-standing furniture in the kitchen, I would find accessories on trips to France (or in our local antiques shop) and we had a modern meets rustic look going on. Friends would come round and remark on how French our home looked.