My family and i are thinking of moving to france (Normandy)?

Question

can someone offer us advice, preferably someone who has done the move, my wife and i are still in the production stage... we are thinking of going there in march for two weeks just to get a feel what it is like. How easy is it to buy a property there? would it be easy to sell our house in the uk and then get a mortgage in France. I ran into dept on a business i once run and picked up a few CCJ's, would this cause problems in getting a mortgage in France? I have three children 14, 8 and 2 would it be easy for them to adapt to french life? what about school?...I am sorry for all these questions that is why it will be ideal for someone who has done the move to answer. Cheers

Answer 1

I have friends from Liverpool who have recently completed the transition but they did so only when they retired. They bought a ruin of an old Norman farmhouse and spent a decade of summers fixing it up. Their children were with them in the summers but they never attended school in France.

There is, as I understand it, quite a lot of rural property for sale in various states of disrepair. This might be the best thing for you to look at if you're handy at making repairs. My friends, both school teachers, had only modest means but were able to accomplish it.

I would also question whether your 14 year old would be well served by an immediate move. French schools are more rigorous than English schools, very inflexible (curriculum is set in Paris for the entire country), and, of course, taught in French.

One little note, one should not confuse the French baccalaureate  with an English university degree of the same name. The two have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

Answer 2

Hi,

Children adapt more easily than adults but it is a big move especially for the 14 year old. I think that the french education system is quite rigid and not as flexible as the UK one. Language is the main problem for the kids, they study everything in french in the kindergarten and maternelle ,then I think sometime in the primary school they learn german and eventually english but I think that they learn english in secondary school. If your children are able to cope with the languages it is no problem. We have lived abroad for years.

The french system gives you a baccalaureate at 18.

Answer 3

We are a by-national family and have friends and relatives who have moved lock, stock and barrel to either side of the Channel. Normandy is very rural  unless you decide to move to one of the bigger towns like Rouen which is very dynamic but surrounded by vast zones of industry and has a university (so accommodation is at a premium and expensive). If what you want is the rural dream, this is fraught with other difficulties.

If you are fluent in French then you would meet less obstacles. Buying a house should not be a problem if you can pay a very substantial deposit and can prove that you are able to continue the repayments on your loan. In Normandy you will be competing with Brits who are retiring, can pay for the property outright and push prices upwards.

Both there and in Brittany, quite a few English people have bought second homes, but generally they are older and do not have children the same age as yours. Those of our friends that did found that such drastic changes in schooling were horrendous and disastrous in the long run for their children. There is no problem with the little one, he or she will pick up French easily and will adapt. The eight year old ( who will be at least nine by then) will have a year of h**l, but will very likely adapt too. The fourteen year old will be almost sixteen and is going to suffer severely as, at that stage studies in France are extremely strenuous and rigorous. The Baccalaureat is not "given" away and is failed by a large number of native candidates. It involves many compulsory subjects, unlike A Levels where you can opt for subjects which you are good at.

We have friends whose children were the same age as yours when they moved and the elder children lagged behind and eventually left school with no qualifications whatever. They now help their parents to run a bed-and-breakfast in the middle of nowhere, have no prospects, meet few people their own age, and would like to return to UK but can't as they have nowhere to go. The boy in particular never picked up French properly and lives life through his computer. The eldest girl, now in her twenties, never meets anyone her age, is desperate as she sees no prospect of romance or marrying on the horizon and lives on a diet of Mills and Boon sent to her by an English aunt. The youngest one did well but her Mum has to drive her daily to and fro to attend a  school miles away from their home. The family sold the family home in England and now cannot afford to come back due to the difference in property prices.

Another couple whom we know vegetates in France as they knew very little French and evening classes did not do a great deal for them, and the wife in particular is longing to come back to England. She seems to be living in a little enclave of Brits and has not integrated in any way, and neither have their children, who were in their teens when they moved.

Do go and see for yourselves, but if you are not fluent in French you will find things very difficult. You do not mention a job. At the moment  the number of unemployed people in France is at an all time high, even amongst well qualified natives, and life is tough without any income. The Bed-and-Breakfast market is saturated.

I am not trying to put you off, but  with children that age, and in your shoes, I would not do it, even though I am totally fluent, I love France, and we have family and friends there.

Best wishes.