Living in France

Brenda and Andy came to France a few years ago , in this article Brenda tells about her experience living in a small French village in the south of Charente Maritime.

Andy & Brenda Hawkins � Marlborough, UK to Brie sous Mortagne, France.

Early in 2004 we made the decision to leave England and move to France, for all the usual reasons, but mainly for a better lifestyle. In February, we drove to the Charente Maritime area to look at houses. We did not know the area at all, so we were being quite impulsive, but we knew we loved France, and we had heard so much about the wonderful climate in the Charente Maritime and the short, mild winters (more on that later)!!!
We wanted the old Charentaise style house, but somehow, we fell in love with the one opposite � built in 1982.
In July 2004, we packed all our belongings into a furniture van � very hard work � and drove down to our new life here in France.
Since that day we have not looked back! Yes, for a few months, we did miss our Friday nights down at the local, putting the world to rights, but it was not long before we had put that behind us.
We live in a little village called Brie sous Mortagne. We are in the centre of the village and there is a lovely boulangerie, and a small restaurant/bar/shop all run by the same couple, Annie & Andre.
This is our �local� � it is very rural and working class, but the people are very warm and kind and the 11-euro lunch would take some beating!
We have this lovely little port of Mortagne about 5 minutes away. We are also close to the lovely seaside resort of Royan.
Our command of the French language was not good, or in my case, non-existent. Andy brought his schoolboy French with him, which, after many years, was very rusty. He was surprised at how a lot of it came back to him, which was good, as we used it in the early days to buy things that were needed, i.e. a new washing machine, as ours had �died� during the trip over!!
Since those early days, I have been taking French lessons � am finding in very hard, but am persevering and find that I can now communicate on a basic level. Our village friends are only too happy to help out when we get stuck and really appreciate that we make the effort.
We introduced ourselves to the Mayor of our village very quickly and the advice he gave us was �integrate�. What sound advice that was.
We use the boulangerie, restaurant/bar/shop on a regular basis. The local people have made us so welcome � where is this �anti-British� attitude? We have yet to find it.
It didn�t take us too long to be on first name terms with lots of people in the village, the only draw back being we now have to kiss a lot of people before we can get a pint!! When we have needed someone to carry out some work for us, we use Annie and Andre as a sounding board, they know everyone, and know whom to recommend. In fact, in the early days, Annie would make the telephone call for us and tell us when the contractor would be calling in on us.
We have now been here 3 years, and love every minute. We love the courtesy that still exists here, the respect children still have for their elders, the respect people show each other, shaking hands and kissing on meeting up, and of course, we love the 4 course lunch for 11 Euro!!!
We have reverted to our second childhood and bought ourselves a Honda Goldwing Trike � with the lovely summers here; we get out and about and have been on a few rallies. We were the only Brits on them, but everyone made us really welcome and we have had some good times.
We have no regrets and can never see us returning to the UK to live � but what about those winters?
They are not as short or mild as we were led to believe!!
I believe this snow, early in 2007, was very unusual, but generally, winters have been quite cold, although shorter that a UK winter.
This is the view of our Church taken from our garden.
Living in France has been a wonderful experience; we have been met with nothing but kindness and friendship from the locals. When we meet other Brits thinking of moving here, and they ask our advice, we feel the best advice we can give them is �please integrate�. The French people will meet you more than half way if you are prepared to try to use their language and become members of the community in which you live.

Viva La France!!!




Acknowledgements : Photos provided under Creative Commons Licence by artemis ( Mortagne) and necadova ( Royan) via Flickr we also thank Brenda for the photos.
PS : Click on thumbnails for larger image.