Moving to Portugal

Mamie you won't get the White Cliffs of Dover pang coming over from Caen or Dieppe, will you ;)

We actually much prefer to take the ferry, if we don't have the dog - just for the joy of seeing the White Cliffs. But we are so lucky that as much as we love going 'back home' we also love going 'home' afterwards.

After 14 years I still feel a twinge of nostalgia/pride/emotion. ...call it what you will.... when I see the Isle of Wight, then Beachy Head from the air. And in a flush of 'what-ever-it-is' I think I want to/must live back in the Uk. Then I fight my way through immigration at Stansted, hurl myself into DD's car before she racks up extortionate parking charges, and sit with clenched buttocks as as she fights several lanes of traffic to get to her house.
Then I know why I live where I do.QED☺

True. There are the white cliffs of the Côte d'Albâtre though.
We sometimes go up to Calais as well, but think we will be avoiding it for a while now....

Going to England from Dieppe it would have to be the Seven Sisters Pang, wouldn't it!

Anyhow, lovely to hear Mamie that you have now made up your mind and are not selling up to go back. Sometimes you have to go through certainy stages to come to the best conclusion. Enjoy.

We truly feel we have 2 homes, 'back home' and 'home' and really enjoy the contrast between the two. But we may still go back to the UK one day- good to have plan B in place as you say.

Yes we feel very settled now. The low-carb diet weight loss has given us both a whole new level of fitness, the house is finished and the garden is flourishing, also the £ to € exchange is very much in our favour at the moment, isn't it?
We have been very touched by how pleased everyone in the village is that we are staying put for the foreseeable. As you say, you have to work through the process to arrive at your decision and I think we have arrived in exactly the same place as Ffinn.

I've enjoyed this thread. It's given me cause to contemplate and sift through our life here. Like mamie, I feel quite settled for the foreseeable future. No doubt there will be more adventures ahead one way or another, but when I'm very old, and mulling things over, moving to France will not be thought of with regret.

Thanks finnochio

Hi mamie that's good news that you have this renewed vigour and lease on life in French-France . And, as you say, there's always Spain in the winter!

I'm not sure you're right about the £/Euro rate though, Mamie.

Mmm, Ive rethought my original post and I hope it didn't sound too miserable.
I'm surprised Melanietrot hasn't posted again, if only to tell some of us off for not knowing whether she had done her home work or not.
It's given me pause for thought. I've had spells of homesickness too but I'm very settled and happy at the moment. Who knows what the future will bring. The only reason I can see for a permanent return to UK, would be to make things easier for our daughters in the case of failing health.
I had lunch yesterday with a group of friends who have all been here for between 10 and 20 years. Actually two were in their eighties and I realised that for them it was 30 years or so. Some are still working, some not.
Out of about 15 of us, 6 have been widowed, at least 7 have had spells in hospital. We do our best to be there for for each other in emergencies. As do Portuguese friends.
Because of the circumstances we were all reminiscing, we started talking about the 'if one of you died, you would stay or go?' question. We came to the conclusion that it is partly to do with which country feels more like home and even more to do with if one is a coper or not.

£/euro definitely better for us at the moment. Something to consider if totally reliant on a British pension is that some months it can be a lot less than others when the exchange rate is in the pounds favour.

Exactly that Dusty. I think it was 2008 when £/€ rate was pretty much at parity, now we are getting 1.40€ to the £. Lots more euros in the monthly transfer from the UK, completely hopeless for anyone wanting to sell here and move back to England. Swings and roundabouts.
Thanks GK - Spain booked for January!

The Swiss Franc is very high now- and we have lost 40% of income since moving here. So I am very glad for you in the Eurozone that things are better for you now. Thank goodness we are so close to France for shopping, and that we had a bit of a 'margin'.

Should we ever sell to move back, we would make a tidy profit though- as said, swings and roundabouts.

I see what you mean now about the Euro I hadn't realised you were getting a UK pension.

so are we - and there is absolutely NOTHING AT ALL you can do if the exchange rate hits you sideways with a big bang! Nought, zilch, de nada...

(£ was 2.50 when we moved here- and 2 years ago fell to 1.18!!! We did panic then - now back to 1.40- and you never know where and how it will move in the future).

A couple more things have occurred to me and then I really will shut up. People in Spain and Portugal tend to buy houses they are going to live in for many years, probably all their lives. We have people living in our block who have been here since the flats were built in the 70s. They are homes not investments. As a result you don't get price inflation (or boring talk about house prices) - except in the construction boom just befoe the crisis - and price rises are unlikely to keep pace with UK rises so you could find yourself unable to afford to move back. This is why I said earlier to keep a UK property if you can. The other,thing is that villages are dying, sadly, as most people want to live in a new flat in the city. The idea of renovating an old property is alien to them which is why you can pick up such bargains. Sometimes difficult to resell these properties but if this is going to be your forever house that isn't a problem.
Enjoy lovely Portugal and the even lovelier Portuguese. You won't find nicer people anywhere.

Excellent post again Wilks- many have been caught out and unable to sell if they wish to go back, or sell at very low price. You can buy a really nice 3 bed house for about 70.000 in parts of France, Italy or Portugal... but if you spend your spare/savings on improvements, then sell much below price- what will 70.000 get you back in the South of UK- or even in the Midlands?

Same here in Switzerland- inflation has only happened in the Geneva and Zurich area and their Riviera- but there is now a bubble which may well burst, leaving people in negative equity (as the Swiss Franc is much too high (ouch for us, we have no Swiss income and have lost 40% of income since arrival) - however, it does mean that even if we sell at price paid or less - we would potentially make a big profit on exchange rate alone. Not on the cards though. And as said, I am really really glad we were able to keep a flat in the East Midlands, right in the centre of a lovely market town- just in case. We would have to sell and move to somethin a little bigger with a small garden though, as we are not allowed to keep a dog there. But it would sell easily and plenty on the market.

That was my problem Wilks, we had bought an old property and done a lot of renovations, then we just could not sell, too far inland for a holiday let most of the young people in the village were moving closer to the tourist areas where they worked and i had no time to advertise it back in the UK.
I ended up selling it back to the original owners family at less than we had paid for it including the renovations.
I could not have kept my house in the UK and as we were quite young and were moving as a family with children we really expected to complete our working lives at least in Portugal.

I keep trying to post and then losing it. I'm having to preview every sentence so forgive me if it's disjointed.

Trying to say that I agree with, I think it was Wilks who said about keeping a base in UK. We had planned to but the family live in the south east and even twenty years ago the price of a one bedroom flat was extortionate. We have decided to make this property as disabled friendly as possible and build a very small extension on DD1's house. This will be for short stays as we are not ready to sell up and move in with her yet.
We have discussed all this in advance with both DDs as it affects them as well and know they would prefer us to move back if we become infirm but at the moment at least we live somewhere that they all enjoy visiting.

Just found this conversation, looking for a similar thread ....
Daughter in Australia with 4 (all of) my GCs has suggested we get a parent
VISA so we can live over there, part-time for now and possibly full-time
When we're " decrepit" ( her word)!
For now , our base is in France for the past 6 years, with other children , both DH and mine in the UK.

I would love to spend more time in Oz, maybe 6 months a year.
Experiences, comments please!

At least in Portugal you get the most marvellous small custard tarts!

I could live on them.

well you've inspired me- will try and get to Porto to escape November weather here- perhaps travel a bit North and South.

I live west of Lisbon and what I miss most is The English language and being able to communicate fully with everyone!