Do you live far away from where you grew up?

I know what you mean, Mamie. I would hate to try to run a business in France. No wonder 80% of French school leavers want to join the Civil Service! I have found the ladies in the Mairie to be very helpful with things like sorting out my car registration - I take them a box of biscuits at Christmas, and one for the post office lady. I have also had a lot of help from my local tax office - it probably helped when I told him I had been an Inspector of Taxes in England.
On the expat forums, there are lots of requests for the names of English-speaking doctors, vets, electricians, hairdressers, etc. I just cannot imagine going to live in a foreign country without a reasonable grasp of the language.
The culture is another thing altogether!

Of course the culture is another thing. It would be wouldn't it.

Sorry, Butternut, I don't understand your post. I am sure Mamie knows what I mean -it can take a lifetime to understand the subtle (and not so subtle) differences in the French approach to family, informality, etc.

I know French culture very well, many members of my family are French.

You appear to have taken exception to something I have said, and I cannot for the life of me understand why. I am not criticising the French, I have been very happy here for ten years and made many friends. I am sure you are very knowledgeable about French culture and in no way did I imply that you were not. Can you explain exactly what I have done to annoy you?

Ce n'est pas grave Greatnan - just feeling prickly generally. Apologies.
Bonsoir.

Pourquoi?

Born and grew up in Lancs (Wigan),Went to London uni.Since have lived back in Lancs (Leigh) then Morpeth,Cambridge,Liverpool,Hants.Watford,Suffolk,Exeter,Bath.Bristol (3 locations) since 1988. Whew!!
Don't plan to move again.

Just to add - yes I was talking about the larger administrative bodies In France. For example, the administration connected with running a small business has been very difficult for us, as it is for many French people. Locally no problems at all, I am a member of the local council and I know how much gets done to support members of our commune, especially the most vulnerable. I think what I was really trying to say is that because France is very family centred, unless (like Butternut) you have family here, then it could be very hard to manage later on. I know that the people in our village would always help us out if we needed it, but I wouldn't want to take advantage of that. So we will move back when we need to downsize, live closer to shops and services etc and we will regard our French experience as a wonderful part of our lives; one which we will feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to experience.

I agree, Mamie, and that is why I will be emigrating to New Zealand to join one of my daughters when I am about 75. Fortunately, her part of South Island has all the things I love about my bit of France - mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, plus lovely beaches. No ancient buildings, of course, but I will be able to travel widely in countries where people were building 5,000 years ago.

Born Haslingden,Lancs., Last U.K. address-- Accrington, moved to Sth. Australia,lived there 27 Yrs., have lived in Queensland, Aust. since 1987. Great country. Have driven the length & breadth of it over the years. Still love much of England, but could not live there now. Never regretted emigrating.

Yes about 1,000km!

Born in Glasgow and now live in West Yorkshire after travelling around thanks to a stint in the RAF

Born in HIghgate - bombed out and subsequently moved to New Southgate... now live in a village on the Thames, between Staines and Windsor (on the Berkshire side). Been here 38 years. I think I'm going to like it...

I grew up in Rhodesia now called Zimbabwe and moved to UK in 1980. My Dad moved to Africa when he was 18 and met my Mum who was born there.
I now live in Cardiff so yes far away from where I grew up.

five minutes walk (well, ten now i'm older) from the house where i grew up. my parents still live there - they moved there in 1959.

ichabod, how could anyone leave accrington?

About twenty miles. I was born in Derby and now live near Loughborough in Leicestershire. We've been in these parts for over thir ty years but between times have lived in North Wales, Shrewsbury, Melton Mowbray and Australia.

Far from where I grew up? I guess so - spent my first 20 years in Hamburg,Germany. Currently live in southwest France - via 20 years as Army wife in Germany, Northern ireland,Belgium etc. We then settled in North
Yorkshire, and at heart I am "adopted Yorkshire". It's really strange because
I'm a home-loving Taurus, and yet I find myself in another different place...

I've lived in North West London for 40 years. I grew up 15 miles from here in Hackney. I've moved from a council estate to middle class suburbia and the difference is probably biggest greater for me than for my husband who grew up in The Midlands and came to London for university and never went back.
We have been in our house for 40 years. We are only beginning to think of moving because it it is not a house to grow old in- too many stairs and garden too big. Apart from this house I have lived in four flats (two with my husband and two with my parents). My daughter said at uni no one believed she had only lived in one house. My son's friends couldn't understand that his parents weren't divorced.

Apart from the 3 years I spent away at College, I have lived in just two houses which are three streets apart since I was 7 years old. I have lived in my present home since my 1st marriage in 1981. I would have liked to have moved - but circumstances over the years made that impractical.

I was born in Salford, Lancashire. I moved to London when I was 19. I have lived in Essex and Southampton. I met my husband in London & moved to Southampton where he was born. I had 2 sons. My husband's job took us to South Wales for 3 years & then to Bavaria, southern Germany for 5 years. We travelled to many parts of the U.S.A & Holland, Belgium, France, Spain & other places in the corse of his work. We finally came back to Richmond upon Thames in Surrey where we have lived since 1986. Sadly my husband died in 2008.

London born and bred, I now live in New Zealand - been here eight weeks now.

About 50 miles, give or take. Born and bred in London but now live in north Bucks. Would love to live elsewhere, maybe even live abroad for a while, but can't persuade OH

I was born just outside Cardiff and we moved to Sutton Coldfield within 1 month in 1949.
I went to Cardiff University in 1967 and graduated in 1970 and then went to London to work obviously keeping in regular contact with my parents.
I has my first early retirement early in 2004 and my mother passed away at the same time leaving Dad in the house on his own and I was widowed.
I sold my house in London and joined my father in the house I grew up in.
Dad passed away in January 2012 and I am now typing this thread in the house I grew up in.

Frank