Another Brexit "benefit"

quizqueen

Surely anyone living abroad permanently, who still has a UK bank account, can just use their debit card for spending when popping back for the odd visit. Credit cards aren't compulsory!

Yes.
We use moneycorp for transferring funds across.

Surely anyone living abroad permanently, who still has a UK bank account, can just use their debit card for spending when popping back for the odd visit. Credit cards aren't compulsory!

No point scoring from me- just an exchange of experiences.

London, like Paris, Milan, etc- is a very different entity to the rest of the country, with behaviours and 'types' to match.

No-one is ever too busy to be respectful to the country they choose to emigrate to, sorry- or make an effort to learn some language. Most immigrants are hindered by lack of language, by definition. Most have no choice but to get on with it, and do. Too many anglo-saxons however ... just say they can't learn and just shout louder- which can be quite objectionable.

biba70

Ellianne, not sure what your exact rôle was - but in my experience (and we can only speak from our own ...) those 'expats' who use relocating agents- are exactly as you describe. And are very much a minority.

Yes, biba70, I guess some of the people I met relocating were too busy working to find time to fully integrate into French life. Others were hindered by their lack of the language and others just not interested to learn about the culture and history of their hosts. We are all different.

Regarding how we feel towards our home nation when we live abroad as expats, the French I know in London still want to cling onto their own culture with immense pride. They choose French schools (new ones have sprung up), they shop in French bakeries (loads of them), and food shops, and they eat in French restaurants. They watch French TV and socialise with other French nationals. In discussions, their moans about their own country are very few.
As someone here said, we still rightly belong to our homeland when we move. Brits usually find their new abode abroad m far more appealing and maybe they have reason to. But I don't feel we should start making negative comparisons with the UK, and criticising how things work from a distance when we are not there to see. Otherwise it comes across as point scoring.

Ellianne, not sure what your exact rôle was - but in my experience (and we can only speak from our own ...) those 'expats' who use relocating agents- are exactly as you describe. And are very much a minority.

It was a while ago, biba and it was in Portugal.
But it could happen anywhere.

Ellianne

I'm completely lost forpolitewords...

Why Maizie, what is your experience of those who move abroad? I was employed in Europe to settle ex pats into the country and the system, so I am speaking from witnessing their hopes, dreams, expectations, disappointments etc. Can I not justifiably make an observation?

Of course you can

But you can’t speak for all. Only your experience

Callistemon - yes, that is my worry for her- but dare not say it. she is very vulnerable as it is.

And yes, I live very close to an old corset factory whih still has a corset museum (and all about whale bones, etc) - I should have remembered.

Oh, sorry, yes, stays are whalebone corsets

I think that was standard practice Whitewave and sounds very sensible,
Rather like my waist wallet for all the travelling I'm not doing.

biba I knew someone who lugged all her jewellery, some inherited, with her when she went on holiday and had her handbag snatched by two men on a scooter.

one of my young friend's mum, from the Midlands, is very handicapped and can hardly walk- but she always carries her massive handbag, that weighs a ton and more - everywhere she goes- with all her jewellery.

Callistemon

Our ancestors on both sides wandered the world and settled in farflung places.
Some of mine fled France and settled in England.
I expect they carried any money in their stays in those days.

My Aunt who spent her entire life in one village in Cornwall, hardly ever leaving the village used to sew a pocket into her corsets to carry her money if she left the village for a few days away.

ah thanks - will go to bed a little less stupid tonight ;)

That's why gold and precious gems were useful.

biba70

Same here, all over the world. Sorry do not get you last sentence?

stays = corsets

I can tell you that I felt pretty foreign when I moved from Essex to Yorkshire..

I've lived in Essex for nearly 40 years and it still feels "foreign". Even south of the A12 feels like a foreign land to me.

It's quicker for me to travel to Calais (or Paris or Brussels on Eurostar) than it is to travel to Newcastle. The spoken language in Calais is more comprehensible too .

I guess the point I'm making is that we can easily become very tribal and genuine travel or settling somewhere different challenges insular thinking as well as being a geographical change.

Same here, all over the world. Sorry do not get you last sentence?

Our ancestors on both sides wandered the world and settled in farflung places.
Some of mine fled France and settled in England.
I expect they carried any money in their stays in those days.

My favourite post on Gransnet (many years ago) was when someone accused us of "fleeing the country". It made me feel like Burgess and Maclean. ???

As a French resident for about 10 years and as another post asks why we chose to live in Europe I would give the following reasons

1. I was brought up in Dorset in the fifties. Rural France reminds me of that time.

2. Our last 20 years in the UK were in rural Suffolk which is a county that I love. Because of rail communications (or lack of) it is still relatively unspoiled and I had thought we'd return at some point. Now I'm not so sure.

3. Large parts of France are beautiful and not as densely populated as England and I am lucky to be able to live here.

4. I like all forms of music but the French early 20th century composers are my favourites - Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Faure etc.

5. My favourite paintings are by French artists. Again early 20th century - Picasso and Matisse being top of the list. On our various holidays in France we have visited the homes and galleries in different parts of France where they lived.

6. We live in hamlet just outside a small village. The village and surrounding hamlets comprise 600 people of whom 19 are English. There are also Dutch and Belgians.

7. As regards politics our French friends and acquaintances are fairly clued up on UK politics, perhaps more so than many English people. They especially liked John Bercow and would imitate him given half a chance. They are shocked and bemused at what is happening to the UK.

8. Since I first came to Europe on holiday I have felt an affinity with it and I am extremely sorry that we have left the EU. The French are critical of the EU but they wish it to remain in place. That has a lot to do with being invaded twice in the 20th century and their biding wish is that Europe remains peaceful.

^ so I'd feel just as "foreign" if I were living in Northumberland as I would if I were living in parts of mainland Europe.^



I can tell you that I felt pretty foreign when I moved from Essex to Yorkshire..

I just can't understand people's apparent resentment that folks don't elect to stay put in their country of origin. As if it's a crime to want to go anywhere else. And if you do, you become an outcast and no longer have valid opinions/interest in your birth country.

Or worse, it's somehow traitorous...

Free movement was a wonderful thing.

Missfoodlove

I have a son who did his whole degree in the Czech Republic. ( A country we had no connection with)
He now works for a global company in Prague.
There are many large corporations still recruiting for English speakers to work across Europe.
Opportunities are still available.
Brexit will only be an obstacle if you allow it to be.

Happy for your son. The company I used to work in here in Scotland had a European technical call centre which employed around 20 native speakers of European languages. As well as English, obviously. Its closed now because most of them felt they couldn't stay here any more and we found it impossible to recruit replacements. The call centre is now in France. And the cultural and financial benefits we used to have here are gone.
We all have anecdotes, from both sides.

We have come across people here who moved from the UK in order to get away from the migrants from west and east. One such woman was complaining about migrants here in France. She was taken aback when an English friend explained that we are all migrants.

growstuff

Maizie I wouldn't feel any different if I lived in a different part of the UK from those with which I'm familiar. For the last 40 years European borders have been largely irrelevant, so I'd feel just as "foreign" if I were living in Northumberland as I would if I were living in parts of mainland Europe.

Many years ago we gave a lift to a hitch hiker when we were travelling to visit friends near Hexham. He had a Glaswegian accent and we are southerners. He couldn't understand us and vice versa. Just like visiting a foreign country.

On holiday in France some 40 years ago we joined a tour of a local abbaye in the Languedoc. The rest of the tour were Parisians. They couldn't understand the guide who spoke Occitaine and nor could we.

I have a son who did his whole degree in the Czech Republic. ( A country we had no connection with)
He now works for a global company in Prague.
There are many large corporations still recruiting for English speakers to work across Europe.
Opportunities are still available.
Brexit will only be an obstacle if you allow it to be.