Blimey, you lot get about don’t you! Would you or your family live in France again or is it too much of a crap hole in the cities now?
Nowhere in France is a crap hole, with the possible exception of the quartiers Nord of Marseille, and the 18th arrondissement of Paris, and most of the Goutte d’or district of Paris.
I’ve been agitating to look into buying a place in Lot, Lot et Garonne, or Gers since before I retired in 2012, but the fly in the ointment is my monoglot wife, I love her to bits, but being born in Camberwell and raised in Peckham she doesn’t speak English as well as me, never mind French.
Before she enters a shoe store in Paris or Toulouse, I write her Continental size down for her, 37.5, I even give it to her phonetically, “trente sept et demi” so say tront set ay duhmee.
I even give her a list of colours, noir, marron, bleu, vert, and their English translations, I then hover around the men’s section until the inevitable cry goes up, “JEAN! woss she sayin’”?
My kid in Germany met and married a blonde fräulein when he was in the army, he’ll never live in U.K. again, he’s a German citizen now.
I narrowly almost lost his younger brother years ago, he was bumming around South America and met a gorgeous Venuzuelan girl.
After a few months living with her on Margarita Island, they decamped to Madrid, where he got a job teaching English as a foreign language, and she started making wedding plans.
His mother, my ex wife, immediately flew to Madrid to straighten him out, I’ve no idea how she did it, but Pilar was soon on a plane back to Caracas.
A couple of years later, he met and married a beautiful English girl, and please God, so far it looks like they’ll live happily ever after.