Selling up moving may not be easy, but it may as well be fun! It’s time to meet the neighbours and friends who have made there home in Lot-et-Garonne but are they happy? Jim and Gilles moved to the little town of Fongrave and have set up a ta·ble d’hôte in their 7 room guesthouse. Right or wrong move? Find out in this new episode of A New Life in France!
Gilles and Jim’s place to stay: https://www.lesmartinets-fongrave.fr/
28 Comments
I'm French, living in USA for 25 years, and planning to come back to France. I find highly suspicious immigrants that have lived in France for many years and still don't speak a word of French. I have a personal reason for thinking that, my father side is Spanish from Madrid, and my grand mother spent 40 years in France and never spoke a word of French and she hated France and the French including us since my father betrayed the family by marrying a French girl. Anyway, my grand mother needed France, was taking from France, but hated France and its people. So when I see an immigrant who still doesn't speak French after many years, he/she reminds me of my grand mother, taking but not giving.
I also understand the language problem and my wife is French LOL. But I am so busy working on my own that I fail to concentrate on the language. Great video and now subscribed. Regards Dave.
Brilliant video today! I’m area and house hunting from afar until my house is sold in the U.K. so this type of vlog is incredibly informative! Thanks to your friends for an entertaining interview.
What an enjoyable chat! Learning French is not easy in our retirement years. I study every day now in an effort to speak and understand (at least passably) when we eventually move to France. (A glass of wine at study time helps those jumbled sentence structures to roll right off the tongue.☺) Amazingly, I found a mixed group of Americans, French and Belgians who meet at our local library to chat in French about whatever interests us. It's challenging, but fun. Interestingly, we live way out in the countryside, an hour from Washington, DC. Quelle chance to find such a group in our little corner of the world! Looking forward to seeing more chats with your friends and neighbors. This one was wonderful!
I’ve already commented but it’s gone. Dang it
What a wonderful video thank you for posting
What two lovely gents you featured. And a stunning house they have.
How dare you have friends that you can meet in person lol
And you need to wear a camouflage onsie if you were to take me off lol
Don't apologize for the dressing gown; we're lazing about and watching in our pajamas!
Really enjoyable and informative chat thank you… and you have lovely friends 😍
Great video (again!) love how you follow a clear theme but take it from so many different angles 🙂
Another "fab" video. Yes, please do some more interviews with the locals. It would be also good to see what the French have to say about the increase of foreigners in their villages too. For example, someone from that village that has bent over backwards to be so British.
Happy new year from Australia.
Absolutely love your channel and love your new ideas for this 25. Brilliant . Fantastic video. Thankyiu to Rob and Lisa for introducing me to your channel 6 months ago.
enjoying your vlogs on France. I hope to have a country house in Burgundy one day!
Great video. Very interesting and definitely informative for viewers yet to settle on an area in France. It’s imperative to make sure you end up in an area that caters for what you want to be able to do in your daily life 😊
What a lovely video, great to hear of someone making the move, thanks for sharing
Great video. Is Jim a scouser?. I am and sorta got the gist of a scouse accent going on there. If he is I'd of loved to of heard him speak a little French.
You might want to reconsider your moniker "ex pats" as it has become a perjorative for people who hv immigrated but somehow wish to separate from the herd, esp. Brits.
Expats is a word we dont use in France we use Immigrants .
.
They are not expats. They are immigrants.
given you are a brit, what was your position w brexit vote? how do you feel about immigrats in the UK and overall?
You are immigrants not expats ,please learn French if you wish to live here . I had to learn English for work and remember the English complaining about people not speaking English when they settle in the uk .
I’ve just watched this fabulous episode from my bed in frosty Gers just South of you, where w have a holiday home. Wonderful to hear about the lives of other expats in the region. Although I did miss Maria this week! Looking forward to your next video!
Gilles and Jim are such a gorgeous couple! I loved hearing them talk about their new life in France. Everyone has a story to tell and I find it fascinating to hear them. So would definitely love to hear from more of your friends. Have added Les Martinets to my French accommodation list! 😊
A very interesting video – thank you.
We have just sold our gite business in the charente after 14 enjoyable, but busy, years.
We are moving to Eymet , Dordogne to retire in two weeks and so we have joined your list of subscribers to learn more about the area and find new interests.
For us too the french language remains a challenge – despite continuous lessons. (Maybe as you get older – like us – it just becomes harder ?)
At school my husband studied russian to O level – but he can't conquer french !!
None the less we just love France.
Brilliant video, and a interview with so happy souls! Thank you
Thank you for this approach. Great idea to interview others about their experiences. My DH and I have been in the north east corner of the Dordogne for 3 years (from the States). We are in a rural area where the vast majority of the population is French and it is very important to have knowledge of the language to feel comfortable. So don't count out the Dordogne for an authentic French experience. We know more Dutch people than English here and very few Americans. Ironically, we have found that there are as many cultural differences between us and the English as there are between us and the French!
When we were there for longer periods..my god missed a good curry!
Absolutely beautiful house, so much space and light. I miss our house in the Vendee..but we have kept the best thing, wonderful friends!
Hi Richard. You are such a good presenter and this interview was like a big hug. Despite living in a beautiful village in Occitanie your videos are really tempting me to discover your area. ….. mind you wherever I discover in France there is some magic to be found. Bravo on your efforts to learn french. I love languages but it is SO much harder (Spanish in my case as I cheated on french with a french mum) later in life. Looking forward to hearing more about the yacht club as I learned sailing on the etang de Thau here since moving to Marseillan.
Every video you put out makes me want to move to France! Thanks for another great video ❤😊🇦🇺