Are there parts of France that are totally English speaking British communities, where everyone is a 2nd home ?

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Eclipsepearl

Not entirely British but there are communities in the southern part of the country which have a lot of British residents. This is especially true of Dordogne. When I was there with my husband (he's French and I'm American), the farmers were picking out the homes owned by foreigners. There were also a lot of Dutch...

Actually, the French prefer that they really live there. What they don't like are the second homes, which get robbed, stand empty most of the year, etc. but that isn't the case so much anymore. The British have been accused of driving up home prices but it's more legit if the family is living there year long. The British also make a sincere attempt at integrating, putting their children into local schools and getting involved in the community. Of course, they learn French. It would be hard to function without it down there.

The second home business is more with Spain but most of those fleeing Blighty are really moving here to make their lives on this side of the Channel. The French know the situation in the U.K., weather, house prices, lifestyle and quite frankly, can't blame them for moving over...

tonton 674

I never heard about some places like these...
and I'm french

rugratshd

No, but there are some small small villages near Carcassonne where 65% of the homes are owned by Brits. Awful places.

Snape is hot!

Why? Why not just live in an English speaking country then? I don't know about the French, but I would be pretty pissed if someone decided to move to Ukraine and didn't bother learning the language. If you move to another country, you should know that country's language.

patrice

I never heard that...Totally no !!

But the reality is that some properties are buying by Britains in France, but as like some germans, italians, dutch spanish, algerians, maroccains, tunisians are doing it .... France is a melting pot people .... the difference is that britains come with money, lot of money ...

We heard about English people in france because in many case Britains are noisy, they are impolite, they come like invader. lot of them earn a lot of money, it increase the houses prizes and sometimes they destroy the heritage of some typically french houses. I've seen that in the Chamonix area....

Tianne N

probably not....u never know though :D

nevermind

No and I can't understand this British need to move to a different country and then try to befriend only people from their kind. It is ridiculous.

xalynn

I doubt it, and I am not aware of something like this. After all most people who move to France do intend to integrate into the society and as such will very quickly pick up French as daily spoken language.

Having said that, big cities such as Paris and Lyon do have high number of expatriates, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find English speakers for meet up etc.

As far as I know, American (and other English speaking) expats often network using FUSAC, a magazine that can be picked up in a number of locations and they have a website too : http://www.fusac.fr/en/

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