WISE OWL
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Yes, it is true, and not only is it pensioners whose income has diminished because of inflation and the falling value of the ÂŁ, but also younger people who had this vision of an idyllic life in the depths of "la France profonde" for the rest of their lives.
Many people thought that by selling their highly priced house in UK, and using part of it to buy a French property in need of renovation, doing it up themselves and investing the rest would generate a double income. One would be from letting rooms or outbuildings either as "Bed and Breakfast" or as "gîtes", the other being the interest on the proportion of left- over money invested. However the recession has hit France too. The cost of living has escalated enormously. Banks are paying less and less interest on capital and savings. B and Bs have multiplied at such a rate that customers have spread themselves more thinly. The idea was that it would draw British tourists to more remote spots has backfired for two reasons, one being the remoteness of certain locations, the other being that a considerable number of self- drive tourists have cut back on holidays in France.
In certain areas, the English people who settled there has been strongly resented by the locals because they clustered and formed pockets of "little Britain" that actually did not integrate or participate in local activities, and some did not even bother to learn French. It also was felt that by snapping up cheap properties, the English deprived young local people who wanted to buy a house from doing so as they pushed up bidding prices out of their range, so the welcome has not been effusive everywhere.
I know some English people who did exactly that, bought an old property in Poitou for "an adventure" whilst keeping a "pied-Ă -terre" in UK. The wife never even bothered to learn French and simply socialised with a clique of ex-pats. The husband's health has taken a turn for the worse, so after ten years they have returned to Britain to have him operated on the National Health.
Another couple sold their farm in Britain and bought a small domain in the depths of Limousin, the buildings of which they have done up progressively as a mixture of B and B and gîtes. The education of some of their children was sacrificed to their big project as they effectively were used as free labourers "for the good of the family". A while back they had a reasonable number of visitors from UK, in the last two years it has dwindled to nothing and they are in dire straights, trying to realise their assets and leave.
These are just two examples, but I know plenty of others who bought properties blindly thinking they were moving into the "paradis terrestre" where fruit grew in plenty, vines cultivated themselves, and all they had to do was to gather crops and sell them...totally unprepared for the actual labour or procedures required, or the extent and pitfalls of French bureaucracy. Many who spoke little French have become homesick and are taking advantage of falling property prices to buy back into Britain. Those who were seeking a warmer climate have realised that global warming is actually affecting Britain too and they need not stay abroad to get sunshine and dry weather.
So, economic, social and ecologic factors have not only stemmed the tide but effectively turned it round. |
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