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Living in France

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There are now more British living in Brittany than any other nationality - apart from the French of course - and the British have recently been the subject of demonstrations around Brittany as local people seek to restrict the numbers coming in and buying up everything they see! So what's it like for an expatriate living in Brittany right now?

Because Brittany lies in such close proximity to the UK it has long been a favoured holiday hotspot for British families travelling to France but over the past five years Britons’ interest in this particular region of France has diversified yet intensified and the British have kept up a sustained property buying frenzy.

There are now more British living in Brittany than any other nationality - apart from the French of course - and the British have recently been the subject of demonstrations around Brittany as local people seek to restrict the numbers coming in and buying up everything they see! So what’s it like for an expatriate living in Brittany right now?

The demonstrations brought the plight of the Breton people to the attention of their government who were quick to point out that it is actually the wealthy Parisians who have been pricing the local people, and more and more British people, out of the property market in Brittany - so that seems to have dampened the fire a little bit leaving expatriates in Brittany to continue to enjoy an on the whole excellent relationship with their Breton neighbours.

The British buying frenzy has almost exclusively been focused on rural properties in need of renovation which they’ve been doing up and either living in or letting out for holidays. These people are ploughing money into France and the local economy and few are taking jobs from the local people meaning that the relationship can really only benefit the local community. On the whole British expatriates who move to Brittany, who make an effort to integrate into the local community and who speak French are accepted 100%.

Most Breton people accept that while it’s true that Britons’ purchasing power has increased as a result of the property boom in the UK, they also realise that the property boom in France has been continuing to keep pace with the UK thereby eroding the gains made by the British from their UK market. The resentment that has been played upon by the media is not intense…you will always hear moaning and groaning when it comes to property prices anywhere but in Brittany the British are not the single cause of increasing prices and most people accept this.

It is worth noting though that if you yourself are considering moving to Brittany, a small traditional stone house in need of renovation that would’ve set you back as little as EUR 25,000 four years ago will now cost you upwards of EUR 90,000 so the idea of downsizing in France is not as attractive or as easy as it once might have been from a financial point of view.

If you have children and you’re thinking of going to live in Brittany you should consider your options carefully particularly depending on the ages of the children. Children over the age of 10 find it increasingly hard to absorb a second language and children at key points in their educational journey have specific schooling needs. If you have young children under the age of 10 it is fairly simple to enrol them in a local school and watch in awe as they pick up French, Breton and even colloquial slang so seemingly simply. Older children may benefit from attending a bilingual school such as the Ecole elementaire Jean Moulin in Rennes which begins its franco-anglo-american program for children over the age of 8. The Ecole elementaire Jean Moulin is a state school therefore to attend is free. There are a number of private schools around Brittany offering bilingual teaching, or extra assistance for expatriate children in the French language and fees vary.

Healthcare across France is good and patients benefit from the amount of funding the French government ploughs into the system each year, and also a good choice of doctors and specialists. Since earlier this year the healthcare reforms announced last year have come into effect, they slightly increase the contributions a patient has to make towards treatment which are non-refundable, they increase the amount an overnight ‘hotel’ stay in a hospital costs by EUR 1 a day and they mean that a patient cannot refer him or herself so easily to particular specialists but rather they have to be assessed initially by a GP and then referred onwards if appropriate.

These new reforms are for the overall good of the system and to cut down on wasted funding and they do not harm an otherwise good health care system.

If you’ve been living in Brittany for more than 3 months you need to apply for a residence permit and if you herald from the UK or another EU member state the process is straightforward if a little time consuming. Unemployment in France is incredibly high, unemployment in Brittany is absolutely no exception and if you’re considering living in Brittany you should bear this in mind before you go. How will you financially support yourself? - Think through all your options and check out the viability of any ideas you have before you go. The main reason why the majority of people who expatriate from the UK return each year is because they encounter financial difficulties. Be aware of this and arm yourself to survive and you will not only make a go of living in Brittany, you will make a success of your new life in France.