The truth about living alone in France

It has been eight years next week since I came to France. During that time I made many new friends. Sadly I have few left as some passed away whilst others returned to the UK. The main problem is the rate of exchange,which was quite good when I moved here. Now my pounds are worth less and the cost of living has risen.
I have five dogs and a cat not to mention a collection of feathered friends. Added to this is a very large garden which I would like to give more of my time to.
I had considered trying to find some-one who would like to share my house and garden. This would solve my lack of company and help with my finances.
Getting the right person could prove difficult as who would be mad enough to share a house with five dogs and a cat. And how to go about finding that person. As there are so many bad people out there.
Romance not included!

Re: The truth about living alone in France

There are a lot of people who love cats, dogs and gardening, but I agree, finding one that would be compatible would be difficult. Are there senior centers or places people gather where you post a notice, using a temporary e-mail address, so you could start the vetting process...??? Just an idea.....

Re: The truth about living alone in France

Hi Wild Fleur - First I know what you mean about the exchange rate, although I am resident in England I spend a lot of time in Eastern Europe (OH bought a property here) in the six years since we moved the rate has almost halved.

Secondly I think you might find a lot of people will love to live with five dogs and a cat.

Do you know about Dogsey.com ? It is owned by the same person who runs this forum and there are literally thousands of dog lovers on there and maybe someone would like to move to France and share your home. It could be worth registering on there. I know I've seen several threads from people who are thinking about moving abroad.

In the meantime how about telling us about your dogs, there are quiet a lot of people on here who have dogs and love them dearly.

Re: The truth about living alone in France

That bit made me laugh

A good tip from Losos, check out Dogsey

I would vet any prospective sharers thoroughly - like you said you never know where you are with some people :/

Good luck!

Re: The truth about living alone in France

Agree, Dogsey a good idea. You'd probably need a sort of questionnaire to weed out obviously incompatible types; i.e. if you're a lark and they're an owl, if you're a neat housekeeper and they're more the relaxed type, hip-hop music fan if you like opera ... you get the idea. Then if someone seemed suitable and was interested, go on from there ..... sharing your house with someone would be a really big step. And of course if it got to a certain point, do an online search of the person.

Re: The truth about living alone in France

Well, I would.
points against: I have 4 dogs, don`t drive, only have a small pension, would need 9 months to sort out a move,would need to sort out the house and son.
for: have lived in France and speak a bit of French, am easy going and could earn a bit doing pet portraits. Like Gardening. Dislike Romance

Re: The truth about living alone in France

Sharing can be hazardous but it can have greater rewards if the right person is found.
Like others say, vetting people thoroughly is a must and as I have lived, when deciding on lots of things, ' if you are in doubt do without '.
I wish you the best of luck and I am sure that ifyou go down the sharing road you can find someone who fits YOUR bill.

Re: The truth about living alone in France

Sorry to hear of your dilemma Fleur - it must be hard for you now. My wife and I were originally planning to go and live in Spain or France but thanks to my losing my job in 2008 and nothing around now all thoughts of living overseas have gone now. The exchange rate's a disaster too now. I'm about to lose this job in two days so it's getting worse daily!!
I don't know Normandy well although my French Teacher came from there. Personally I think I'd love to live in France. My French was getting quite good a while back and I went over to Oyonnax for the French company I worked for quite often but since I lost that job in 2005 I've hardly used French at all.
I can understand your reluctance over sharing but not everyone's a phsyco and there are good people out there.
Hope you get lucky.
We have an English friend in Spain who's husband, my best mate, died in July and she's still a bit lost even now. She's now thinking of going to Portugal now, near one of her sons.
Anyway, better go - just wanted to try to cheer you up a bit. stevmk2

Re: The truth about living alone in France

Hi there,
Thanks for the advice. I have given it some thought. My house could be enlarge by developing in the barn attached to the side of the house. That would make seperate accommodation.
I,m sorry about your redundancy it's horrible. I was made redandant three times during the 80s. It wasn't so bad then as work wasn't so hard to find.
regards Marilyn

Re: The truth about living alone in France

You sound a little more cheerful now Fleur. Good!! I'm so glad!! I've been made redundant 5 times ; I got redundancy money only three times and it wasn't much. I'd rather have still had the job with the last one - the French company. I enjoyed that job more than anything I did before, except perhaps the BBC.

Sounds a good idea regarding that barn but you'd need good, reliable builders. Friends in Spain thought "we'll use Brits, we can trust them". Of course the job was bodged, the house is now damp and there's a seperate water leak somewhere they're still trying to track down and to cap it all, they were burgled five days after the builders finished. Funny thing was, the friend that recommended these blokes was also burgled a week after they bodged her patio.
Sorry, don't mean to put you off!
Get a couple of quotes at least if you can, preferrably from locals and see if you can get them to show you some other job they've done so you can ask those people. It works over here but if you get any negativity, drop them like a hot potato!
Better get-on now - I've nothing to do here (at work) and I've now found out that tomorrow's more than likely to be my last day of employment so it's back to trying to get a job again. Not easy for me now though as my deafness has got worse over the past two years, or feels to me as if it has. I can barely use telephones now whereas in 2008 I could still cope with them 90% of the time.
I really do wish I could up-sticks and leave this country now so I envy you to to certain extent. I wasn't born in the UK, I was born in Malta and the Mediterranean's my spiritual home!!
Take care Fleur - Marilyn - (may I call you Marilyn?)
My name's Martin but I go by stevmk2 on forums etc. - it's also my email name so it's easy for me to remember!!