Reasons for business failure

Other reasons

Other things that can cause problems are more personal - language, children, missing friends and so on. Since these are quite peripheral I don't intend to say much about them, but for some they are real problems.

Language: Learning a new foreign language is not easy, and it won't just happen. It takes hard work and enthusiasm. If you don't learn the language you will always feel isolated, which for some people seems to then become an irrational distrust or disliking for 'the unfriendly French'. After four years we are not bad but we are a long way from being as good as we would like to be. It really is quite difficult!

Children: arriving in France with children can be easy and it can be difficult, it depends partly on the child, but more on the parents. I can't advise you on this because everyone has different circumstances. But you will need to be sure that you are the kind of parent who can drag a screaming child into a new school and turn your back and walk off, because brutal as it will seem this is the fastest way to get them settled and happy. Now that sounds like fun. Should only last a week or two, though, and you may not need to at all.

Missing friends: If you are a very social person, it can be very difficult adjusting to a community where you don't know people and can't express yourself clearly because of language difficulties. Most areas popular with tourists do have an 'English language' community which will help. But still, the more hard you find it to fit in, the more you will reflect on friends you can't see now, and the more miserable you could easily become. This is a real problem for some people.

Summary

At the beginning I said I would write this in a negative style. I have been negative about money, children, language problems, the amount you will end up over-paying for your gite complex and so on and I have emphasised the hard work involved.

This is not because I want to put people off from coming to France, but because it is better if you arrive prepared and able to deal with the first year or two. For us, and for many like us, we would never go back, and have no regrets. And we weren't prepared for anything I've written about above when we arrived.

So my overall message is: yes it can work, if you want to make it work (and you can afford it). I wish you the very best of luck.

And by the way, we are a real family writing this, and happy to answer any questions you have - just send us an email.