Cultured Views

Living in France - Rural vs City

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When we decided to buy a home/business in France we gave much thought to what environment we wanted to live in and decided that to live in the countryside would be the way to go. After four years of rural life in France we often wonder what on earth possessed us to do such a thing. Yes, the surrounds are stunning and the locals are friendly and, well, typical country folk. The area is quiet and peaceful and apart from our neighbour down the drive there is no-one else around us for at least three km’s. But I have to admit that all this peace and quiet has it’s drawbacks.

For a start I didn’t realise just how ‘city’ I was until only one week after moving here. That’s how long it took me to start missing a bit of noise. And the shops. Somewhere to go to the cinema. Public transport.

At night it is pitch black and apart from some passing traffic it is dead silent. It is nice to sit and admire the morning scene, especially in the spring and summer, but I have found you can only take so much of doing that. The local village has it’s fete’s but they are small scale affairs where only the locals turn out; they are usually over by lunchtime. And on Sunday you find the village pretty much deserted after midday. You really can walk around and literally see no-one at all.

Hindsight can be a blessing, and a constant reminder of just how wrong you were at the start. If we were starting out again we would choose somewhere closer to a larger town or city even. Somewhere that stays awake for longer periods of time. The only way you can truly gauge whether you should buy your French home in the country or in/near the city is to rent a place for not really the summer but the winter in each. If you can tolerate three months of a biting wind and sub-zero temperatures in an environment that is pretty much hibernating until the spring then you will have a good idea of whether or not the countryside will suit you.

Or it just may discourage you altogther.

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