What was your main reason for emigrating?

[Mark]

As title, what ultimately made you up-sticks and leave the UK?

[uglydoll]

We left the UK for South Africa in 1993, just before the elections, hoping that the inward investment that would now be opened up would bring lots of opportunities. Unfortunately the escalating violence and corruption drove us home again in 1997.

We had our first child over there, and felt it was just too dangerous to stay (we had 3 armed attacks on houses in our street - on 30 houses in a small crescent - in a 2 year time span).

And with the way things are going over there, we are pretty pleased to be back.

[Emma]

Wow that must have been scary. Do you miss not being abroad though?

[uglydoll]

We miss the house I guess (large thatched bar area next to the pool with built in BBQ *sigh*) and the sunshine, but given that it was surrounded by 6 foot walls, electric fence on top of that, panic buttons all over the house, and guard dogs roaming the garden, it was far from idyllic.

It was after my sister's neighbour was raped and murdered that we finally decided enough was enough.

[Chris Lodge]

When I retire in a few years time, I will probably end up living in France as my wife is French and the climate is warmer in the South.

However, I think many people end up moving to France or Spain (or probably other parts of Europe) because they imagine it will resemble their experience there on holiday, but there is a whole new menu of regulations, red tape, culture and language problems to cope with.

By now, I speak pretty fluent French and I feel I could live in either country but I know I will miss England when eventually I leave.

[NikkiPilkington]

We moved to France to be nearer to my partner's children - and wouldn't come back for anything

We didn't do what most people do and move the South for the weather, we moved to the Nodr-pas-de-Calais area, about an hour from Calais, into a village near St Omer.

For the same money we paid in England, we have over twice the house and 5 times the garden. Our outgoings are much less, and even with the conversion between pounds and euros not being great, our money still goes a lot further.

We've made some good friends, and 16 months later I can say that it feels like we've always been here.

My partner was fluent in French when we moved (his ex wife is French) and my 16 year old daughter is almost fluent now. I tend not to get out and about with french people as much as I would like, so while my understanding of spoken and written French is good, it still takes me a while to work out what I want to say or write. Perks of working from home with English speaking clients, I guess!

Business wise it has been hard - the French don't have a big 'self employment, work from home' culture, which makes us slightly different, and the people we have met that work for themselves tend to run gites and guesthouses, that type of thing. The French like to have 'boxes' to put you in, and as an Internet Marketing company, working from home, with clients that pay in pounds and american dollars, and employees in France and England (so paying in pounds and Euros), they struggle to find a box for me, so they just charge me as much tax as they can and leave me alone