Expat Exodus

March 3, 2009 Longrider French Matters 6

I had forgotten about this story. Indeed, I was unaware of it until I read about it in the print version of Connexion shortly before returning to the UK last week. I was reminded because as always when meeting clients, they ask how things are going since I moved to France. Today, one such client asked me how the exchange rate was affecting me and was I likely to be joining the droves returning to these shores?

The Connexion story (not available online) pretty much debunked the UK press stories. Expats are, by and large, getting on with it. They will – if they were sensible – have allowed some cushion room, as I explained some time ago to Neil Harding when he thought that he had something to crow about following the dip in the pound.

The exchange rate is an inconvenience and it does devalue the money we have, but; there is no evidence of a mass return, no matter how much the British press would like to indulge in schadenfreude.

I have to come back to the UK to work and on each occasion, my heart sinks when I get into the car and point it Blightywards. My feelings are echoed by other expats.

But I prefer the facts over the rhetoric. Expats who carefully looked at the cons as well as the pros, gave themselves room to manoeuvre in case things go wrong, were pessimistic in terms of expected costs and profits from planned business ventures, will be staying firmly put. These people – barring extreme bad luck – are in their adopted homes for good. Many left for pastures new, not because they expected them to be greener (and cheaper) all year round, but because they felt there was something lacking in the hectic, stress-ridden, profit- and self-centred US-led ‘Western Way’ and preferred the family and community-oriented, more laid-back lifestyles to be had elsewhere.

 The Frogblogger mulls it over with a glass of wine:

Britain, the best place to be? A glass of Cote du Rhone from the vineyards on the slopes over the valley while I think about that one. Didn’t take long. Next question please…

And concludes:

Will I be going back to the UK? You would have to manacle me to the tail end of a TGV and drag me through the Tunnel. Climate, culture and lifestyle provide me with more than enough reason to stay put in France, even if the £ retreats from parity with the euro.

 That goes for me, too.

 

 

 
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6 Comments

  1. I played golf yesterday at Perigueux, had to take my bodywarmer off at ten thirty, my jumper came off at eleven thirty. I played badly and paid my losses of three euros which is now allbut three pounds. Would I go back to U.K. not on your rouge plonk.

  2. Perigueux… You must know Brantôme. A colleague of my wife’s came from there and we’ve used it as a pleasant stopping off point when travelling back to the UK in the past. It’s a bit commercialised, but very attractive – the one being responsible for the other, I suppose…

  3. Friends who left the UK ten years ago and have since lived first in Spain and now in Greece say that their hearts sink whenever they touch down at a British airport.

  5. I know Brantome its truly picturesque,like Mompazier, Drome and St. Emillion which is about 15k from where I live and which I seem to leave each time with a satisfied rosy glow.

  6. James, my French isn’t up to it yet. We are looking at starting a business in the next year or so, once we have settled. That will reduce my need to come back.

    Peter, I do love Brantôme – if we hadn’t settled for the Larzac, the Perigord would have been high on our list.

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