Hello from france

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whisteria

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Hi im new to the internett, englishman now retired and living deep in the countryside of france, ( a bit like going back 50 yrs really) nothing moves fast what i call peace perfect peace,
We're both very much animal lovers and like nothing better than gardening and old classic cars and motor cycles and a general chat with nice people,

So i hope to enjoy your company and share all the topics of interest.:)
 

Welcome to the forum from Arizona USA. You get a minute you might want to give us a little information about you in your profile. You'll love it here.
 

Hello to all who've said hi,
Ive done the profile bit and we've been living in france for 10 years now,
It was always a dream to get off the mad house round about and live a life of peace perfect peace, And so we managed to buy an old run down farmhouse with a bit of land in the middle of the countryside and take it from scratch doing it up and hoping the locals would except us for what we are and they have ( all six properties in this hamlet)

We did decide to knock on every door once we'd signed for the old farmhouse and introduce us to them and it worked,
So far we've been invited to two funnerals (dont laugh) its thought of as being excepted to be invited to such things and they're a very different to the way english ones are conducted,

We've been to a few christmas dinners and lots of summer evening outside wine drinking spree's (once again a very french countryside thing) The summer evening the patio and a few bottles of wine.

It really is a very slow pace of life here in the countryside and people do make time to stop and say hello, Only today i found a box of tomato plants left on our door step from one of our neighbours,
As far as traffic is concerned we're lucky if we see more than the post ladies van two local tractors and a few cars going down the lane past our house Oh and the cow's being moved from one field to the next field,
Its nothing like the city life i once lived in;
 
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Hello Whisteria, nice that you've joined us! :wave:


AAH-Welcome-Banner.jpg
 
REFspeaking french

AZ Jim said:
Do you speak French or do your neighbors speak English?
Click to expand...

Hello and once again thank you all for the welcome, to reply to jims question,

I do speak a little french by mouth and a lot by the expats way of pointing (joke) but my wife speaks first class french so we dont have any problems,
I understand more than i speak,

One or two locals can say the odd words but again just being a nice person and being your self along with a smile really goes a long way And a smile opens lots of doors.

Because the life style really is 50 years behind that of a lot of places we dont have litter or fly tipping, graffiti problems etc and you offten see people leaving their cars unlocked when parking,

The odd case of oppertunist theft has been known to happen, (thats life im affraid) but its not the norm.)

The fashion sense "well thats one thing in spite of the french being known to be on the fashion side of life has so far missed this farming area, the older ladies do still wear the cross over pinny and those fold away plastic head scarves when it rains, to see the older and young ladies driving tractors or horse drawn carts is a sight i see offten,

Now mens dress is again very countryside style,
I must admit i do let the side down here as ive for a long time taken pride in my outdoor look ref dress, but around the garden and the doggy daily walks i fit in with the locals
(not cross over pinnies) but overall's etc.

Infact i walk the dogs and carry a walking stick, one of our latest neighbours from 'Paris' asked me if i had walking problems because i walk along the tracks and fields with one of my walking sticks, Its just something ive done for years. ive no walking problems.

If any of you would like me to tell you more about how we started off here and the verious french ways of doing things ? I'd be only to pleased to do so.

Well we are about to go to a "Brocante" (thats like a car boot sale except its a street sale here) its the place to buy used goods and mix with both the french and the tourist,
We do go to the open street food and animal market on a tuesday most weeks, Now thats nothing like the "brocante" its the traditional hustle busle like any market but it has that feel of an open market with all the stalls selling anything from fruit to wine to meat/veg and chickens "live" to goats rabbits, and the cafe's,

these are the places to just sit outside enjoy a coffee and watch the world go by whilst you hear the all whats going on in front of you,
if its a nice sunny morning then the markets the place to be if you fancy that bit of noise,

But its nice to come to the end of the day and sit on the patio a night cap in hand (whisky and lemonade for me) and enjoy peace perfect peace,
I swear its so quiet some times you could hear a mouse fart.

Well its time we weren't here.
Once again thanks for the welcome.
 
Enjoying your description of life there! Sounds lovely and stress-free. I'd love to hear more. On the forum is a section called Diaries. Good place to tell us more.

I've been to France 3 times and want to do a bicycle trip around the Dordogne.
 
A warm welcome Whisteria, All the way from Australia :welcome: you will find lots of nice friendly members on this forum, if you need any help with settling in , members are more than happy to help with any question
 
Hello Ameriscot,
Once again thank you for being so friendly,
Cycling is very much a way of relaxation here in france and you'd love the countryside in the Dordogne,
It's thanks to a two week holiday that we came to live here full time,
I'll take your advice and seek out the diary page and tell our story of how we came here and all the finding and buying of the house etc,
Im sure every member will find something of interest in the topic, ie it be funny bits and the actual buying of property here.
So lets hope you really do take the advantage of your chance to do that cycle holiday,
 
Hello, Autrailia,
You folks are really leting us know more about your country every day, ie The euro song competition, and ive read with a lot of interest the animal interview ref killing cow's with hatchets,
I did see the full 34 minute video on the bbc world news and as an animal lover i can both say how sick it made me feel to see such cruel actions but secondly what a very good job the two ladies did in bringing this video to anyones attention who wants to help try stop these actions continuing,

If anyone wants to see what im talking about just tab in world news austrailia news and you'll see the headline cows killed by using an hatchet, "be warned this is a very very cruel video with no punches pulled".
Once again thanks for the very warm welcome (and for giving us "Skippy".
 
whisteria said:
Hello Ameriscot,
Once again thank you for being so friendly,
Cycling is very much a way of relaxation here in france and you'd love the countryside in the Dordogne,
It's thanks to a two week holiday that we came to live here full time,
I'll take your advice and seek out the diary page and tell our story of how we came here and all the finding and buying of the house etc,
Im sure every member will find something of interest in the topic, ie it be funny bits and the actual buying of property here.
So lets hope you really do take the advantage of your chance to do that cycle holiday,
Click to expand...

It will be a while before we can do that cycling holiday in the Dordogne as we're booked for very long holidays this year and next. And we've got in-laws in Australia who keep asking when we are coming back for a visit.

We've been to the Rhone Alpes region to a tiny village near Montelimar, Reims, Paris, and I don't really count the two trips to Callais for shopping. I much prefer the countryside. We also had short stops in France on a coach trip to Rome.

I would love to spend a couple of weeks at Plum Village in the Dordogne - Thich Nhat Hahn's Buddhist community.
 
whisteria said:
Hello, Autrailia,
You folks are really leting us know more about your country every day, ie The euro song competition, and ive read with a lot of interest the animal interview ref killing cow's with hatchets,
I did see the full 34 minute video on the bbc world news and as an animal lover i can both say how sick it made me feel to see such cruel actions but secondly what a very good job the two ladies did in bringing this video to anyones attention who wants to help try stop these actions continuing,

If anyone wants to see what im talking about just tab in world news austrailia news and you'll see the headline cows killed by using an hatchet, "be warned this is a very very cruel video with no punches pulled".
Once again thanks for the very warm welcome (and for giving us "Skippy".
Click to expand...
I seen that on the news it's very sickening ,I changed the channel .....The problem is people in Vietnem are killing Australian Cattle with sledge hammers.....Oh dear don't even want to go into that it's sickening ........
 
Hi Kadee,
Nice to hear from you,
I do agree ref the killing the cows in the manner these people are doing it, "BUT" the world needs to know whats going on and my hat is off to these two ladies who have the bottle to tell us of such evil goings on.

My grand mother always use to say you'll always find a little bit of good in the most evil ways of the world if you look for it,
Well its hard having watched that video of how these animals ended their lives at the hands of man, but as i look at one of our rescued dogs and remember the day we "d been asked to foster the german sheperd (10 years old) and in a very bad way at the time , now she's about 13 yeras old still with us and she gives us a lick every meal time, (i never thought she'd ever want a human near her after her two years locked in a cellar by her previous daughters owners after the father died, But thats the bit of good i found by trying to say "hey we're here for you".
Just wish i could save the world "but i cant" so i'll save some little bits of it and feel good about myself that im not like these evil people who properly are repeating these same evil killings as we speak?
No wonder i prefer animals to some humans.:confused:

Have a nice day and say hi to those two in your picture from me and ours.
 
Another big thank you for just being here

Once again a very big thank you for "ALL" your welcomes,

It's a very true thought "with age comes experience" no other way of getting it and to read the threads on all subjects on this forum just confirms age has its values
(and lumps and bumbs)
But we have a past and we're not to sure of if it was good or bad what with all the nasty things that have been and gone and are yet to come "but" we're still here screaming and kicking just like the day we arrived in this world,
So lets keep remembering and sharing the past "after all it was cheaper in those days".:)
 

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