we have now moved to france !

[Fille écossaise]

Hi All

We have now moved to France (area 16) and I would like to say it all went well - but we are here now lock stock and barrell- and there is no point complaining about how bad the move was, suffice it to say we learned a valuable lesson!!

And at last after 4 weeks of constant phone calls to french telecom, we now have our internet up and running, so I am able to come on line now and say "hi" or bonjour!

We are having more French classes here, as we weren't as good as we thought we were!! I would totally urge anyone to at least learn the basics before you move here, we had 10 months of lessons in the uk and thank goodness we did, but obviously you will need to learn more once you are here, unless you are like hundreds of other Brits who come here and think they don't need to know the language!! I can't wait for the day when I can have a proper conversation with my neighbours.

I am now in the process of looking for a bed for the spare room, I didn't think it would be so hard!! I found a nice metal bed, and then I was asked if I would like slats or a mattress base, (this costs extra) then you have to buy a mattress to go on top of that, I think the shop assistant must have found me slightly mad!! with my broken French and his broken English - at least we laughed a lot, but I still didn't buy a bed!! Is there such a thing as a divan bed with drawers over here??

[Jenny]

Hi Debbie and I hope you are settling in to French life!

What was the valuable lesson you learnt? Or was it that you need to learn as much French as possible? I agree that it really does make life a lot easier if you have at least a basic knowledge - people are always more willing to try their English/try to help you if you make the effort.

Did you get a kitchen sorted? And what about everything else? Was the removals company reliable? And if so could you let us know their name so others who want to make the move can find it when searching on here.

Regarding the bed, is this what you mean? http://www.decofinder.com/df/FR/produits/4024/Lit-Simple-A-Tiroirs.html

Very often you will find the structure is sold separate. Maybe it would be best to find a picture of exactly what you want on the internet, print it out and take it to the shop so it's easier to explain!