Ongoing divorce from la belle France.......

Au revoir damn it!

The catalyst

And there always is one, right?

Yep.

When enough is just enough and OMG it's been such a rollercoaster! The universe wanted rid of us in France, for sure!

Look, I'm not trying to put anyone off here, there are plenty of good news 'move to France' stories and if it fits, it fits. I will still be tuning in to your French adventure and smiling.

Our personal end game, was facing financial ruin after several pertinent issues collided with no work for nearly six months! It was time to leave and I’m not unhappy about it. If it could go wrong, it did, so why continue to flog a dead horse? No point! If Philip hadn't lost his client without warning in December due to cut backs, we'd have scraped by, financed the house, rented it out and the rest would have been history. We were in fact exploring that in October/November and the bank said fine, get notaire valuations and we can sort. Only the notaries took 5 months to value and get it on paper, by then it was too late. Way too late but that’s France for you, hurry up and wait! In the UK that would be done within a week or two at the most.

We are now on day 4 post (yesterday) said fractured French adventure whilst I'm writing this, we find ourselves living out of suitcases in pretty, pleasantly green, middle England (Rutland), revisiting old haunts and asking ourselves ‘why did we ever leave’……as always, it was work related.

What was so bad about England?

Nothing really.

Sadly, there’s zero hope of us living around these parts again, because the rental stock is dire and stupidly expensive. That’s a shame. We do have some viewings booked for next week and I’m not holding out much hope for something extraordinary, but Airbnb’s are summer prices now and not doable long term, so we need to find a compromise. I guess I am prepared to roll up my sleeves in order to make it work.

Today we’ve already had to take our grubby travel clothes to a laundry service, which made us pine for our own place again too soon. Oh, to have the luxury of a washing machine!

We’ve squeezed ourselves into a one bed barn and it will certainly do for 4 weeks. However, Philip is naturally noisy, and all our gear is crowding the place already. Still, it’s very tranquil when I demand the tv is turned off and we are very much enjoying the long, unhurried walks with the dogs, knowing that real life will bite again soon enough, so this hiatus is pure gold.

We do need some repair time after such an eventful renovation and all that came after. France, even though we were clearly in the tax system didn't recognise that we were until two years ago and therefore we were fined, inspected, re-marked and well we were suddenly in trouble big time. Yes we did put all info in to the accountant after changing from AE but after a couple of years we met with AXA to start a new pension and they asked for our returns. We then went on to our online spaces to find they were completely void of anything bar the property tax! I got on to the accountant who insisted all was well but it really wasn't. I then fought tooth and nail to find out what the hell was going on? Eventually, I wrote to the tax office asking for assistance as the accountant didn't seem worried. the tax folk felt differently b ut they also coked up big time. They felt it was a post covid glitch but whatever it was it has completely ruined our lives. Oddly socials etc were coming out of the business account! Without tax returns one can't operate a financial life in France.

The inspector was racist, no doubt. We were very easy targets and she reworked our accounts and lets just say 'threw the book' at us. Yes, we employed an expert accountant from day one. This should have never have happened. Yes, we were paying some taxes. They absolutely didn't like the fact that Philip's clients were abroad and the main client being in the UK. She said we should have come home every weekend?!???? We were railroaded. We didn't get the low economic area discounts we felt we should have and basically we could have survived, just, but then he lost his last client. Boom! Obviously there’s a lot to say on this, but as we will be looking at compensation from errant accountant, I can't say much more than that right now. To add insult to injury we now need to wait until we've suffered the loss before going legal. Also, to go legal we need money to loose. Pfffffffft!

It was worse than a muddy puddle in the end. We hit very dark waters in a tax technical language we didn't understand. C'est la Vie.

Anyway, we’ve enjoyed the GF food shopping and eating out here a bit too much already but I’m glad to be back in the land of being able to eat out safely, life was getting rather tedious for me in France. I was bored, stressed and not really living, just existing.

Many of you felt our move came as a shock? Too quick maybe? Sorry about that but we are so used to beginning again and making a new home wherever we are, we just do what we must, making our lives work best we can, it’s not weird to us. It’s almost 'water off a duck’s back' really, we are, let’s just say ‘Teflon coated’. I can't understand people that stay put when something clearly isn't right? I know many of you think it’s odd, but I can assure you, the decision wasn’t made overnight; it was at least month in the making and only when the house of cards started to collapse. We just kept it to close friends and family until there was no going back.

So here we are, rather footloose and fancy free for a while. We don’t have a clue what the future holds but we will be endeavouring to find out with smiles and the late spring sun on our faces. In some ways its exciting and in others terrifying, but we really had no choice in the end, so there’s no point crying over spilt milk is there? We’ve got to trust the universe here and freewheel it a bit until we hit the right path again. All bets are off.

The French house is on the market, and I just know Maison Maurice will choose the right folks to take those outbuildings to the next level! We accomplished what we set out to do and it wasn’t a walk in the park. Snaps for us!

Where else can one get a renovated home, prime town real estate with even more potential for passing trade!

https://www.agencenewton.com/vente/maison-de-village-vendre-landivy-reference-sg-4752

Life goes on, indeed it does, with knobs on! We have definitely suffered financially by being in France. Money however, can be re-made.

Right now, I find myself drifting off on a late spring afternoon, sensing my nervous system settling, after what has been a real tough few months and no more renovating! Yeah!

What next for us?

Absolutely no idea and we will be taking it day by day, rebuilding slowly, no swift moves, remembering to enjoy the ride. I think we are both in healing mode, sleeping lots and taking good care of each other. We deserve it.

Whilst there has been a hitch work wise for Philip, he was supposed to start yesterday, it’s just paperwork and he will be on the pay roll next week. Phew. One of the main reasons we left France was the lack of work in France. We did ask for the Canada contract to be routed through France but sadly their own employment laws meant it was impossible.

France has been a disappointment to us in many ways, especially whilst trying to run an SASU business, which is likened to an LTD but not really. The French are socialist, protectionist (sorry to say this but also Brits aren't their favourite race generally) and we must not forget that. It’s not the best country in the world to be an entrepreneur for sure. We’ve found business support rather lacking including banking and our so called expert accountancy firm, not really working for us in anyway. Their incompetence has cost us greatly.

Locally, well, if you’ve followed us, you’ll know we’ve been put through it because we happened to own an access rights to our garages on a busy high street. We got in someone’s way that much was clear. They should be so ashamed of their behaviour and for us to stay would be asking us to trust the same police and Mayor that in times of crisis, are the same ones that tried intimidating us! Whilst it's all gone away now, it was nonsense and caused me personally, a lot of stress.

Ultimately, we must move on, move forward and do so with a spring in our steps and a bucket load of gumption.

D x