personal view

About us and a personal view.

We bought the campsite Les Chenauds just over five years ago. Within sight of retirement, even with two company pensions, we would find it difficult to have a decent standard of living in the UK, given the almost day to day increases in living costs. After a lot of searching and a great deal of research, we chose central/south west France and were fortunate to find Les Chenauds which we considered ideal for our needs. Being a small site, we could never earn a living income but our pensions cover most needs and we have the advantage of meeting many new friends and letting others enjoy the ambiance of rural France , you could say that Les Chenauds is really a hobby!

There are some similarities to life in the UK but many differences, some things are worse here but the vast majority of things are better.

In the UK , we could never hope to own a three bedroom detached farmhouse with 5 acres of woodland, a spring and brook leading to a natural pond and a wine cellar as well as a number of barns. Our semi in the UK attracted £1500 pa community charge – Les Chenauds attracts a number of taxes ( Fonciere and Habitation) which is around 300€ (say£250) pa and the services we get for this are far superior to that provided by the UK local authorities.

One difference to the UK , the penalty one pays for space, is the distance one must travel for the larger shops. Although we have supermarkets within 10/15 minutes, for a superior choice one would need to travel to Limoges , about 45 minutes and one must time one's visit carefully as most shops close from 12 noon to 2 PM and some close half or all day Monday.

Food costs are maybe a little more than the UK but the quality is often better, local markets are good for fresh vegetables and fruit and the pork and duck are particularly good.

Eating out is cheap – lunchtime one would normally pay 10 – 14€ for a 3 or 4 course meal which usually includes wine.

The main thing which makes the quality of life so much better here is the attitude of the local French population who are almost invariably friendly, everyone shakes hands with everyone else, stranger or not, with a kiss on the cheeks for the ladies. Their respect for the British dates back to WWII when we supported the very active resistance movement You still see many small roadside monuments to those who were killed around D Day when they attempted to stop a panzer group reaching Normandy .

A couple of times a year the major shops have “Soldes”(Sales) and if you are in particular need of something specific, say a cooker, a bed or garden furniture it pays to wait until it is on offer ( We saved nearly 1000€ on our central heating boiler this way).

The climate is generally similar to the south of UK but usually get quite a bit of rain in early spring, hot summers often running into October with the odd summer storm and quite cold winters however, if the cloud cover lifts, the sun is always hot, I got a suntan last February working outside in a week of unbroken sun.

Travel on the roads is a pleasure with little traffic and spectacular countryside. Parking is easy everywhere except major town centres where it is still cheap, usually less than 1€ for 2 hours. There are few buses outside towns and the nearest railway to us is at Eymoutiers, 30 minutes away. The Cruese is a ramblers and cyclists paradise, the Tour de France came past the door 2 years ago, and the fishing is second to none in this department known for its lakes and rivers.

Flights into Limoges airport from London Stansted, Southampton, Liverpool and Nottingham at low prices mean that access is easy by air.

Would we return to live in the UK ? Not a chance, there is a quality of life here which is difficult to quantify exactly but a couple of examples may help.

For health care one must have private insurance and it probably costs a little more than the national insurance in the UK but the service is internationally recognised as first class.