I'm leaving this god forsaken country too. Within the next six months hopefully I will have sorted everything out and will be moving to - wait for it - Nantes, France.

no problems with kids; there are plenty of cheap flights between East Midlands and Nantes, I've booked three during the next two months and none of them have cost me more than £30 return including taxes so the chabbies can visit at least once a fortnight and I'll be back and forwards too.

Gotta get out, I'm starting to hate this country.

Why Nantes then??

I mean it's nice enough like, but what's there that scooped you in??

bon chance et bon voyage

nantes is near my favourite part of france on that coast

st nazaire is nice
noirmoutier is delightful but very french
and the coast going down from there is ideal for a break
plenty of dutch n english - but not too many
keep away from Sables d'olonne too busy
but st gilles croix de vie and st jean de monts are great
and don't get me started on the markets and the bakers....

I hold you in envy sir

wish I could afford to move away


fair play to ya Mr.I

It's universally believed to be the best place to live in France - by the French. I've been there a few times and liked it a lot too. The only problem is that there's a couple of months a year it pisses down, like I'm not used to that!!

Property is reasonably priced although I'm going to rent for the first year I reckon. A decent apartment fairly central is about £400 - £500 a month.

As Mr Glasses would say; Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here.........

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche,scaramouche will you do the salsa

Reviews:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 17,00.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main. ... /etwtr.xml

Hmmmm - very popular no doubt but the universal choice among people I meet turns more towards the North and East. The only problem with the East is it freezes your balls off in winter. The North of France is just like the North of England.

Having said that the one single town that is regularly voted the place where people would most like to live or to set up business is............?

P.S. Not dissing Nantes as a choice. Especially compared with your second choice.

Actually that going to be a big help because I'm moving there on my ownsome. Admittedly the whole Salsa scene is incredibly cliquey but if you're any good its quite easy to integrate and develop a circle of friends quite quickly.

If you do the Tango too you will be a sensation. I guarantee you.

Is Nantes the city with the HUGE bridge. I drove through on our way to camp in the Vendee a few years ago, the bridge was very impressive, not so sure about the city. But I suppose you can't tell much about a place in a 10 minute drive through.

This one you mean? No that's St Nazaire just down river on the coast.

It might have been Mr H, but I don't remember those big red and white pointy things!!

Just remember, skinflint that I am, keeping away from the toll roads. My excuse was you get to see more of the 'real' France.

That's this year's away strip

I'll pass I'm afraid. I do know the very basics of it but I can't get motivated to learn anything Argentine.

Can certainly understand that

There used to be one of these in Nantes. I'm sure you know the system.

How old do you think I am?

crossed that bridge a few year back
it's beautiful and i aint one for heights

It is a big brassy tart of a bridge no mistake. St Nazaire is like Port Clarence but with a bigger bridge.

Or do you mean Millau Viaduct/Bridge?

That's a misleading fish-eye view if there ever was one. In reality it's dead straight!
Millau viaduct is an hour's drive from here. It is truly astounding when you're close to it looking up, or even in an aeroplane looking down, but when you're on it you don't notice anything special at all.

good luck Mr I

Good on ya Mr I hope you enjoy it.

Emigrating is one of the things that always seems to crop in conversations between me and the mrs. We both fancy Australia or Canada, we can get a visa no problem because of her qualifications. I think that we are are going to get our family sorted first before/if we make the jump.

Well it's been over 20 years for me and looking back it doesn't seem that big a deal.
It did however seem a much bigger leap at the time.

I'm happy just where I am ...... I've realised that if you're pissed off here ... you'll soon be pissed off there. It's not the location, it's the attitude.

That can't have been the one, it's too far south, and it wasn't completed for another ten years. Our trip to the Vendee was in 1995.

Yes, yes, yes, lovely bridges all of 'em, but why Nantes???

Ah, .... I see, it's the monthly meeting of the 'French Bridges Fetish Society' ........... my apologies.....

There's a fair sized bridge in Rennes with a hell of a gradient just as you pass the footy stadium on your left , which you possibly cross when Vendee bound depending of ocurse on where you docked.

Yes, and I'm the chairman!!!



Here's another one for you if ever you land in Le Havre.

It's very................................. sort of ......'bridgey' ... in a 'bridgey' way.

The trick is to keep moving....have realised that too late. Bedsitters and rented flats are the key to happiness. Mortgages cramp your nomadic life style!

Chuck kids and marriages into the equation and you're probably right. Personally I would prefer to move cities and even countries every couple of years.

Snowy, thats a bit of a generalisation. In my case I've fancied living in France for many years and even managed it for a few months. The difference now is that its realistically possible whereas it wasn't before.

A generalisation in as much as that's how I feel ...... you of course can do just what you like.

I hate garlic. I think its the vampire in me.
If I were to eat anything with garlic in it Then I too would have {"W W W W W W W W W D W D W W W W W W W D D W W - arguably one of the ten greatest runs of all time"}
KEY: W=wee
D=dump

Looks like I'm never going to find out why it's Nantes then eh??

Good luck mate, but rather you than me!

I've never understood people wanting to move abroad to live, but at the same time each to their own cos it would be boring if we were all the same!

But how often would you be able to get to Pools matches? That would be the absolute clincher for stopping me going, although I tell Mrs R that it's to do with staying near family!

The worrying thing though is that the general concensus on here seems to be that living out of Hartlepool or the UK is the way forward- and that there's only Snowy who I agree with

Maybe it's time then for me to reveal that I'm seriously considering moving back, or at least going 50/50 between here and the UK. (Mediterranean weather does have a lot of pull! )

Do you want to buy my house?

Do you live near Doncaster?

Why Donny?

Of course.

Deal, then?

Scunthorpe isn't far from Doncaster, is it Mr H?

I do/did and my gaff's up for sale. 13 miles from Donny straight up the A1.

OMG I'm being stalked!

We were round at the wifes uncles yesterday and they have just got back from Perth and they loved it. After looking at some photos, even though it was their winter, it looks like it is a beautiful place which has swayed our thinking even more to going out there.

They stayed with her aunties cousin, ex Pools player called Graham something who played in the 80s, and what they told us about living conditions, taxes, health care etc made it sound really appealing.

Her uncle did get funny looks when he went for a swim in the sea though, the locals thought it was cold at around 21 o C

Maybe I'm still in the first flush of enthusiasm but nine months in, wild horses couldn't drag me back.