Ever since I was a child Ihave always liked France and things French, I have always felt comfortable andhappy in France, so how I ended up living for decades in Germany is a mystery.Now that my son is grown up and northern German winters have taken their toll,I am ready and eager to move to theDordogne/Limousin something I have wanted todo for a long time. I am Self-employed by the way.I have done a lot of researchon line, but find that the experiences of expats in France are ofteninvaluable. I do have many questions that I would like to ask, but I will limitthem to a couple for the time being at least.I am the kind of person who doesnot like living somewhere if I cannot speak the language, so learning French isimperative for me. My French is not good at the moment, I try to learn Frenchat home, but end up forgetting most of it, as there is no one to practice withhere. I will be doing a 2-week intensive course this year, but this will onlyget me to a basic level. The only way to really improve my French though, is tomove to France. So my first questions are:How was your French when you firstmoved to France? How were you able to cope with things like visits to the localauthorities (to do all the paper work) and coordinating things like telephone,electric, TV and tax returns? Are there English speaking people in theDordogne/Limousin who can provide these services whilst I improve my French?Onefinal thing that interests me is this, home owners in Germany are subjected tomany petty rules, but by far the worst is that house owners have to pay acertain percentage of any work done to the road they live on. So if you live ona small residential road, the residents of the stretch being worked on will paybetween them (depending on size of their land), as far as I remember, about 60%of the total cost. In some cases people (often pensioners) have had bills of upto €20,000, many of these people have had to sell up. Is there any similarsetup in France? Thanks forthe help.
