Anyone moved from France to Spain? - Page 2

Lived in France for five years, out west near the gironne/ Bordeaux for a year and then south in Cannes and Nice for four years,worked in every corner of France as well so pretty well traveled. Would say overall that the rural areas you def need to speak French and only the bigger cities and the Cote d azur can you speak English.

Generally the food is good and again reasonably priced but like everywhere as soon as you hit any tourist areas it tends to shoot up in price! The French typically think they are the best cooks/ chefs but I think the Italians take that title personally . The Spainish are not far behind in the cooking stakes especially in the north of the country ( look at the best restaurants in the world and many are in spain!)

Prices are a lot cheaper generally in spain then France and the UK and I think you can count on one hand the items that are dearer here in spain then France or UK .

It does get hot and stay warmer a lot longer then France and AC is a must in the summer. Beaches are a lot less busy then French ones as well.

Any paperwork always seems to entail more paperwork to achieve even simple things but again very similar to France .

My wife would personally go back to the south of France in a flash as she prefers the seasons more which you don’t seem to get as much in costa Blanca near the sea although it does get chilly in the winter months especially at night. The reason we don’t and won’t is that we have grown to love spain and the people and lack of traffic and the cheaper cost of living overall! And the fact like for like we would have to spend double or more to have what we have here! 

Good luck with your planned move and a lot happens in a month so  in five years anything could happen!

Please bear in mind that Spain is not as cheap as it used to be and income tax there is higher that UK at 24 pc and allowances lower about 6900 e per person.if you are thinking of buying a property don't buying costs 13pc and selling 7 or 81pc and they are building everywhere so house prices will only go down .

Pacoboy, I'm not bothered about comparisons with the U.K. As I've said, we haven't lived there for 15 years and won't be going back. We will be moving from France. We are already paying more tax here than the Spanish rate. The housing situation is similar, if not worse here too. From our visits to Spain, we find the food cheaper there. Also petrol and diesel are much cheaper in Spain. In fact it would be interesting to hear what people think would be cheaper in France than in Spain.

To be far it was only in the last year or so that we became so disillusioned, the change in the climate (for the worse) was a big part of it. 

Last year for instance we only got about 6 weeks use out of our pool and I'll swim at 20 degrees as long as the sun is shining. 

Sorry I mentioned it but in the last 15 years I have seen so many people struggle to sell there houses when something unforseen happens that they end up giving them away.