Thoughts on France

I keep telling myself I "should" be out there looking for properties right now (or locations at least) but somehow "should" isn't part of my vocabulary, and quite honestly I don't feel like going anywhere just yet.

From what I've heard around the blogs it sounds as though they are having freak weather there too, so perhaps it's just as well I'm feeling lazy. A bigger concern has come my way, namely that I would be better off starting an online business here in the UK first, before permanently re-locating. Moving to France without an income, or at least with some trading figures to show the French authorities for "permission" to do what I want on a self-employed basis in France, was starting to feel a bit precipitous. Living off my savings account is eroding my capital and I'm also wondering whether plunging headlong into the remote countryside, coming straight from a large city with everything nearby that I need, wouldn't be a touch foolish at first, even for me, especially as I don't drive.

So yet another decision has been made which feels right for now. After realising that I get culture shock when the shops are closed two days a week (Sun/Mon) in France, and that the energies in France feel too economically stagnant to get any business off the ground, and the fact that I need to take driving lessons in order to live in the countryside, would be to take it all in stages.

It is so much easier and less expensive to launch a business from here in the UK. It's not what I originally planned to do, but I need to trust my gut feelings.
I also don't intend to be one of the 50% or more Brits who end up returning to the UK because they hadn't thought enough about how they would maintain themselves financially in France, and even though I'd planned to let out a couple of spare rooms to holiday-makers during the high season, that really is only a supplement rather than an annual income. I love trading online and I know I can have a website wherever I live, and for those first couple of years I wish to devote as much time to establishing a business before transferring it elsewhere and having to deal with even more projects to sort out once I get there. One step at a time.

Also, I honestly don't feel that I could take on alone all the things I'd planned and wanted to do, without some kind of help from others. Even trying to get a team behind me in France by posting on the French messageboard shared by those of the same affiliation of teachers didn't bring forth any enthusiasm or offers of help, just mild curiosity. France feels too laid back to get anything done, even a driver to drive me around which I would have paid for seemed like asking for the impossible. I'm not blaming them or anyone, and I know from experience that if something is starting to feel like a struggle, then there is a better way. Right now I just want to take the easiest and less stressful route, regain my full health, and attend to my own immediate needs first.

So the urgency for finding a French house asap has dwindled and now the focus is on starting an online business first and moving out of my London flat to a larger place somewhere in the UK. It is just for the first couple of years, and I can then view property in France at a more leisurely pace as it takes the pressure off of my need to vacate my present apartment. It is too noisy here as there are building works going on all around me, I have no room to store anything, and I yearn for a garden. House prices here are falling fast so I may even pick up a bargain as it's a buyers market at the moment. Now I feel I'm doing the location search all over again, only this time in southern England.