{"id":346440,"date":"2025-08-15T11:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T11:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346440\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T11:45:14","slug":"i-moved-from-depressing-london-to-the-south-of-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346440\/","title":{"rendered":"I moved from depressing London to the south of France"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tClaire Ferrant has lived in southwest France for 22 years – and loves her life there\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

A British woman who left the UK for the south of France<\/a> to escape the \u201crat race\u201d says her life is now far more relaxed and she has no plans to ever return.<\/p>\n

Claire Ferrant, 50, who is originally from north London<\/a>, has lived in France for 22 years, and she now teaches English to adults.<\/p>\n

Ms Ferrant, the mother of two children aged 17 and 19, told The i Paper that the way of life in France gave her more time to spend with her family than back in Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked in central London for about seven years as an executive assistant and realised I just didn\u2019t want a future in the rat race<\/a>,\u201d she said. \u201cThe climate was really depressing and I remember standing and waiting for the bus one day, asking myself: why?<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt the cold in my bones and I didn\u2019t understand why I as doing it. I really couldn\u2019t really see a future there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BungalowMs Ferrant bought her four-bedroom bungalow in France in 2006 for a quarter of its current price<\/p>\n

After her moth died in 2000, Ms Ferrant made the decision to move abroad. \u201cShe was 53 and I was 25. I thought, \u2018I have to travel now, because you don\u2019t know if you\u2019ll ever get to retirement<\/a>\u2018.\u201d<\/p>\n

She initially left the UK in 2001 to travel across Australia<\/a> in a second-hand motorhome with her boyfriend for 10 months, with the aim of eventually settling down in the country.<\/p>\n

However, she soon felt that Australia was too far from home for her, and she wanted to be closer to friends and family. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as it was fantastic, I felt that I would be alienated in Australia because I would be so far from my friends,\u201d Ms Ferrant said.<\/p>\n

They ultimately decided on France, where they moved in 2003.<\/p>\n

The couple moved to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France, where they bought a four-bedroom, 112 sq metre bungalow located on a 1,500 sq m plot of land, in the commune of Mios in 2006.<\/p>\n

\"BungalowClaire Ferrant, with her two children, aged 17 and 19<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bought it for \u20ac150,000 (\u00a3102,480) at the time. Now it\u2019s worth over \u20ac700,000 (\u00a3602,147), so we bought it at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether Ms Ferrant would consider leaving her new life to move back to the UK, she said: \u201cNever. I\u2019ll never go back to England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know France better than Britain. I like their way of life<\/a>. Weekends are still weekends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I lived and worked in London, there was no downtime. Shops are open seven days a week, some 24 hours a day. Whereas, especially when I first moved to France, Sunday opening didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were forced to relax, to be with your family, which I liked. There\u2019s more open now, but still, it\u2019s nothing like London.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe climate is also much better and it\u2019s definitely increased in temperature the past 22 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

While accustomed to the French way of life, Ms Ferrant also said she enjoyed spending time with British expats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout my career here, I have met people of many nationalities \u2013 Canadians, Americans, Germans \u2013 but I\u2019m pleased I still have my British mates here. As much as I love the French, there are times when I want to express myself in my language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also a cultural difference. I can\u2019t always be 100 per cent myself because of the differences in French culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether tourism<\/a> had taken its toll on her area, she said the only drawback was the traffic. \u201cThis time of year I absolutely hate, because if I have to drive somewhere I have to plan it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very popular where I live. The traffic doubles and triples.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a good industry for tourism. And of course there\u2019s the wine, but that just depends on the year or the climate. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tourism is great, but come October to April, it gets a lot quieter.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Claire Ferrant has lived in southwest France for 22 years – and loves her life there A British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[12824,2000,299,20291,36,7931],"class_list":{"0":"post-346440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-brits-abroad","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-expats","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-houses"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115032616158232687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}