Hi OLD GREYFOX
Boy am I glad your doing well after three heart attacts and again i am pleased you got good treatment,
But you must not think it cost you nothing? If you paid Tax and had N,Insurance taken from your earnings in the past? Then you have paid for the treatment, but if you landed in the UK, by Boat etc etc, And have never worked or paid anything ? Then it cost you nothing,
Thats the difference, These people who head for the UK Going through France to name but one country to get to the UK, know the free for all is waiting for them,
Same as those cradel to grave dole bums who do not do any work but manage to have a wage paid via the Dole etc have no intention of working, They become un-Employable,
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But learn by them
You’ve forgotten to tell our english readers that the french made a law many years ago that the Breadside of food would not ever go up in price, the prices for all the breads has stayed the same for years,
The supermarkets have large pkts of the likes of bread deals with more that four items in these pkts at a higher cost "but yuor getting more for your money,
Somewhat similar for us now. I did miss the farm out in the hills but then I went to university and then I went to work all over the world. Then we retired and settled down in a quiet cul-de-sac with lovely neighbours,
Some, perhaps.
But my experience is there is mostly still shops and small businesses in French towns and villages. Typically rates and rents are lower - that has been one the principle killers of small retail in the UK. Certainly there are no, literally not one, charity shop or betting shop.
Not so keen on betting shops since I’m not much of a gambling man. Occasional lottery ticket and a few charitable causes that have small lottery prizes (never won anything yet 
). No charity shops? I think they are a good thing.
Perhaps people who leave the UK have left their hearts here. Impossible to move on entirely maybe.
I doubt it Mart, they turned their backs on patriotism and the love of their country and left us in the brown stuff. If you notice, it’s all of those who voted to stay in the EU and keep harping on about it…
I don’t think we ever see criticism of an ex-pats choice of country until prodded into it by someone who has left. Hard to believe but some of us do have a love of the land they were born in and will respond when it is knocked. It can be compared our family to me. We can criticise it but nobody outside can without something being said.
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I lived in London for the first twenty-six years of my life, now been living in the Italian countryside for longer and I very much prefer the peace and quiet of nature to a bustling city. 
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Here here mart, we won’t have mommy bad mouthed.
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I should learn to keep quiet.
One thing a lot of ex-pats tend to do is leave the UK and come to France and bring their problems with them,
They want to change the new country they have moved to instead of fitting in with the local way of life,
Excellent observation of quite a few Brits who end up in France - but not all of them of course.
Hard to believe, it seems, but migrants like myself most often retain a very significant love of their country of birth. They truly want that country to succeed and be a good place to live for all who live there. Its important to be aware that criticism of what goes on in their native country is a criticism of the policies or actions or statements - not a criticism of the country itself. The criticism is to try to highlight the issues with the policies or statements - to avoid the country going in the wrong direction. To continue your comparison, I’m still in the family even though I’ve moved out of the family house. So I do think I’ve the right to voice my opinion on what’s going on in the UK.
You, not living in France, can also voice your views on France - but I’ll view such views with caution as you most likely don’t know too much about life here.
I suppose I feel quite privileged to have been able to experience two completely different ways of life. I could make a long list of all the negative aspects here but I’ve never had any regrets and I’m proud to be British born and bilingual 
!
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It might be peaceful now in the unspoilt countryside of France, but how about if all us Brits decided to come and live next door to you and turn it into the overpopulated multicultural country that the UK has become now. People en masse tend to change their new home to the one they left behind.
I’d suggest watching the last episode in a short series that Simon Reeves made about Scandinavia. Especially the problems in Sweden and the actions to avoid such problems in Denmark.
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