Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Recounting...

Following an unexpectedly long absence, sincere thanks to all those who have encouraged, nay demanded, the return of 245 and Counting to the blogosphere!

Returning to the fray energised and batteries recharged (unfortunately just the laptop), the intention is to continue the theme of discussing expat life in general but hopefully with some new perspectives... certainly in past months the whole expat experience has been brought into focus by the impact of the global recession on those living far from their native shores and perhaps we will focus more on areas where the expat can be exposed to difficulties, even injustices, and occasional campaigning on behalf of fellow expats may stimulate some interesting discussion!

Whilst the original intention of this blog was to focus on the expat experience in general, there have been many requests for more description of life in France specifically - so, in the interests of responding to readers' wishes (and perhaps a little personal indulgence) a little more effort will go into recounting anecdotes of life in this amazing country - now 245 and Recounting...


Photo: Chance Agrella

2 comments:

Kristine said...

'the impact of global recession', yes we're one of those unfortunately affected particularly by the weakened pound. Just the wrong timing to come to France and buy a property here with proceeds from house sold in UK. But hey, like all things- everything will boing boing back. Pound will slowly rise. Or am I just too optimistic, hehe.

Keith Pow-Williams said...

Hi Kristine - many thanks for visiting. Yes, I agree that things will come round. Although this one has been particularly severe, recessions will happen regularly and we all have to cope the best we can, without panicking if possible.

That is an interesting point about buying in France when the Pound is weak against the Euro... but it is also the case that the economic conditions that made the Pound week also caused property prices to plummet, certainly in our region of France, the Languedoc. That does not necessarily help, but if one waits for the Pound to strengthen... well, economic conditions will probably be better then and property prices higher.

It is hard to win in a recession but at least if you are earning in France that puts you in a better position than many Brits in France whose income comes from the UK. They have seen their income devalue hugely with the weak Pound.