Tuesday 4 June 2013

As Interview with Jacqui Brown - A British Expat now living in France

Since setting up the business so much has been happening and it's all been going crazy, but definitely in a good way! I wanted to write a blog post to let you know of the progress. Since the first sale to Barcelona, we have received even more orders! Great News! J It's been very encouraging and have really been enjoying sending all the British food items across the world including HP Sauce to Sweden, Pot Noodles to the Netherlands and Marmite to France. I think people have really appreciated the personal touch we put into all of our food packages!

British Essentials were also asked if we would like to submit a travel publication written from the perspective of our British Expats twitter followers, focusing upon experiences and the British food that they missed when moving away from the UK.  This sounded like a fantastic idea, and got to work right away... however nothing prepared me for the number of responses received from many British Expats across the world. The British Expat interviews will now be published here weekly. 

Our first interview comes from Jacqui Brown - A British Expat living in France

Jacqui Brown - British Expat who moved to France in 2004
Q) Hi Jacqui thanks for agreeing to take part, could you let us know a bit more about you? 
I am a wife, a Mother, an animal lover, a try-my-best vegetable grower and home cook, an avid reader, a book reviewer and a blogger living frugally in France since 2004. I swapped city living and rail commuting for village life with an orchard, a vegetable garden, a goose, ducks, chickens and rabbits and couldn’t be happier. Despite the frustrations of French bureaucracy I’m still in love with France and enjoy sharing my family adventures and French life tips on http://www.frenchvillagediaries.com and helping others to find their perfect French holiday on http://www.specialplacesinfrance.com


Q) Sounds like quite a change,  how did you find the transition of moving to a foreign country?
We knew France fairly well before moving here, but it was still a slow process to settle in and a steep learning curve, especially in terms of paperwork. For a country so geographically close to the UK we are very different culturally and I don’t think we appreciated this fully until we arrived. Having a school aged child helped as it gave routine to our lives and threw us into local community life.

Q) So I guess that really provided you a platform of meeting new people and making new friends?
Yes meeting people was easy especially as I quickly got involved at school, helping out on trips and running an English conversation club for the children. I also put my name down to help out in the village whenever a plea for volunteers was made. I am on the village monthly magazine, help to organise an annual charity meal and a summer picnic in the park and take my turn to run the library. We have a small circle of expat friends as well, as chatting/relaxing in English will always be easier than in French, however as we are not overly outgoing people we don’t attend many of the expat social events that are available in this area.

Q) How is the quality of life compared to home, and what are the things you most like doing living in France?
I think our quality of life is about as good as it gets. We now have the time and land to grow our own vegetables and keep chickens, a large fruit and nut orchard that doubles up as a great outdoor space for our son and lots of time spent together as a family. We will never be wealthy in terms of money, but there are not many 12 year olds who can say that they have had both parents home for the two months of the school summer holiday since they were four years old. We live in a rural area, so big attractions are not on our doorstep, but we are only an hour and a half from the Atlantic coast for days at the beach, and the local theme parks of Futuroscope and Puy du Fou are also just close enough for a day trip. What we do love is that we are able to take our bicycles out and spend our days exploring the quite roads of our region, the Cognac vineyards, the canal network of the Marais Poitevin and the salt marshes of the Charentes Maritime.

Q) What negatives, if any are there to living in the UK?
It is always hard to leave family behind, especially when you have young nieces and nephews who change so much between visits.

Q) What are your top 5 expat tips for new expat arrivals following in your footsteps?
Learn the language.
Think very carefully about where your income is going to come from.
Try to get involved in your new community, even if you feel your language isn’t yet good enough.
Don’t expect life to be one long holiday.
Don’t take on the renovation of a ruin unless you are a builder and have a bottomless wallet.

Q) What is the cost of living like compared to home?
Generally, I think France is more expensive to the UK for many things, aside from house prices. Social contributions and taxes if you run your own business are much higher than in the UK as is the majority of food in the supermarkets (we are only recently seeing offers like ‘three for two’ here). Utilities and internet/phone costs are also higher, again mainly due to the lack of offers and deals available. Although insurance premiums have risen I think they are less than the UK, but shopping around and changing providers is not as easy. Wine, however, remains very good value!

Q) On the topic of food, How does food in your country compare to food back in the UK?
I have no complaints here. France has a very good attitude to food and it is taken very seriously from school meals for nursery aged children and right through your life. Our son has always had a three course balanced meal with lots of variety for his school dinners and because of this will now eat most things. The French are very good at seeing food as a pleasure, but are sensible with their portion sizes so it is possible to go out to lunch for a three course meal, but not feel too full for the rest of the day. Seasonal produce is also something that is very important in France and I have to say it makes sense, why eat strawberries in December when they taste nothing like locally grown strawberries in June? France has taught me to eat for the enjoyment the food and flavours give rather than just mindlessly eating.

Q) Is there any particular foods you miss from home?
Generally we are more than happy with the food on offer here in France, but they just don’t get Marmite and we can’t live without it.          

Q) If you could bring just 5 food/drinks products from the UK to your country, what would they be and why?
Marmite, it is available here, but only in very small jars for a very high price.
BitesizeShredded Wheat, French cereal has nothing to offer that is similar as they prefer sweet, chocolaty breakfasts and I’m a fibre girl!
TwiningsLemon and Ginger Teabags a must for us to start our day and although there are many flavours of tea/infusions available in France, unfortunately Lemon and Ginger isn’t one of them.
Cheddar cheese, a nice strong extra mature one. We love French cheese and eat lots of it, but despite having many different varieties they don’t have anything quite like a strong Cheddar.
A sliced brown, granary loaf of bread to make sandwiches with. Fresh French boulangerie bread is delicious, but getting wholemeal or granary bread is very difficult and as I said before, I’m a fibre girl.

Q) How does your grocery shopping experience differ from when you were in the UK?
Although things have changed a lot in France in the eight years we have been here, generally speaking the availability of fresh produce is still very seasonal and there is less choice in ready meals and cooking sauces (which certainly helped my culinary skills when we first arrived). Markets are also very popular and many people still prefer to buy local. All of this is a good thing in my opinion.

Q) And Finally, is there other advice you would give to new expat arrivals?
Have fun, join in as much as possible and make the most of the new cultural experiences you find.

Jacqui Brown, 2013


If you would like to feature on the British Expat travel publication email: mail@britishessentials.com 


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