Saturday 18 July 2009

Sunflowers and Shops

Sadly I have had to call a halt to the renovations in my little shop in Le Dorat. I am not sure if I want to stay in France or go back to live in England and I can't carry on paying out money for something that I may never use. Ian has now finished all the work I can afford to pay for, and he got this far with the floor:

It is looking lovely and I wish I could afford to finish it. Maybe I should do that Lottery thing...

With regard to running a business in France, I am now pretty sure that all that reliably sells in this region is food. There is no 'decoration' ethic here - not many people even make the outside of their houses look nice, and the inside often looks as if you have stepped back in time (except for the widescreen TV)! They just live their lives quite happily without ornaments, carpets, curtains and regular coats of new paint. Perhaps there is a lesson there to be learnt - family wins over materialism. Besides that, the taxes and social contributions are high, so that you end up paying almost half your income to the state and, as I am already receiving a pension and have health care benefits from the UK, I would be paying in for nothing. Although I want something to occupy my time, I'm not sure that running a business is the right thing.

If I want to sell my house there is work to be done on that and I really need to look after the pennies (actually I would like someone to look after THIS Penny) if I am going to get it all presentable and put on the market.

All rather depressing - but then this field of sunflowers cheered me up on the way home today - the countryside here is so beautiful!


1 comment:

Lilbitbrit said...

I'm sure it must be a hard decision. I have lived in the States for over thirty years, but still have a feeling of wanting to go back to the UK. But my husband says the 'grass is always greener, and I think there is some truth to that, because if I went back, I would miss things in the States.

It's a shame to have done all that work in the shop, but I understand what you say about the French and buying. Is there nothing you could do on the internet, with all that French ambience.

Christy