Last year the "convention"was around 1800euro per mth plus your frais(you will not be out of france every night)of around 1000euro that makes 2800euros which is less than £500 per week less less tax and the rest,and that is WITH night out money incluced and you will be away from home.Good on you that you have a job but why would anyone want to up sticks with the family only to leave them behind for weeks on end and unless living in the middle of nowhere is your thing the difference between the cost of living is not so great here in France.
The ANPE were giving free courses away to anyone who would take them down here as no one now wants to drive a truck for a living and be away from the wife and kids all week.Me I have had a belly full of it,each time I go over in to Spain(2/3 times a month) via la jounqura and see all the trucks fighting for a space to park up,(most are from the eastern europe,that is another thing completely,although Nobby as many trucks run by polish driver with polish reg’d trucks…)I have to smile and think to myself how glad I am out of all that.
All this talk of France being cheaper than the UK , I realy dont think France is much cheaper ,the only thing seems to be Routier food ,tax de habitation tax de fornicier and wine. When we first came here 16 years ago we bought our first house (3 bed ) for £ 3000 , it changed hands last year for 220500 eur. Diesel now is about 1.30 eur. per litre,last year i was paying 76 cents per litre at Intermarche. I think since we got the Euro everything is going to be the same price, a beer used to 1 euro in Malaga ,when we were there last month it was 2 eur. the same as France.
That was always the idea of the Euro. A bottle of Coke will cost the same in Denmark ,UK ,France or Spain. What they didn’t say was that the bottle of Coke they were talking about was the expensive German one. It hasn’t leveled prices out it has simply raised them,Germany included.
kerbut:
All this talk of France being cheaper than the UK , I realy dont think France is much cheaper ,the only thing seems to be Routier food ,tax de habitation tax de fornicier and wine. When we first came here 16 years ago we bought our first house (3 bed ) for £ 3000 , it changed hands last year for 220500 eur. Diesel now is about 1.30 eur. per litre,last year i was paying 76 cents per litre at Intermarche. I think since we got the Euro everything is going to be the same price, a beer used to 1 euro in Malaga ,when we were there last month it was 2 eur. the same as France.
Well I can only think that as you are in Brittany you are suffering from proximity to the UK and easy access.
Food on the road is a big thing for drivers, so an important comparison.
Likewise for the public at large, d’Habitation and Fonciere as the equivalent of Council tax are a major factor.
Can’t speak about house prices as I’m not looking, we are still in the same house as 15 years ago but I do note that prices seem to be higher.
But diesel, what? 
I get it locally for € 1. It has never been higher than about € 1.10. On Euro day in 2002 it was € 0.72.
Sounds like large regional differences though Kerbut, I remember that when I was rolling for Gauthier’s we filled up everywhere at AS24s but had a long list of the ones to avoid as being too expensive.
Spardo
I think you are right,our local Routier where we eat every Monday and Thursday is 9.80 including coffee and 1 Litre of wine and 5 courses , I think diesel your end may be cheaper due to refineries in Bordeaux maybe,I would think the nearest to us would be Le Harve,but thats 4 hours away.
€1.30!! It’s around the Euro mark here, some weeks just under, others just over… Oh well, at least the steaks are cheaper and better quality! Can’t beat a good bit of Limousin steak! 
FRANCE would be my first and only choice,if i was to live abroad.having worked over there a lot and my twice yearly visit to fish over there i love the place.
give me FRANCE anytime please.i have a freind who owns a property company over there and for what you can get in the country for what you get over here is just amazing.
pace of life,quality of life,just gimmee NOW.
I think what you really mean is the french countryside living,the cites in france(world over even)are nearly all the same,I would not live in perpignan for anything or anyother big town/city but more than 20/30 kms away and it is a different world.That it self bring problems re work etc.
froggy:
I think what you really mean is the french countryside living,the cites in france(world over even)are nearly all the same,I would not live in perpignan for anything or anyother big town/city but more than 20/30 kms away and it is a different world.That it self bring problems re work etc.
I would swap Perpignan or Paris for (zb) South London any day!!!
Maybe they have a better class of scumbag, gangsta, drug dealer, aylum seeker and low life down there!!!
Admittedly, Nice and Marseille can be abit dodgy in parts but they`re nothing like the more “salubrious” areas around “My Manor”!! 