Living the dream

My name is Jean-Noel, born in Mauritius but nationalised British, 33 years old, living in the south of France.

I, my wife and my 3 years old daughter moved to the Pyrenees in 2004. We both left our jobs and the rat race in the UK, to come and find a more peaceful and enjoyable life in France. Our initial plan was to run a b&b, which we did. However, that wasn’t enough to pay for all the bills so my wife, who is a qualified TEFL teacher, decided that she would look for work teaching English. She found work with no problems. I continued running the b&b.

As time went by, we found that our heating bills were too expensive, as our house was in the mountains and isolated and my wife was having to drive long distances to her work. Because of these two reasons we decided to move and to stop the b&b. We moved to 45mins north of Pau, nearer to my wife’s work and cheaper heating bills.

That was in August 2006. I have since tried to find a job but with no luck. Unemployment in France is higher than the UK and to add to that, the French dubious and suspect system of having to provide a photo with your CV when applying for jobs and being British, I still haven’t found a job.

So my wife and I decided that I would become an English teacher as there is a big demand for them. As she is already working as one, she has contacts, friends who would, almost certainly, find me a job. So, in October 2006 I started a long distance TEFL course. Keep watching, there will be more…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can comment on this entry.