So, what do you miss about Britain ?

During the Christmas break and our return to the UK I was asked this question several times.

So, in no particular order, here's a short list:

1 - Proper Beer
It was a real delight to be able to drink some really good British beer over the two weeks. Ringwood beer at the Owl's Nest, Gunner's Daughter at the excellent Old Cannon Brewery in Bury St. Edmunds, Greene King IPA at The Nutshell - Britain;s smallest pub, the rarely available Abbot Special Reserve at The Oak and Harvey's Special at the Pelham House Hotel.

2 - Free Delivery
Our trips back to the UK are characterised by large numbers of deliveries and packages arriving at our host's houses; things we can't buy in France (spares for our lawn mower), things that are cheaper in the UK (satellite decoder, paint) or things that I just can't find on the internet in France (anti-butterfly netting for our cabbages). But everything comes with free next day delivery - here we are always charged for delivery even on purchases over a thousand euros from Muzillac 10km away - and rapid delivery is three days. I know we are in a distant part of France and the country is much bigger and the population more spread out than in the UK but distribution here is hopelessly inefficient.

3 - Weather forecasts that make sense. I've just watched a programme about the sixtieth anniversary of the first television weather forecast that included clips from the various styles of forecast over the year - Meteo France is stuck somewhere in the early eighties at present.

4 - High quality retailers
Nothing in France even comes close to Waitrose.

5 - BBC iPlayer
We're blocked from using it in France. We may possibly be subscribing to a VPN service shortly ,,,,

And, for contrast, 5 things that work better in France

1 - Traffic congestion
Our ferry arrived at 6:30 in Portsmouth, we cleared passport and cutoms at 7:00 and drove straight onto the M27. At 7:15 we were stationary in our first (but not last) traffic jam .....

2 - Car Parking
We spent a small fortune on parking charges in Southampton, Bury St. Edmunds and Lewes. Mostly it's free in our part of France, you have to pay to park right in the middle of Vannes but the option is free parking and a 500m walk. I've been tempted to find out if a foreign registered car will be just too difficult for a traffic warden but not been brave enough so far ....

3 - Energy
There's been a lot of wringing of hands in the UK in the past few months over rising energy costs. Despite a "free market" the costs just seem to go up and up. In France it's a bit different, technically the electricity market is open but 97% of houses are supplied by EDF whose prices are regulated by the government. 83% of electricity is generated from nuclear sources so costs are all pretty stable. For our energy at present we're paying less than half what we did in Fleet in 2010.

4 - Customer Service
Never thought I'd write this ..... but I've been having a long negotiation with Veolia over installing a new water meter. I've twice been into the local office run by a friendly lady who's run around and found the person handling my request and got them to come and speak to me ( and once to call me as they were out). I'm sure the service is a bit more expensive than in the UK but actually I'm happy to pay for this.

5 - Diesel prices
It's a government tax thing but I'm paying about £1.08 per litre for diesel (my UK fill was £1.39 per litre).