Working in France

[Bushwhacker1]

May be on the move to France next year (wife may be asked to relocate for her job to Paris).

Has anyone any experience of working as a tiler in France?

Thanks all..

 

[DHTiling]

A few members have done jobs for customers in France but haven't heard of any actual tilers on here living there..

 

[Freyanne]

Obvious question but what are your language skills like? You're unlikely to have enough English speaking customers so will need to be able to communicate with the French I'd imagine.

 

[Bushwhacker1]

Wife is fluent (which helps) and ill start learning myself before we get out there.

 

[borgie]

i have worked in the south of france. nice pace of life there. start at 7 til 12 then 3 -5 in the afternoon. this was the opening times of the suppliers too. nothing open on a sunday and some places open sat mornings. the french addy and grout was good. you can get mapei over there.not sure how the french tilers would take to you. we didn't really make any friends over there and we did try, our french was pretty poor though, basic high school standard. i hope everything goes well over there if you do decide to go.

 

[Andy Tiler]

May be on the move to France next year (wife may be asked to relocate for her job to Paris).

Has anyone any experience of working as a tiler in France?

Thanks all..

hi bushwhaker i ,lived in france a few years ago for 2 years really enjoyed it. but i was in the brittany region more countryfied, my french was terrible. but after trawling through a few job agencies i got on with a french commercial tiling company and after a few months they took me on fulltime,and that was how i learned my french,it wasnt fun being the only english guy on the building site not knowing what they were calling me:chinese: but i was soon givin it em bak.my experience with the french, you couldnt wish to meet nicer people.i wish i was bak there

 

[Deleted member 1779]

As a manufacturer (looking for distributors) We have been trying to crack the French market for tools for a number of years with limited success. Our diamond core drills are called foret diamant in french and we even had a domain set up to service the French to search for us and buy goods.

But apparently the tools market in France is a totally different arena to the UK.

If you are out there and can get us any contacts (we will reward ANYONE for this) then please shout.

Note to other readers we are constantly looking for good routes to retail markets in all countries. If you have a lead or source let us know.

But it was the French market that was a very difficult nut to crack. And we are still trying!

Good luck with your new life and stay in touch with the forum.

RICHARD