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JUSTINE: now it feels formal thank FOMATPLAY: yeah thank you Justine for your time that's the first thing I wanted to tell you and um so as you know the aim of this interview today is to have a better understanding about how people experienced freedom of movement within Europe so um maybe before telling me um how you ended working and living here in Joncet is it okay if you can tell me a few words about you like where you grew up or where you come from just just roughly JUSTINE: okay FOMATPLAY: where you where you come from JUSTINE: okay yep so I'm from um Hertfordshire in England which is north London um I grew up in the what they call the home counties so the home counties is I don't know if Paris has an equivalent London's in the middle and then the home counties are there the the the prefectures basically around the outside so in all of those um yeah at least my mom and dad separated I don't know if that means anything um FOMATPLAY: well it's up to you if you think any JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: information of your youth is maybe useful to understand how you came here or not but JUSTINE: maybe potentially I suppose as a child my mom and dad were separated and we moved so we lived on one side of London and we moved to the other side when I was starting senior school and um from there I didn't know anyone when I when I left my first school I went to the next school I went to a school where that was in a different area as well so I didn't know anyone then so I don't know maybe that contributes to when you're prepared to to you know go from having a big friendship group and then to go to somewhere you don't know and have nobody that you know and then start again from a young age maybe FOMATPLAY: (uncertain) JUSTINE: maybe helps you be brave FOMATPLAY: foreigners in that that new school JUSTINE: oh yeah FOMATPLAY: yeah JUSTINE: yeah London is... yeah FOMATPLAY: and in the former one as well JUSTINE: yes FOMATPLAY: you've always been used to be surrounded by different people JUSTINE: yeah I think London particularly you have all of the different races so Saint Albans in Hertfordshire there's a really big um the Muslim community is probably what I would call it though just that culture lives there predominantly down south you have more of the Eastern European people um but yeah so yeah used to seeing everybody from all over the place really you're kind of just listening to their stories of home and you know when they go back on their holidays to see their families and stuff FOMATPLAY: it's quite nice so you did your studies there as well like university and JUSTINE: I did yes um in Luton and that probably means nothing to you FOMATPLAY: nothing JUSTINE: but Luton is probably do you know Luton FOMATPLAY:no JUSTINE: it's really diverse it's it's a enormous community of people from everywhere um yeah it's so you know Luton that's where I did college so at college we also had people from every walk of life um yeah it was good FOMATPLAY: cause I don't even know what you studied before at university JUSTINE: (laughs) so I did um interior design and back then it's very old fashioned back then so in order to do interior design which is like the interiors are houses you also had to do painting and decorating so you had to go to what they call a technical college and a technical college is for builders so brick layers roofers painters and decorators carpenters and a one class of girls interior designers um but yeah it was fun we had a good time um and then... oh god (uncertain) yeah from there I moved down and I lived in so move from London to Devon for a while to work and live down there because I liked it and then from there I was married and I moved with my first husband to live in Brighton um and then I left him cause I was too young to get married in the first place and then came back home to to Hertfordshire I've been everywhere yeah FOMATPLAY: and so after that how did you finally decide to leave England JUSTINE: well I'd been wanting to for a really long time and I guess my I'm sorry about the dog uh my mom and my family... they're not very I don't think they understand it at all really um so we stayed at home for quite a long time and then I met Daryl um and then we decided I was really lucky I had a house already and then when I met Daryl we bought another house and we lived in one and the other one was rented out and I sold the one that we had rented out so that we could get married and buy the camper van and then we came so we did the wedding and then we put it like our honeymoon and we came for a year and a half to France Spain Portugal Italy and we just went in the camp van and went everywhere we could go on the money that we had and then we had to go back to work in England and we did that maybe eight months I think FOMATPLAY: eight months honeymoon JUSTINE: yeah well no we did the the honeymoon was about FOMATPLAY: year and a half JUSTINE: yeah year and a half about sixteen eighteen months it was quite a long time when we came back we did that work and then obviously we have Brexit looming didn't we and I just said to Daryl I was like I can't I can't I can't come back like Brexit's gonna make it fast I can't just go back to working in an office and living in a house I can't um so FOMATPLAY: why why you can't is it like technically difficult or because you're JUSTINE: no just because I just it would have been so unhappy would have been so so sad even thinking about it makes me feel like no I couldn't do that um so what did we do we left and that was in the beginning bit of the pandemic and where we were working they were not very good just typical British attitude they were not very good with the rules you know what you need to do here in France everyone was really good you wear your mask you go in the shop nobody argues oh my god in England it was not like this at all people so they had a rule that if you have a disability that stops you breathing properly you don't have to wear a mask so everybody suddenly had a disability that they couldn't breathe properly so they didn't have to wear the mask and I see where we were working all they wanted was the money and they were just it was in a campsite and they were just constantly more people and the lady that had been there she'd worked fifteen years there and she said this is the busiest the campsite's ever been we've never been this busy we've never had so many camperss here all at once and I was like well this is not the idea is you're only supposed to be at 50% capacity so we decided that was enough and there was a campsite in the middle of France that wanted volunteers so you go and you take camper van and you get your pitch and you get some meals and you do a bit of cleaning and see see the customers we did that quiz nights and stuff um and we went there and it was there that we realised that some of the French houses so it's up in department 47 I'm not sure whatever that is but the houses up there my god were thirty thousand euros and you could buy like a four bedroom farmhouse it was in the middle of nowhere and there would have been no jobs or anything else but it was at that point that I said to Daryl cause we'd sold the house and we had a little bit of money left I just said to him I was like let's now is the time let's just get somewhere we can get our residency we can get all the things and we can just deal with everything else after just so we don't have to got like go back and be there cause ninety-one eighty means you can never leave England for more to come to Europe for more than ninety days at a time and after you've been travelling for eighteen months ninety days does not seem like a very long time and the problem we had was the type of work we've been doing would you work six or eight months on a campsite in England cause then the rest of the time the campsites are closed cause the weather's bad so you get your six or eight months but we would never have (uncertain) only thirty of that would have been able to but the life we'd built up would never have worked after Brexit happened and I think the campsites have struggled in England quite badly with staff this year they're really really struggling cause the pandemic and the fact that they were greedy and didn't care about the staff and then also with the Brexit thing because a lot of people that work on campsites do what we used to do which is work then go work then go cause it's a upside isn't it living in your caravan (laughs) um yeah so that was quite a big contributing factor to I I I'm not because it's not for me FOMATPLAY: I I didn't really imagine that actually cause we haven't been really talking about it JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: so I didn't JUSTINE: it's a yeah it's a I guess the English particularly it was it's a difficult thing because it's something that most of us didn't want to happen and then well than it did and I think we've got quite a lot now cause even in the village we're in now we've got quite a lot of young English our age that are here or in the process of coming here it's um yeah FOMATPLAY: and how did you feel you were accepted here in France like speaking about this problem did the people understand JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: around you JUSTINE: yeah people uh I think because it was such a big thing wasn't it Brexit FOMATPLAY: yeah JUSTINE: it was huge um most of the people we meet German people are the funniest cause they just would come and they would just say we're sorry I know I know thanks but it was... yeah rubbish really FOMATPLAY: so at that time you were at that camper site JUSTINE: um hmm FOMATPLAY: how did you find this place here in France here in South France JUSTINE: we have been here before so when we did our first travels we came I think we came from the other end of the Pyrenees and we came through the Pyrenees and we went to Targassone because it's a really really big area for climbing and Daryl loves climbing so you can go up there and you can go bouldering and you can get like free climbing out in the wild it's excellent it's really good so we we've been to Targassone before we'd come back through this way and we'd stopped at the hot springs and one of our things Daryl would tease me about it he says that one of my pastimes and my hobbies is to hunt out the hot springs so every country we go to I'm like oh there's a natural hot spring oh (laughs) so where we found them here and FOMATPLAY: the ones in Thuès JUSTINE: yeah so you got all the different ones so we found them all and that's why we've been and um when we were on the campsite up further up in France I was looking at the properties down down here and we were saying we wanted to try skiing we wanted to be near the beach we wanted to be near the things we like so like the hot springs the climbing we wanted to be in um a village ideally but we wanted to have a train that could connect to the mainline so you can not all the time but you can go from here to Perpignan on the train if you want to um and we were saying as well because we weren't sure of how things were gonna go whether we'd be here whether we'd come for a year and think you know what we've you know we need to do something different um we wanted something as well that was local to everything that would be able to be rented out so we could say do you know what it can be a holiday home we can lock it up we can leave it or we can rent out for a holiday let or we could rent it out to someone it needed to be flexible and here was kind of in the middle of everything it's got good good location good base FOMATPLAY: so how how are the few the first months over here like you were in JUSTINE: the pandemic FOMATPLAY: so you couldn't work how JUSTINE: we couldn't do anything we couldn't go out the house FOMATPLAY: that at that time where you still you were going to England for work JUSTINE: we were yeah at that point we'd come back and we had enough money to go through first maybe eight months of the pandemic FOMATPLAY: yeah JUSTINE: so we didn't have to worry and we were obviously doing things inside the house which it that in itself is quite difficult because obvioulsy you are in the house all the time with each other all the time and France was very strict wasn't it on the rules plus the restaurants no no just you know go and do whatever afterwards um I like for about the first is it about the first it was about nine months wasn't it an exciting day out we'll be going to Leroy Merlin to buy a bathroom we're off to Leroy merlin and I'd be like I'll brush my hair put some makeup on but that was just the pandemic so yeah we used to go maybe I shouldn't say that but we used to go there was a little pizza place on the seafront and he has a little outside area and he was doing the takeaway but he let everyone sit in the the little outside area so we'd go to Leroy Merlin we'd get a little pizza we'd sit at Canet on the beach and eat the pizza it was good it was fun but um yeah it was a bit not lonely that's the wrong word I think just it was alien it must have been alien for everyone I think I think probably you as well no FOMATPLAY: so you weren't going back to England and coming back JUSTINE: well I went alone and uh FOMATPLAY: I remember there was a time when you said I don't have to go anymore I can work here JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: so what what kind of work did you start from here JUSTINE: so I do I can do accountancy work and so I can do that kind of online but also supporting Daryl as well with his what he's doing so FOMATPLAY: yeah but is it enough you're winning money to JUSTINE: yeah we've got we've got we've got enough FOMATPLAY: yeah JUSTINE: just about it's been uh the first there was a point where it was a bit of a struggle um but yeah we have enough to pay our bills here are small compared to what they were when we were in the UK um and we'll see you know we own our house now so we don't have rent or mortgage or anything like that um so that sometimes it feels like a relief that's what I was saying before was in the UK everybody measures every the success by what you own and what you have whereas that's fine but nine times out of ten they don't actually own it they don't haven't actually had the money to buy it they've put their car on a loan they've put their house on a loan they've put their extension on a loan they've bought a holiday home on a loan and before they know it what are these things have all added up and then you have no money and to me FOMATPLAY: but you're showing many things JUSTINE: yeah you're showing that you've got many things but you're not very happy and you have to work so hard to to just pay for all of these things and I don't I I can't my brain doesn't work like that I can't understand needing to have the best iPhone or needing to have you know like the newest laptop or the newest Kindle okay yes we have a big TV but that's not my TV um yeah it's a FOMATPLAY: would you say it's cultural or it's value so uh you you feel closer from from French values JUSTINE: yeah I think so because uh in England I don't know if here we have the same sayings in England we have a saying which is you either work to live so you go to work to live your life how you wanna live your life or you live to work and there are many enormous proportion of people in the UK that do that they literally live their lives in order to go to work everyday and own more and more and more and more and more things and we're not like that and I feel like the French are not like that either in the sense that the shops didn't open on a Sunday you know when we first got here there's still a lot of shops that two hour lunch breaks and we don't start work it like in England it's normal when I work for English company to start at 7:30 in the morning thus if you said that to a French person you're gonna start work at 7:30 in the morning they'd be like what no FOMATPLAY: for sure no way JUSTINE: so for me yeah I think the French values oh yeah we're we're definitely closer to them than we are to to English ones for sure FOMATPLAY: so you didn't you never felt like rejected or any form of racism just because you were a foreigner here JUSTINE: the only time that ever happened was in Lidl and I I still to this day can't can't quite fathom what happened or how it happened but she refused to take my bank card I don't know why she but she point blank refused to take it so I was like okay she's like you have to pay in cash I was like okay fine I'll go and get the cash um but other people were paying with bank cards so I couldn't really understand why my bank card wasn't I I just couldn't get my brain around it anyway that happened by the time I've gone and got the cash from Ria and got back they put all my stuff back on the shelf and the only thing I can think the only reason is because we're English that there is no other FOMATPLAY: it was it at the beginning did you know the lady JUSTINE: yeah it was in the beginning FOMATPLAY: did it happen again JUSTINE: no no we didn't go back to that Lidl for ages Daryl refused to go he was so angry about it cause he wasn't there FOMATPLAY: of course JUSTINE: because I went on my own it's the first time I've been shopping on my own as well (laughs) and um he was like we're never going back in there we do now because you kind of have to you just do it and um but yeah... he was really crossed FOMATPLAY: he was struggling in French also at that time like he didn't wonder to speak to the lady in English to how did you manage because JUSTINE: we just about manage that time because we had no friends didn't we we we just about getting by so you kind of you pick up most normal things in say the restaurant or the supermarket or anything you pick it up quite quickly cause you're doing it so often but I don't know I couldn't for the I just could not understand and obviously we went to Portugal and in Portugal they have a weird thing where a lot of their bank card machines only take a certain type of bank card because otherwise the fees are really high and they're primarily Portuguese even in McDonald's you go to McDonald's you can't pay on your bank card you have to pay in cash because it doesn't work with foreign bank cards if it had been our first time there maybe I would have put it down to to that maybe but we've been and we've used still to this day I'm I don't know what happened there and it was horrible it felt I said to Daryl I was like I came home I was on to cry and I said to him I was just like I don't know how in places like America black people they go through their lives and this happens to them day in day out in nearly all of their interactions I don't I don't know how you can can can you live like that really it would be awful wouldn't it um but yeah that's the only time fortunately I mean sometimes you get people um you know the lady next door she can be a bit sometimes with me she's like ugh she's English don't talk to her but I think she's a bit (laughs) um but yeah no most people we come across are are lovely and to be honest most people when they realise they're struggling we struggled when we had no French because if you ask people if they speak English they refuse to speak but if you struggle in French a lot of people would then say are you English because they want to understand and if they can help they they try and help when we do the Frenglish um yeah it's well I feel like everyone's been lovely maybe they weren't maybe I just didn't understand anything but it's a general rule I think it's what you make if it isn't if you go out and you think that people are gonna be awful you'll find awful people but if you go out and just think uh FOMATPLAY: it's true JUSTINE: it's yeah it's all in your mindset really FOMATPLAY: so speaking outside French is still hard for you JUSTINE: oh my god FOMATPLAY: yeah JUSTINE (laughs) I was like yeah Frenchtown we can master that we're gonna be living there in the pandemic we'll know it by the end of the pandemic we've got it is so difficult because it is so different from English so so different yeah it's been it's really hard FOMATPLAY: so the language is hard but when you speak with people struggling with your with your French it's not finally that hard it's not what you're saying like JUSTINE: yeah you can always FOMATPLAY: even if they don't speak English JUSTINE: yeah exactly you the uh the lady opposite she has no English at all but she is always lovely she showed me around the house and she just has a chat and she tries and when I can't you know when someone says a sentence you can kind of know what the next word that's gonna come is and when I'm struggling with the pronunciation and she can see me looking confused she'll just fill in the gaps for me and I'm like yes it's those words they're the ones I wanted so you you get there it's just um yeah FOMATPLAY: do you feel it's the same in England as well in your memory how did people react when when foreigners didn't have proper English or and for me it doesn't have proper English or JUSTINE: people in England are awful it's another reason I hate it because another English mentality is you're an English speaker you're in England speak English if you can't speak English why did you come here even if people come on holiday and that's not the way you should be treating anyone that's just not the way you should be treating people people have come and they want to experience your culture and they want to experience your country and your values and everything else and then you're just awful to them yeah yeah we have this thing we have to um we have to preempt my husband's we have to preempt Daryl's mum cause she it I think it's something that's ingrained into older English people maybe into older French people I don't know not in the same way I would have thought but she has this very strong feelings against Eastern Europeans because she believes that all the Eastern Europeans come to England and they're gonna take everybody's jobs and no one's going to have any work and that's how she feels and she will go some glass of wine and then she'll rub it on about immigration and the immigrants and how they should not taking our jobs and when she comes here now we have to tell her to have stern words with her especially if we go out to eat or anywhere and he's like mum you can't have that kind of conversation is that because immigrant in English and French is the same word they're gonna know what you're talking about and he's like and you have to remember we are immigrants as much as you don't like it she says no you're not immigrant you're an expat no we're not an expat we're an immigrant we've come to stay we're not we have no intention to go back we're we're immigrants um so yeah there's that FOMATPLAY: you you just said you have no intention to go back so you would like to stay JUSTINE: I don't wanna go back Daryl sometimes wants to and obviously if he wanted to we'd find a way to compromise because that's what we do but no I don't wanna go back why would I want I don't wanna go back to the rain the cold the snow the horrible people that are all miserable no yeah FOMATPLAY: I know we've been talking about it a little bit earlier but if you can just maybe JUSTINE: sorry FOMATPLAY: tell again JUSTINE: (uncertain) FOMATPLAY: no it's fine FOMATPLAY: like why wouldn't you go back but I mean apart from the rain JUSTINE: yeah um just like I said it's that that work ethic that way of being that's just not... how I am do you know um I think yeah just it all amounts to me into just a terrible terrible situation so you've got like the government in England at the moment is was becoming more and more corrupt there's um it's like a scale isn't it of free speech countries and so you've got like one being the most free speech and five being the most restricted countries and then all the numbers in the middle and it's how Liberal they are and how your freedoms are how you you know your government (uncertain) basically how oppressed you are I think let's say for example Russia would come upon a five because they're you know very they say you can do this but you actually can't do a lot of things because you know that's not how it works cause uh I can't think what the body is called that assesses it but it was in the news not that long ago anyway England used to be one we used to be green and we've moved to a three now so just because of Brexit we're into the middle because they are they lie to everybody you know they don't wanna say what's happened with some of the things so the particular government is in there not very EU friendly they don't like the EU and they never have and they were quite big in orchestrating um believe we will leave the EU and now England struggles with things like okay for example I think at the moment there's a tomato shortage okay which when we left the block the EU the point of being in the EU is the EU looks after the EU all of the countries will share the food they'll share everything together and when we left that meant we stopped that but England sell the tomato shortage they're saying that it's a European white tomato shortage so everybody's struggling with the same thing and that's just that's just a lie about tomato you know and so what you're seeing is um the the the press feed into it you know it's almost it sounds extreme cause we're talking about tomatoes but it's almost like propaganda where does that start when you start to lie you don't say well actually we have these shortages now because you made a choice to leave and this is this is the consequence of your choice you then lie and then we had another one which was can't remember what it was but the lie that was told was because the EU refused to help us with something or refused to send stuff to us but again the EU looked after the EU first and you left you you you've made no attempts to make a deal you know anyway I'm digressing but the point is how the government actually is now is not it's it's not a country you didn't notice it when you live there but then when you move away you see it especially when you're over here and they're saying oh France have done this France have done that or and you're like wait a minute that's what happened and it's for me not that the work ethic how everybody just wants to own everything all of the time how awful people are to each other to people that are different how many prejudices there are like it's yeah it's wild it's not a particularly nice country FOMATPLAY: it really changed your life JUSTINE: yeah yeah going going back with just be yeah let's not let's not do that FOMATPLAY: so could you say since since then you feel more European how do you how do you feel yourself towards EU now did it change something JUSTINE: I think FOMATPLAY: I (uncertain) feel like English in your heart and a little bit how JUSTINE: well I often say can we feing about being Irish to Daryl and then when people are asking can we just say we're Irish now and he's like no we can't say that like no um yeah I think I've always felt European when all of that voting and Brexit and things happened yeah I just felt really why were the people given that choice the people it's a difficult one because the people don't know what's best for the people always they don't see what's going on behind the scenes and they lied to quite a lot and I think um it's just... yeah I never really felt like we should have left it it felt like in England I don't know what it's like in France a lot of the older people vote and these people like Daryl's mum they were like oh the Eastern Europeans they come they take our jobs yeah we went out you don't even work anymore you're retired (laughs) what does it matter to you but what you realise you've done now you've got quite a lot of posh families with older parents their children like they voted and they're like well my daughter wants to come and do a ski season she was doing chalet girl before what why is no one coming back to her well because you chose to leave and now the jobs have to go to EU people before they go to your child yeah I just I don't it's that mentality that's what I'm saying as long as I'm alright so what they thought is I'll be alright when this happens and then now it's happened oh I'm not alright well it's the useful the you the demon and I'm just yeah for me I feel an affinity with the EU we should be helping each other we should all be working together for the climate for food for things to do with all of like the droughts and the weather and everything else we should all be working together and I think yeah that's important to me so that was the point (laughs) sorry just waffling on FOMATPLAY: no no um I'm really happy you're tell you all those things actually I do wonder if um the people around here you meet that are also English or Irish JUSTINE: yes FOMATPLAY: do you feel um they have the same values do do you recognise yourself in them JUSTINE: some... yeah I think definitely some um not not everyone um I mean we were just saying so for example we have the two types of I think it's not just English I think it's probably all types of people that are maybe not living here so for example at the moment one of the things we've got is the the drought and um FOMATPLAY: I'm sorry what is it JUSTINE: the drought the the there's no water FOMATPLAY: oh yes JUSTINE: what's the word for it in French FOMATPLAY: ah "la sècheresse" JUSTINE: "la sècheresse" and in English a drought FOMATPLAY: I'll try to remember JUSTINE: it's a horrible word so you have the English that are coming and people that have just gone the whole time uh I'm sure nobody would really notice if we just put (uncertain) pool all night nobody's gonna notice nobody's gonna notice over in Le Roc where Daryl's working I think that's where the person got in trouble didn't they filling the pool but they're all doing it and they're just not telling anyone they're doing it and then they're all saying to each other oh yeah nobody's gonna notice everyone must be doing it so in those people no I don't feel an affinity to those kind of people because again it's that selfish attitude of well uh it's only my holiday home I I just want the pool full while I'm here and then I'm gonna go and one of the things you hear quite often is yeah but I'm only here some of the time I use don't even use a tiny amount of the water that everyone else is using well they've taken that into consideration with they've made the plan for the drought so you know um but people like David become and they wanna get involved and they wanna go to the *fêtes* and they wanna you know integrate themselves and they're doing the French lessons and they're trying to meet everyone and they're going out and you know you get the paper and you have a croissant and like I said to you earlier about go to the supermarket and now we don't just buy one baguette we buy the whole (laughs) because we will get through it in three days (laughs) if somebody said to me when I lived in England you'll be in six baguettes a weekend I would probably have said no I won't but yet we do and it's just... yeah the people that want to integrate I feel connected with and then the people that come and they bring their English attitude and everything else with them FOMATPLAY: so how do you feel that you're getting grat- integrated yourself JUSTINE: slowly it's been really hard I think the pandemic helped because especially in the village you know that we were we're right on that edge of the lap and everybody walked past us all the time and so that was lovely and then obviously we were all in the same boat we were all you know we'd have *apéros*out on the terrace Christopher have *apéros* out on the terrace and then we would all just chat as best we could um but I don't think FOMATPLAY: you go often to have drink as well much more than me JUSTINE: not so much we they always bring us um so like at Easter they always bring us *bunyetes* and then at Christmas I took them the mince pies and then they brought Daryl over some bits and pieces so when they're doing traditional stuff and that's their way of we can't always talk but um we can try and he's got his daughter she's quite good with English now and then is it his nieces and nephews I think it might be his sister that comes and they came over for New Years and then at midnight they bring us champagne Daryl had gone to bed cause it was poorly um but they bought us champagne and one of the girls she's not fluent like you're fluent but she's good with English and she was just doing the the translates they obviously had a couple of glasses of champagne before let's go speak to them (laughs) and that's it's lovely you wouldn't get that you wouldn't have got that at home you wouldn't have this wouldn't have happened so I think I think it's okay but it's slower than I'd like because obviously it's just Daryl and I we've got all of the house renovations and then we've got working and we have to go back to England for some things and when we were working six months here and six months back you go back to England you speak English and then you don't forget your French that's the wrong thing you become rusty that's it and I think if we can try and get French a bit better we will um will benefit I think the integration will be easier cause Pierre keeps saying he's like when your French is more more better you can come we'll have *apéros* and I'm like okay and now I need to improve I'm trying and that's nice cause that's an incentive as well it's an incentive to try any it was lovely it came the other day we were talking about the the water problem and he'll speak slowly to me a lot of the time and then I said to him about the water problem and he went bla bla bla bla bla and I was oh god and he said to me I'm really sorry I said this the second time slowly for you and then he goes through it slower and it yeah I think it's coming it's just slow it's a really difficult really difficult language I mean and obviously without language that makes integration harder FOMATPLAY: of course JUSTINE: but we're lucky cause we have like you you've got amazing English we had Anne-Lise again amazing English and then Samantha up at the restaurant you know there's quite a lot of people here that try and help but I think they make us lazy or so because if we'd come to the village and there was nobody speaking any English FOMATPLAY: I know I'm really sorry JUSTINE: we probably would have learnt a bit quicker but it's it's okay we'll get there we'll get there it's hard I think we maybe our French teacher that we had to start with she was lovely she was really lovely but it was all very academic like in textbooks and and we learn the verb endings and learn the masculine and feminine endings and things and I think our weekly lessons didn't really pay off FOMATPLAY: I'm looking through my questions but I really don't have that much cause you've been talking about so many things JUSTINE: and I jump around FOMATPLAY: and that's really great Justine I mean really thank you um okay I've got one here maybe like to follow on the integration in the village JUSTINE: okay FOMATPLAY: um it's written how active are you in your contribution to participation in your local community JUSTINE: we try FOMATPLAY: that's why I said earlier I think you guys when you go and have all those meals yeah there you're doing that much more than me JUSTINE: (laughs) maybe yeah maybe um we try so we've got the *fête* haven't we we try to come to that FOMATPLAY: and dancing at the *fête* is really important JUSTINE: yes yes and then we were in was it was it you that told us off FOMATPLAY: yeah JUSTINE: where were you on the FOMATPLAY: yeah JUSTINE: I had to (uncertain) work I'm sorry (laughs) um so there's yeah that and we support the restaurant we love going up there um and Daryl's been asked several times by Jean-Bernard to um to come and clear the canals but both times he's been asked this year they're not coming on FOMATPLAY: I've never been JUSTINE: and then the year before we were in England I'm sure Jean-Bernard thinks we're avoiding him but we're not um yeah but FOMATPLAY: you know he's also asking that like not for the help not for the true help he's doing that also like to to have to spend time because JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: after they have drinks and meals and JUSTINE: yes they do they're really they are good uh and Jean-Bernard is another one we met at the spring so I to Jean-Bernard FOMATPLAY: he's always at the springs JUSTINE: (laughs) I said to him he's like where do you live then if you live in France and I said well we live in Joncet he was like no he said yeah yeah we live in Joncet and he said no you don't I know everybody that lives in Joncet where do you live and I told him where I live and then he came by the next day and he was like you do live here I was like yes we do I did tell you he was like oh so he's been he's lovely he's quite a friendly guy isn't he FOMATPLAY: yes everywhere at the same time but friendly JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: um and uh you know earlier when I arrived uh is it okay if we speak just a bit about Daryl JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: cause I found it interesting the fact that he was like really working a lot JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: and uh is it okay to to tell me JUSTINE: FOMATPLAY: yeah a bit um so what is he doing exactly JUSTINE: so he is doing just I don't know what the French term for it is I would say it's probably like labour work I you go and do say a job fix something or you go with someone for a day and you work helping them in England we call it labouring I don't know like doesn't really seem to have a a translation here FOMATPLAY: *homme à tout faire* like he does a bit of everything JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: a bit of a landscaping JUSTINE: a bit of landscaping a bit of anything that needs doing and like I was saying before so when he works with like Alex that's Alex's job and then he'll help Alex cause Alex is a bit older and he can't necessarily do all the carrying and all the lifting and all the other bits and pieces so he does all the the the other bits you know FOMATPLAY: but he doesn't speak French well JUSTINE: no Alex doesn't speak French either and Alex is um his wife grew up in France and then she's English but she grew up in France we've got a lot of friends like this grew up in France and then moved back to England and then they met and weirdly they only lived just down the road from where we come from so Daryl and Alex sound the same um but yeah and they're working in Le Roc is is it not Le Roc d'Anglars is that not what they call it FOMATPLAY: euh JUSTINE: because it's a really big what they would call expat community that live over there and um Alex and a few others they have referrals that go between all the English so they FOMATPLAY: so that's how Daryl finds his work that's how within the community JUSTINE: within the community yeah FOMATPLAY: and how how does it go JUSTINE: um sometimes it goes okay sometimes it goes really badly (laughs) I think we have a few people that we know that can be very full on and very demanding comes back to that English way of being you know start work at seven in the morning work until five you only have half an hour for lunch this is normal and that's what they expect and I think sometimes that's why the English community employ English because if you say that to a French person you gonna start at seven o'clock and you only gonna have half hour for lunch you're gonna work all the day this is not where it works in France this is not what happens so it's it's difficult but it also then can be that they're very very demanding and there's no rest time as I was saying to you when you arrived he's been working so this week all the week Saturday in England it was a bank holiday it was bank holiday here on Monday wasn't it Monday worked on Monday now he's back working over there the week before all the week and then somebody else wanted something and he ended up working on Saturday and I think then a couple of hours on Sunday morning it's just a constant and obviously you don't wanna say no to people because you don't want... you know I don't wanna be kind of not cast out that's the wrong words that' a bit FOMATPLAY: but were you expecting this situation coming here did you know it was going to be JUSTINE: no (laughs) no I didn't it took ages to get the SIRET cause obviously through the pandemic and stuff getting an accountant to get all of those bits and pieces done was quite difficult and then when we finally did get one that we referred to who did do the SIRET and everything else it took ages because we are not... uh in England we don't you have August don't you and August is the month of no work and so we didn't realise that we applied in July and then obviously the two weeks before August not much is done and then there's August and then obviously they get back from August and they must be really really busy so it took forever to get the SIRET to come through and then is it run out of tape FOMATPLAY: no it's fine JUSTINE: it took forever to get the SIRET come through and then all of a sudden I'm assuming it's now all the there's lots of people coming over isn't it doing their holiday homes doing their bits and pieces and it's just FOMATPLAY: so that would be the bad part of France like the struggle with administration and paper JUSTINE: yes oh my god FOMATPLAY: everything is so slow JUSTINE: everything is so slow and it's um for us as well because in England it's very American and the internet is big everything can be done on the internet you can do your shopping on the internet uh say Super U you do your shopping on the internet and then you click the button and you pay one euro and then they bring it to your house like sometimes the same day and here we we don't have it do we you can click online and you reserve a restaurant or you can go online and cheque opening times and yeah FOMATPLAY: yeah it happened to me yesterday JUSTINE: did it and so you get there and you're like FOMATPLAY: yeah JUSTINE: oh we went to Font-Romeu which is like a forty-five minute drive with one of our friends cause there's a nice restaurant up there oh yeah yeah it's said on the internet they were open no uh I was like oh damn it okay well but then it was hard because by the time you've left to go to somewhere else that that's quite a distance I think we ended up going to Mont-Louis and there's not much at Mont-Louis (laughs) it's not it's very um yeah it's far insn't it FOMATPLAY: so sometimes the the British community I I would have thought the opposite you know that maybe working with those people for Daryl like you know uh we know each other become the same place things JUSTINE: yes FOMATPLAY: are a little bit easier or or better paid or things like this uh JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: it's it's almost the opposite JUSTINE: yeah yeah it's very much FOMATPLAY: do you think Daryl will be able to get um to extract himself from JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: this and JUSTINE: he will get there I think he I can see he's getting tighter and tighter and he'll get to a point where he just says do you know what I can't keep growing at at this pace and doing this much um he likes working with Alex and there's another guy he works with as well because they take a week or two between the jobs so you know Alex might not work for a month and then he'll work for eight weeks and that's good because you can kind of do everything um but yeah it's it's um I think it just got to the point because he didn't have very much he just took everything then all of a sudden it was oh my god FOMATPLAY: of course JUSTINE: yeah yeah FOMATPLAY: but that's too much JUSTINE: yeah I think it's where they sometimes they can want everything for nothing as well it can feel a bit like that like we want you to do everything like you would do in England and do it with that vigour but we don't really wanna pay you I think sometimes some of the people struggle to get the French artisans because they're not prepared to pay the actual what it's worth so there are I mean there's some English out there there are pricing up jobs way way way more than their worth and then there's some out there that are going low low because they know they can get the work um and it's those ones that they're the hard customers cause they want everything for nothing and they're just like well if you were in England you'd be paying a lot more than this just just pay the money it's weird sorry Poppy was wrong FOMATPLAY: so um I have some like formal questions JUSTINE: oh okay you have a formal question FOMATPLAY: no not really formal but um once I might read to (uncertain) JUSTINE: okay FOMATPLAY: yes but we're trying to... except for all JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: four questions um if you could define freedom of movement in one sentence what would it be JUSTINE: I think it's the ability it's just what we used to have it's the ability to go and to live and to work and to integrate with everyone as as as you not as much as you want to but you know as it's very difficult to put on one sentence uh yes it's the ability to go to live to work and to be able to experience all of the countries you know as as as one really and not have that those borders that are in place and the difficulties that's a weird thing to say cause you can see all the paperwork in France but yeah FOMATPLAY: were were you aware about all this about like freedom of moment and the role of the EU uh before Brexit were you thinking about it or JUSTINE: we we didn't really think about we knew we had it because you know there are the countries like America they don't have the same thing do they with within to say the EU and the Bloc they didn't have that same they have to apply for visas and the Australians that were coming over and you know you met they'd obviously had to apply for all of the visas and things so we knew we had it but I guess because I was born when it was a thing I think probably the same for you that you existed when we were born and it's one of those things you take for granted and then when it's you know you you don't think about it until you're made to think about it and then normally when you're thinking about something like that it's because it's being taken from you and yeah no I do think about it I think it's just a luxury everyone thinks they're gonna have forever it's you know like youth isn't it you think you're gonna have it forever and then all of a sudden you don't have it anymore FOMATPLAY: well I was going to say in a few words how would you feel if your freedom was removed but actually you've JUSTINE: yeah covered on that FOMATPLAY: exactly JUSTINE: quite passionately FOMATPLAY: well if things were getting worse JUSTINE: yeah I think we we had a scare of talking about that we did have the scare with like Marine Le Pen FOMATPLAY: yeah JUSTINE: because she was if she knowing there's still possibility isn't it she will make things very very difficult and one of the things that was in like a manifesto and I I guess same in England not everyone looks at politics that don't bother them one of the things was to remove a massive proportion of work so anything in the public sector like in the prefectures of the government unless you were second generation French with a French mom and dad and a French grandparents on for both of them couldn't work in any of these jobs and I was just like what and then what was the other thing she said and she said if you didn't work because even if it was because you couldn't because you couldn't do your job you were (uncertain) to do it anymore and you hadn't worked within a year then you would be removed from the country and that that was oh my god it's happening again it's a scary thing like having your freedom of movement even it's scary it's weird so yeah passionately FOMATPLAY: now that now that you're happy you're quite happy JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: um where would he say is your home JUSTINE: oh it's here my home always and we when we were working I know this and Daryl feels the same as well sometimes he'll be like hmm cause he misses just the mother tongue but then he'll go back and he would be there like three days he's like I wanna go back but we when we were working away we always feel sad to leave and I always feel really happy to to be back as you come through like you get off at Perpignan and start coming down the valley that's when I know I'm like yes we're nearly home so here is definitely home I (uncertain) without a doubt FOMATPLAY: um is there something you miss from England JUSTINE: no (laughs) my nieces and nephews maybe FOMATPLAY: family JUSTINE: yeah family I think it's the only thing but with weird thing isn't it with the pandemic you can video call and you can chat with everyone like everyone got much more free of yeah I'll do a video call it's fine and we sit um out with my cousin particularly cause she has three kids and she's on her own so on a Friday Daryl and I we'll put the chairs and put the phone and we'll sit and have a drink and things like um Spotify I've managed to do like playlists now and you can share them with everyone in the call so you can have the music going on the speaker and you kind of feel like you're all together so yes I do miss them but there's so much with technology now you can just yeah it's okay you're just like I need to go home for my tea FOMATPLAY: no only because you're doing absolutely you're doing great so um I I think I don't need to ask you if you would take the same decision if if if you had to do all over again if you would you would do the same thing of course you would (uncertain) JUSTINE: I understand FOMATPLAY: and the hardest one for the end um could you define me yourself um no so I'll try to make it easier because I don't think it's um well written (uncertain) could you define yourself um like if I had to focus on one thing you told me about JUSTINE: yes FOMATPLAY: you um what's the most important thing I should uh recall was it what yeah about this interview JUSTINE: yeah FOMATPLAY: about you JUSTINE: um I'm not sure really FOMATPLAY: that's a tough one JUSTINE: yeah it's a really hard question speechless um I think if I have to define me it is probably just yeah that I'm pretty I don't know someone quite carefree in that sense like I wanna just just go and be free to kind of explore everything and just go off and do it I think that would probably be the easiest FOMATPLAY: um I'm sure that there are many things um I should have asked you but um I think what all what you told me was really fantastic Justine JUSTINE: okay FOMATPLAY: so thank you so much JUSTINE: you're very welcome FOMATPLAY: thank you JUSTINE: okay