‘People say they can’t get pork pies and cheese but Brexit hasn’t affected me,’ says Briton in France
A British citizen who has been living in France for more than 20 years has said he hasn’t seen any substantial change in his life post-Brexit, despite Britons “whingeing” that they can’t get pork pies or their favourite cheese.
Chris, a retiree in Paris who asked to withhold his surname, told i he believed most of those who moved to the EU before Brexit won’t have noticed much of a change since the UK left the bloc.
The 61-year-old wasn’t able to vote in the referendum due to a rule prohibiting UK citizens from voting on a national matter if they have resided abroad for more than 15 years. If he had had the chance, he would have voted to Remain.
But the former airline worker, originally from West Sussex, said all Brexit required of him was to renew his residency permit, or carte de séjour, as it’s known in French, a condition that pre-dated Brexit.
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“You’ll find people who will whinge because they can’t get pork pies anymore but in reality there has not been any real change for those who came over before Brexit,” Chris, who moved to France in 2001, said.
He acknowledged that for a British person wanting to relocate to Europe now it was far more complicated, as they can’t stay more than 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa.
Some Britons in the EU have complained about how expensive it has become to buy UK products, while at the same time struggling to find specific foods they needed in the country they resettled in.
Others told i they could no longer take fresh produce like Italian ricotta home to the UK.
But for Chris UK products “are really not on my shopping list”.
He said: “Why live abroad if you are not going to integrate properly?”
One woman who visited Italy seven times a year before Brexit and who would sell Italian products to friends and relatives in the UK, complained about no longer being able to send back mozzarella and ricotta as she used to.
“Now, following the post-Brexit travel restrictions, I…
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