Not enough software engineers converting to farming? Shocking.
If anything else, for me the main issue in France is the dearth of doctors in rural areas. So even the romantic idea of retiring in quaint village is predicated on not getting sick.
If anything else, for me the main issue in France is the dearth of doctors in rural areas. So even the romantic idea of retiring in quaint village is predicated on not getting sick.
I kinda have to disagree with this. Sure, there's not a lot of software engineers grabbing a hoe and moving to a quiet rural farming village. But oh boy is there a lot of money being a software engineer working on farming.
I'd have to say more software engineers are working in agriculture today than ever before - it's one of the reasons why the rural areas can shrink. State programs for mechanization and increasingly advanced and hyper-specific machines are allowing crops that were labour intensive just a decade ago to be done by a team of 2-4. We went apple picking last year and the field next to us was having its apples harvested by flying drones (which was a real "we're living in the future" moment for us) while a worker sat in a lawn chair nearby reading a book.
Then there's the pushes to remove transport costs and grow closer to the cities. All of our family's lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber come year round from greenhouses on the roof Walmarts, warehouses and other big block stores, just a few blocks away - https://montreal.lufa.com/en/farms. 100% "touch-free" automated greenhouses are being built and have entered full productivity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITRts-KOkuM&t=44s. Cheap electricity and thousands of overbuilt (snow load) flat roofs are a good combination for city greenhouses. These "farms" employee directly and indirectly plenty of engineers of all kinds.
I have several burnt out friends who went “farming” and I assure you, programming combines and drones is not the thing they meant by going away.
Grew up in a village. What you do is... drive to another village / town. There are always doctors to be found - and less queues than in big cities.
Driving to another part also often implies having someone to drive you.
If you live further out in the countryside, it can be a real PITA to find someone.
With that and climate change our plans might be changing
Well until this year it seemed like the coolest and most stable part of France - also the least French part and reminds me of Scotland.
(We have friends who just sold up and moved to near Bordeaux - not sure it they are regretting it yet)
I visited outside Bordeaux at Saint Émilion and found the area very beautiful, so hopefully they don't regret it. The price of wine in the country was so amazingly reasonable that even if they did regret moving, they could live in a constant wine fugue and be oblivious to their worries, partly...?