Hi all, I'm the original poster of this topic and saw there has been some activity. I enjoy reading about everyone's ideas! It's been three years since I created this
thread and our ideas have evolved a bit over that time. The original idea still resonates with us (my husband and I), but the things that are posted here by others are too ambitious for people like us. That doesn't take away that I still admire it, though.
We actually moved to France end of 2019 to rent somewhere and realised it really wasn't the country for us. We just don't fit in with the more conservative traditions and principles. Our ideas about giving birth, education, attitudes around raising children, etc. are very different. For us these things are quite big topics, as we plan on having more children and we also plan on sending our one-year-old son to school in the future, because we don't think homeschooling is a good idea as foreigners who aren't
native speakers of the
local language. When you're already a newcomer in a country, you feel vulnerable by default. If you then also have to deal with a mindset that goes against the current, it really won't help you feel at home in a country. So that's what made us leave France.
The corona crisis has been tough, but it also
led to some new insights. We think Sweden is best for us (ironically maybe not so much from a corona perspective!). We already travelled quite a bit and we've seen a lot there before we had our son. Sweden really has a special place in our heart. We will fit in much better there. It's still going to be a journey with challenges, but we're committed. Moving abroad is never easy.
As for the
eco village aspect, we're currently looking at properties that include variable plots of
land. Some have a lot more land than others, but they all have different pros and cons we need to balance, though having more land would be such a nice bonus. If we can get a certain amount, we could have another person/couple/family on the land, maybe two at most. We would be open to a potential sale of part of our land if this can be arranged in such a way that the other party can still reside there. But we need to figure out exactly how this works in Sweden. From what I currently know this would need to be a smaller outbuilding like a homemade
cabin (not officially seen as a house). This is the most we will ever do, and completely casual. No formal meetings schedules or management. Just all following our own plan. We personally don't have the mental capacity or
energy to take on anything greater. And honestly? That's all we would need for the social side. It would be great to share this adventure with some other people, but that doesn't need to be 50 other people. Raising young child(ren) takes a lot of energy, especially with a family business that we need to work on as well. And all this outside of our homecountries. So, this is where we're currently at!
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