Britons in French region mourn Brexit, share sense of bitterness

VERTEILLAC, FRANCE: In Verteillac, a small village in southwest France’s picturesque Dordogne region that has become a home for many Britons, emotions may vary over Brexit but all share a sense of bitterness and worry for the future.

Edwina de Tonary, a resident in France for 39 years, said she “feels a deep sadness”.

As Britain formally left the EU late on Friday, “I was with my friends and everyone was sad, almost to the point of tears,“said de Tonary, 76.

Like 3,000 other British citizens resident in this area which is often dubbed “Dordogneshire” owing to its popularity with Britons, she has now lost her right to vote in local and EU elections.

Such considerations are not on the mind of Jacqueline Janneteau, 60. An estate agent and married to the mayor of the neighbouring village, she enjoys French nationality.

But as she watched on television the UK clocks chime midnight and people take to the streets of London to celebrate Brexit, she could not escape a sense of melancholy and anger.

“The people in Britain who voted for Brexit are going to have bad, bad surprises,“she predicted. Here, some Britons are worried for their future, especially their medical cover. They fear that they will lose it.”

Erica Laine, a woman in her 70s, who has lived in France for the last 20 years, said she did not even have the heart to sit in front of her television and watch the final moments heading to Brexit.

“I just feel that some of my identity has been taken away, without anybody asking me.“

“Yesterday I was a British European citizen, living in the EU. Now I’m a citizen of a third country! We used to be the same! And now I’m a little bit alien,” she lamented.

“I never believed that the day would come. So shameful, it is incomprehensible,“said Trevor Leggett, who says he is now starting the process of becoming a French citizen. – AFP