If you're set on moving to France then just do it - if you don't you'll regret it for the rest of your life.
Yes, I will follow advice and stay updated up til when and if the move happens. I'm thinking more when and not 'if'. Thanks, I'm so jazzed to have this goal!
Thanks,definitely food for thought, I'll keep it in mind, Good advice!
Hi, the advice re: rent first is a must...really! it will save you heartache in the future...if you love it..nothing lost, if you dont want to stay it will be easier to return if you have nothing to sell....but even if you think its wonderful...you may find the first area you settle in isnt for you.
If you are renting you can move around easily. You will find foods are different according to where you move to....we were in the Languedoc first, near the sea and fish was plentiful...lots of fabulous shellfish and a great selection of international foods at the huge hypermarkets in Perpignan. When we moved to the Dordogne...the selection was much smaller for international goods....less fish.....not such a great choice...and a heck of a lot of Duck which is the speciality here.
Funny things that are missing...that you may miss, you will usually manage to find an alternative somewhere. I ended up making Elderflower cordial as we cant buy it here. But Ive never found smoked cods roe, fresh soft and hard cods roe either....so gave up with those.
You will never know unless you bite the bullet and try life in France...so hope you do, as they say, its not the things you do you regret in life...its the things you didnt do...(not always sure that is right....but it should be!) good luck!
80 euros would be a bargain for me, too, but it go to a fancy place in Paris. I think if you can cut hair well, you could go to aone of the better salons in a big city and do very well. Maybe Lyons or Nice or Marseille would work for you. Just a thought. Good luck!
The worse thing that could happen is it’s not for you …but how will you know unless you take the plunge don’t listen to anyone’s advice,look at your life and ask the question I am I happy …yes then stay …no …change it…
Kirsten, it is very important to go by the Consulat de France, now and also when you will have an exact address as to where you will move, they are the one who will put the temporary Carte de séjour in your passport and they also are the one who will give you the special permit so that you do not have to pay import duties on the furniture or any of your belongings that you wish to ship to France. But if you plan on moving in seven years or about all this could change...
Very good to know, thank you for saying it David. These are the things I need to know, in fact I was wondering how a person can legally take a good sum of money from one country into another. I was thinking about maybe giving it to the parents-in-law, then they give it back after a waiting period. I still have to go to the French Concilate (sp?) and get informed on what we can/can't and should/shouldn't do. Any advise as to what to say/not say to them?
We do have a savings account in Fr, and maybe we can transfer some over a little at a time, but what about when we sell the salon, and we'll have quite a bit more in a lump sum?
Thanks in advance for any insights you may have
Dang, where do you live?! Maybe we'll rethink Ardêche! Just kidding. Even my short hair cuts last 2-3 months, but I guess that's high maintenance if one might get away with just a couple of times a year as is the case with David's wife below.
Scotland could be fun with your heritage Kirsten? And not all french retirees have a comfortable life. Some don't have a comfortable life even before retirement age. Praps your friend doesn't know the sans abri, les sans habitations?
We have french friends who are worried about what will happen to them when they get too old to work. It dépends on what people did before retirement (our friends are all self-employed). You also need to look into how much it will cost you to buy into healthcare.
While I don't want to thingybob the negative you must not accentuate the positive but go for the realism of what it will mean.
France can be extremely cool - our pipes all burst when we experienced -25 C a couple of years ago!
And as I tried to hint - when people run out of money one of the first things they give up is haircuts. We have a recession, unemployment is running at a high, and unless you move to one of the high earning areas (see previous post) people simply don't have spare money. We live in one of the poorest départements in France. Life is tough. My wife opened the door a few months ago to a fellow who was selling biscuits. She said to me that if she could have afforded to buy his biscuits she would - but as she was making biscuits herself at the time...
You sound lovely Lis! Would love to hang out sometime. My ethnic background is .25% Norwegian, .25% Scottish, and .50% Italian. So I have a bit of the Scandinavian blood in me, can't stand the heat!
My parents-in-law live in Rochemaure, about 15 minutes outside Montelimar, (the capitol of Nugat! :P), and there is some tourism there in Ardêche, they having just discovered some ancient caves, (there are plans to bring the TGV closer), and of course the beautiful Rhone River, and Gorges of Ardêche.
I guess my biggest obstacle is getting hubby Vincent completely on board. He says he's not opposed to the idea, but just loves the L.A./American lifestyle. I often have to remind him that he won't be loving the lifestyle when he's 70, and still working, for we will have no one to help us when we're old old old, nor any income then, other than a meagre government pension that is not in any way near enough to live on.
My friend Valérie who now lives near Nancy, (we met here when she use to live in L.A., now teaches English as a second language), says that there is a thing in America called 'retirement job'. People don't have enough to live on even when they're old, unless they were fortunate enough to have a corporate job with a pension, or thought ahead and saved or invested for their futures! She says this is unheard of in France. People who are retired in France take walks, garden, and visit relatives, stuff like that. Maybe they even get to do a bit of traveling.
Every time I think of any down sides, I keep coming back to Health Care, and Family. What else is there besides one's health and family. Oh yeah, plus the fact that France is a totally cool place, even though no land is perfect in every way, not even DK or Norse!
My wife's hair & her horses feet are the most expensive part of our life in France................... .........Only joking, It's the womens shoes really:-) By the by, she says she pays the equivalent of $80 on average for her barnet!
My wife cuts her own twice a year - and gets me to tidy up the bits she misses. She'd love to go back to a high maintenance short haircut but...
Haircutting etc aside Kirsten - you need to be absolutely sure you can afford it. As I've said in another post we were stymied by losing 30,000 euros when we had to transfer money from the UK to France when we first came over. That's stopped us doing what we want to do.
The cotisation fonciere d'entreprise is under examination at the moment but it has hit a lot of small businesses. The french govt and fonctionnaires don't seem to like small businesses. We dreamt of having a B&B, plus gite, but didn't q. realise how much that would take to implement (without the lost 30,000). We had thought of a bar but that's even worse - and our Maire doesn't seem to like us since he's realised that we can't do it. This sounds really bitter. It isn't meant to be - it is simply a capsule of what has happened to us since we decided to move over. That said I am extremely bitter against people who bet on commodity and currency prices then make millions. See Stieg Larsson for the best ever explanation of the difference between "the economy" and the "markets".
What?! I was under the impression that a woman's cut in France is around €30, €40. Or maybe it's sarcasm? :) But I have seen some horrid hair cuts and color over there, I'd be willing to correct some stuff, how fun! Not sarcasm, I still love doing hair and love a good challenge. Most of my loyal clientele are people on whom I've corrected some hair 'don'ts'.
"as of now I'm commanding $80.00 for my women's cuts, (short hair)." Is that all? my missus would love you, & so would my bank balance! :-)
Hi Kirsten -
All there is to say to you, go for it! Danish myself, left DK back in the 80s, lived in London since then - and I love London! (My hubby was then stupid enough to go on rugby tour to Denmark, and I took advantage of his silly drunkenness, still blames me for it all of course)...but here we are many moons later)!
However, next month the big removal truck drives towards la belle Provence, and I cannot wait, so looking forward to it! Plan is to do a bit of B&B, we're lucky, as we know the area very well because we already have a place in the area! The the more you know about the area before you make the decision, the better, and both you and you husband speak the lingo, which will help you along nicely! Where you you want to move to in the Ardeche?
There are quite a few very nice restaurants in our area, and if you wanted to do some hair dressing, I might know someone who knows someone...but you might just be that bit too far away from where I am, having said that...I'll +be max 1H45min away from Valance(A7/J26) - so please come and say hallo one day and I'll pour you a glass or two of the local vino - and maybe ask you to do my hair as well! Good luck! :)
Thank you everyone, I'm so glad you all responded. I'm more excited than ever! That's the problem, well, not really a problem. But as Vic said, 'If you put all of your facts in a pros or cons column it seems like...' That's what I'm searching for. The 'cons'.
The only cons I can think of are:
1. Heating and cooling, almost non-existant in L.A. (cheap, but boring, moderate climate)
2. The bureaucracy in France, but even with that I'm thinking we'll only work for 5-10 years, and below mentioned nieces and nephews are very tech-savy, and have proven very helpful in the past.
3. Products like Ginger-Ale, Carne Asada, but then I argue with myself thus, 'soda is bad for us, and what about the myriad fabulous Euro foods like Spanish Chorizo'.... need I continue? Help me, I can't think of any real 'cons'! Arg!
I don't want to be blindsided when the charm of living in that wonderful, (I luuuuuuuv France), place wears off, and the reality of life sets in. I might like it to be the other way around, saying to myself, 'Oh, I don't know.... it might be super hard and I'd miss this, and I wouldn't have that....' only to find myself a couple of years into it pinching myself at my good fortune and happiness. Also, I forgot to mention we don't have any kids, but our nieces and nephews are still relatively young, aged 17-30 years. And we love them.
By the way, also good advice about renting at first. I could do hairdressing, and teach too, I mentor here and have done high-end hair, (don't ask). Just a fancy-shmancy way of saying I'm accomplished in that area. I know I'd take a large pay cut, as of now I'm commanding $80.00 for my women's cuts, (short hair). I'm not being boastful, just illustrating my employability. Vincent, my husband thinks he would be too old to be a server, but he's super charismatic, and rather youthful really. We also like to entertain and cook for others, (and ourselves, I'm afraid), so there's the possibility of a few rooms to rent, as a Gite, from time to time. Not a big enterprise, I've heard it's a lot of work. So there are the laws, rules and regulations as to that affair. I don't know if we could do a small time thing like that. Or must we go into it full boar or nothing? Any advice on that would be greatly appreciated as well.
Thanks again all of you who respond. Your feedback is quite valuable to me :D
Kirsten. If you put all of your facts in a pros or conns column it seems like the conns column would be pretty much empty.
We came here about 11 years ago with little French, struggled for a few years with the "dragons" but having arrived at a compromise with all persons official wouldn't change our life one bit. We didn't have to earn a living so that helped enormously but you have a head start over most with your language skills, French family & husband. If you really want to do it, go for it! No point sitting back in your dotage, when it's too late, wishing you had made the move.
My advice too, go for it . My husband is a US citizen from Illinois, I am French I have lived in the US 43 years, we decided to take early retirement in France, so we have been here in Charente-Maritime 7 years and we have not regretted it. There are very few things that we miss from the US ( Pickles, glazed doughnuts, my husband has craving for them every now and then, we will perhaps find some one day).
We came over with a full container of our belongings, but nothing electrical, except for lamps. My husband doesn't speak French very well, but manages to make himself understood and we count many of our French neighbors as friends. I go to the US at least once a year to visit the children and grand children and he prefers to stay here, and surprise me when I return, by having done all sorts of improvements in the house.
I would say - Go for It too! If its what you really want to do...then try renting for a year before buying - see how that works out and decide where exactly you want to live. Buying is expensive because of the taxes/notaires so make sure it's definitely where/what u want.
I have a friend who is American and she loves being here but she is going back to US for work & family - she's had a great life experience being in France. There's nothing wrong with giving it a try and if its not for you then move again...it all adds to the variety and fun of life, plus as Andrew says you have a really useful trade to work in so go for it!! and I will also say Good Luck & Enjoy!