Bonjour expats/immigrants/friends!
Myself, my brother and his petite amie will be moving from the US to Bretagne in April of next year. I’ll be a vintage/antique dealer which is my happy place. If you know of any 6 month or so 2 BR rentals in Brittany/ Charente area let me know! We’re excited and petrified for this adventure!
Hi. That sounds very exciting for you all.
Have you already looked into the paperwork you’ll all need for the French authorities? It’s fairly complicated for non-EU citizens (including Brits) to work here and I think you need a certain amount of earnings each to qualify. Other people know more than I do, so please tell us about your plans. 
Check out also how running a business like you state is regulated and what compulsory social charges and taxes you will be liable for. Brittany is full of antique dealers and outlets so choose your area well. Good luck, I lived in Bretagne for over 30 years but have now moved south for the warmth and nearer to family.
Look also at people’s experience of what you need to prepare to be accepted to rent a property. French tenancy laws favour the tenant, so landlords can be very cautious about renting to foreigners with no track record in France.
Welcome @Amy_Sky and thank you for unwittingly (?) pandering to many of us immigrants’ hatred of the word expat. 
I know nothing of what you intend to do here, unless you change your mind to lorry driver, but there are lots of helpful people here who do and you have given yourself plenty of time to work it all out. Very best of luck. 
I’ll be getting a profession liberale visa.
Call me crazy but it sounded like Amy was just sharing her exciting news about her move to France for work and was asking for leads on places to rent…..not whether she knew what she was doing and that she needed to get her paperwork together? 
It isn’t just restricted to this particular forum, but in many cases I find that Americans (I’m one) tend to think that moving to Europe is like moving to another state. Had she included the bit about the visa in her original post, the responses might have been more focused on her housing problem.
I think next April is likely too far away for anyone to know about a vacancy. My thinking is that the best time to start working on housing is 3-4 months from when youneed it.
Indeed. SF is great value. You go in for a quick nip and tuck and come out with a nose job and breast augmentation.
Well in my case I sincerely hope not! 
True - but folks here are very keen to help newcomers avoid common pitfalls - maybe too zealous on that score sometimes, but it’s done from a genuine desire to help in my experience!
Yes indeed, especially the pitfalls that newcomers may well not know exist at all.
I immigrated here when it was almost the equivalent as @Nunthewiser says of moving from one US state to another.
And… for those like me who have been here for over 30 years, coming to live here now has changed so much regarding the law and visa that did not exist for us back then. Therefore we are learning too and its not like previously where you had to compulsory get a Carte de Sejour and change your UK driving licence within one year of arrival which even then was quite daunting as there was no internet and everything had to be done face to face with a lot of time spent driving hither and thither. I was shocked how little bureaucracy there is in the US compared to France and indeed, most of the EU
I understand the desire to help but for whatever reason, with this forum, I’ve found members to be too zealous, erring on the side of rude and sarcastic, unintentional I’m sure!
Diana Bik Boeck
Agree. And have possibly been guilty of that myself (zealous, hopefully not sarcastic). We should be more patient.
But we’ve had a fair few threads where people didn’t really know which questions to ask or started off with the wrong ones. Are you saying we shouldn’t assume that people want to be prepared for what life in France might throw at them?
And here we go…no you shouldn’t assume that because that is being presumptuous. I frankly don’t understand why that even needs to be explained. If someone is simply asking for leads on apartment rentals and you (or someone else) respond by asking them if they understand how difficult the bureaucracy is in France that isn’t helpful—it is rude and condescending.
Differing points of view it seems, I am not at all affronted if I ask a question which someone answers and then adds ‘but you do realise that this could happen as a result do you?’
I’ve never in my life been called rude and condescending. We’ll have to agree to differ.
And your not being rude?