Bonjour,
We are retiring from the US to France next year ; likely to Montpellier. While we’ve done some research, I would love to get some perspective and advice from recent expats. We’ve had a free consultation with Lexidy to assist with the long stay visa. It went well but I’m concerned they are a bit expensive. Anyone else used them or have a recommendation on other companies? Thanks in advance! Steve
Welcome to the site.
Are you going for a VLS-TS? They are pretty easy to get your own paperwork together for it. Not much reason for a hand holder. We just retired to France last year from the US. Working on our renewal atm
Thanks for the quick response. Yes, we’re applying for the VLS TS, which seems pretty straight forward, but… trying to avoid any bureaucratic snafus 
It is just 3 things really. Address for 3 months, the right Health Insurance(can get it from the link up top We used them), and proof of income/funds(which is ~$52,000 atm). Couple supposedly can show less but we wanted to be safe.
We had them take the pictures atm the visa appointment so didn’t have to worry about getting the correct size. This is the easiest of all the bureaucratic stuff you will have to deal with in France.
Thanks again. What is atm ?
At the moment
Very helpful., thanks. Would you mind if we kept corresponding in the future? I’m sure we’ll have more questions
Sure. Open to any questions you have
Welcome and you are in good hands with @TFJWM to advise on the paperwork.
Where in Montpellier are you thinking of living?..it has got to be one on our favourite cities in France for many reasons and it’s our bolt hole when we need to dress up and come down from the hills for a bit of culture 
.
Great choice and success with your preparations.
I remember when we obtained our visas a couple of points.
The first was that the list of items needed on the French visa website was not complete - though they might have fixed this by now. I checked various websites for advice and just made a list of all the required items.
Secondly, we needed a complete set of documents for each person. I’d taken only one set of bank statements. The lady who dealt with our application volunteered to photocopy them for us, despite the visa website saying that wouldn’t be possible.
Hello and welcome!
Montpellier has recently been suffering from severe flooding.
Hard to say if this will be an annual problem but best to choose a highish apartment and keep a stock of stored water.
…it’s a bit sensationalist this report. I was there during these dates and yes it was wet, and there was localised flooding for a couple of hours on a bit of road with tram rails in a dip in the road… so no biggies.
The whole area north of Montpellier is well equipped for Episodes and has not bad infrastructure all designed for inondations.
…famous last words I know…
Hi Mikey, thanks for reaching out. We’re headed to Montpellier in July for a week to check out the city and real estate. We’d love to get a recommendation for an agent to help us navigate the real estate market (our main focus on this trip). Preferably a bilingual one; I’m a fluent French speaker but my spouse is not (yet
). Ideally, we would like to live in/near city center but outlying areas with tramway access to center would work too. Steve
It’s a lovely car free city and as a resident, it’s all free of charge.
I don’t know any agents personally but * would first reach out to these:
They all speak English in Mpl and the sooner you get a relationship with a realtor the better and they will or should help you.
I don’t know what your budget is but don’t disregard looking at Leboncoin and do a search on that bit get to know the quartiers well - take a look at Les Arceaux if you want to be central and kinda boho too.
If you are totally flush, check out the Sotheby’s agency in town too.
You’ll be fine and there are some lovely older places in the centre too but no elevators…
Hi again. We’re looking into vls ts health insurance plans and wondering which one you used or would recommend. My husband will be 80 when we apply/move so his may be a bit more expensive. Thanks, Steve
If you click Insurance at the very top of the page in the black band this will take you to Fabien, whom I would check with first as he’s helped insure people here for quite a while, he’s that rare insurance broker that focuses on us immigrants / expats and his team speak English too.
Thanks so much. We’ve scheduled a meeting with on Monday