We, 72m and 71f, have been traveling the world continuously looking for a new home since June 2022 but now plan on settling in France in May of 2026. We are Americans, but I also am a Lithuanian citizen so it will be easier for us to obtain a visa for my wife and residency for myself.
We have a storage unit in California and will be returning to further cull and pack for shipment prior to our arrival in France. Our plan is to use Auto-Europe to lease a car for about six months to allow us to house hunt more easily. We have used them several times with good results.
At this point we are trying to find the Goldilocks zone where ice and snow is rare, but where extreme heat and wildfires are as well. We are open to any suggestions on towns or regions and are open to using elevation to temper climate.
We would prefer an urban or suburban as opposed to rural environment. Walking distance or a short drive to town with a Tabac, pharmacy, post, boulangerie, episserie, etc. However I am a motorcyclist and would want a garage space that can be locked.
My French language skills are rudimentary, schoolboy level, and my wifeās are worse. However we are willing and able to improve and I have a knack for languages.
Our preference is to rent if at all possible as opposed to tying capital up in real estate.
Thank you in advance for any advice or suggestions. I will be following the site and hope to participate in discussions where I can add anything of interest.
Have you considered Strasbourg?
We live right in the city and - on the whole - itās great. Easy access to healthcare (provided you can get registered with the local health insurance office, the CPAM), warm summers, cold winters but no extreme weather.
English is very widely spoken, not least because Strasbourg hosts a couple of large international organisations. To start you off, thereās āAmericans in Alsaceā which is a very active organisation. Rentals are reasonably priced and fairly plentiful. Quite a few flats and houses come with individual garages.
Strasbourg is located on the plain but for mountains, you have the Vosges on the French side and the Black Forest on the German side. 30 minutes in the car to either.
What is the climate like in winter? Snow and ice often? Does it melt after a day or does it stay icy for a week or more? As we age we think more and more about our balance and slip and fall injuries.
FWIW Iām looking at the area (roughly) between the Loire Valley and Angouleme (Vienne / Deux Sevres / Charente / Charente Maritime) for my move to France on the grounds of it being a sort of Goldilocks zone in terms on temperature and rainfall compared to further north, south, or east, though I havenāt decided exactly where yet.
That said the temperature hit 100F in southern Vienne when I stayed there in June so itās all variable!
I expect you will get lots of other suggestions as we are all different!
Driving around to see where you like best sounds like a good planā¦
I lived in FinistĆØre (Brittany) for 30years previously and snow was very rare, frost very rare too being right on the coast although inland could suffer it. Summers very comfortable and rarely over 30Ā°C whilst winters were the mildest in France and very rarely did I ever wear a heavy coat or jacket, a fleece or light waterproof was sufficient. Saying all that, it did get very windy but not for days like down here in this oven with fires springing up all around me currently and it was damp so always mowing the lawns but it was comfortable. Now I am sweating buckets at over 35Ā°C this week with no fresh air to breathe and windows shut because of the smoke clouds and smell of burning from 100kms away.
I think no one can predict now where will have a reasonable climate. 18 years ago, we drove down through France on July 4th and were concerned about our dogs in the back because the temperature was in the high 20s. This coming Monday, this part of Lot et Garonne, the temperature is due to hit 40 (for the first time since weāve been here).
In our early years here we would get a smattering of snow each winter, which often had cleared by lunchtime, or maybe lingered until the day after. Then in 2012 we were snowbound for a week. Our last smattering of snow was 2018 and weāve had none since - but our winters have got wetter (I prefer the snow).
No, hardly any snow or ice these days. If you prefer urban to rural, Strasbourgās a good choice. Plenty happening all year round (in English as well as French). We have 3 art cinemas which screen lots of foreign films.
In addition to āAmericans in Alsaceā, thereās the āEnglish-speaking Community of Strasbourgā.
So I donāt think your wife would get lonely despite her lack of French.
Thereās a big university and plenty of other places to take courses on every subject under the sun. Including of course the Alliance franƧaise for learning French.
One problem with Strasbourg right now is the state of the local administration. It takes forever to get anything done. Interminable waits at the Prefecture and the local CPAM (health insurance fund). Donāt know if other cities (since you want urban) are better in this respect. Coming from California with all that sea and sun, Iād check out Nice.
Itās a huge thing to move to France in your 70s. Do give some thought to how your wife would cope if you snuff it and she canāt speak good French.
Welcome and plenty of folk here can advise on a āperfectā place to live to suit your criteria. Good luck and have fun with it too!
Regarding long term car hire and because you have US passport, you might want to look into renting on a TT plate. Auto Europe used to provide this and worth checking out and will be cheaper than any other rental.
Rodez (small city) in the Aveyron and Figeac (medium sized town) in the adjoining Lot are places in southern France where youāre very unlikely to get extreme temperatures: certainly no snow, but neither the extreme heat and drought you may find further south. Theyāre also well protected from the winds that come off the Med.
This news item extract (paywall) below is a further good argument for Rodez. We live in between the two and each has its strongpoints.
āRodez, a small city in the south-west, has been ranked the best place to grow old in France, in a new list that compared 449 towns using criteria including life expectancy, pollution levels, and access to doctors.ā
Newspaper Le Figaro released its new ranking today (November 23). It compared small cities and towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants, to see how positive of a place they are to grow old.
The top five were:
Rodez (Aveyron)
Auch (Gers)
Cahors (Lot)
Albi (Tarn)
Voiron (IsĆØre)
Overall, towns in the south-west of France did best.
We are not really coming from California, we left in 2018 to live on a boat. Then left the US in 2022 to travel. We havenāt been back since then. Currently we are in DaNang VN until January.
As very experienced world travelers since the 1980ās I have no worries about how well my wife would handle France were I to die. We have been backpacking on year long trips since our honeymoon 40 years ago and have been living out of our bags for three years now. South America, Europe, SE Asia and Japan, Australia and NZ, etc. We are quite flexible in our approach to things.
I agree, we are looking for an urban or even better, a suburban environment. Somewhere on the outskirts of a town or edge of a small city as opposed to a remote village.
Personal opinion, but stick to urban. I think you would find anything other than that would not meet lifestyle expectations, or bring you in contact with people you could bond with.