Frenchly has published a helpful guide on moving to France, and I was one of the people they interviewed for it.
The guide covers a lot of ground: how to decide where to live, buying versus renting, how to purchase a property, obtaining visas, health insurance, and more. It’s a great overview for people considering a move to la belle France.
Read all about it in Frenchly!
International Living is an excellent resource for people thinking of moving abroad. The magazine has correspondents around the world, experts in different countries, and holds regular seminars for those who want to learn about taking the plunge.
Val and I were interviewed by their French correspondent about our part-time life in St-Rémy-de-Provence. How did we decide to do it, how did we choose where to live, how much does it cost? For those of you dreaming of a French life, you might find it interesting.
Read all about it in International Living!
Florence Melin is a French woman who has lived in the United States for half her life, and also visits France every year. We met through a mutual friend and had a very interesting conversation, as I’m a little bit the opposite of her: an American who lives part-time in France.
I really appreciated Florence’s thoughts on how the US compares to France. She is able to see the good points of each country, along with the occasional frustrations. I could relate when she said there are some things you can never really understand about your new country, like events from childhood and are part of the collective cultural memory.
You can read about how Florence sees the two countries in My French Life!
Imagine the scene:
You are in a giant storage facility in middle-of-nowhere Provence. It’s a blazing hot day and you’ve just gathered some items from your storage locker.
You are about to leave when suddenly the power goes out. You find yourself in the dark, your wife is trapped in an elevator, and there is no one in the building to help.
You suddenly feel very far from home.
Ah, isn’t travel fun? Yes, this is what happened to Val and me last summer and, happily we lived to tell the tale. But it wasn’t easy! Burly firefighters might have been involved.
Read all about it in Frenchly!
Jamie Beck was a sought-out photographer working for top brands like Cartier and Veuve Clicquot. She had legions of Instagram followers and what seemed like a rich, fulfilling life. But something was missing.
As Beck tells us in her brilliant new book, An American in Provence:
“I had it all. A ‘dream life’ with a cool job, amazing clients, luxury trips, designer clothes, a cute little vintage Mercedes convertible, a house in the Hamptons, a French-looking apartment by Riverside Park, and I could eat at any restaurant I wanted, any night of the week in New York. Why on earth was I so unhappy?”
Beck realised that all the personal sacrifices required to “make it” were squeezing the life out of her. Photography fed a deep artistic need, but working for others year after year, adapting to their needs and their timetables, had extinguished her creative spark. She desperately needed a break.
And so she moved to Provence. And now has written a book about her life-changing experiences in this magical corner of France.
I really enjoyed An American in Provence, with its fabulous photos and compelling story. Read all about it in France Today!
Annette Charlton is an Australian woman who bought a house in France on her very first trip to the country–true story! Now she’s a part-time Frenchwoman, as she and her family spend part of the year in Brittany. If you haven’t already visited her wonderful website A French Collection, I encourage you to take a look.
Annette asked me to write about what Val and I love about our part-time life in Provence. There was so much to say that I had to keep myself from running on and on–there are the markets, the charming villages, the stunning landscape, and so much more. Best of all are the people, some of our best friends on earth. Whenever we are away from Provence, we long to return.
If you’d like to know what we love about Provence, take a look at this article that I wrote for Annette.
I’d like to introduce you to my friend Annette Charlton, part-time Frenchwoman and the author of a delightful new book, A French Life.
Some years ago, Annette and her husband bought a house in a small village in Brittany. This, you might think, is not particularly unusual. But they bought the house on their first-ever trip to France. And they live in Australia. All right, you think, this is not your run-of-the-mill couple.
Annette is the publisher of A French Collection, where she writes about all things French. And she occasionally writes funny stories about her life in France. She has now collected these blog posts into a slim volume that I very much enjoyed reading.
Annette begins with a straightforward question—how do you buy a house on your first trip to a country? While others might choose a different path, preferring to visit a few times first, the method she lays out will profit anyone thinking of buying a home abroad.
Then Annette starts telling funny stories about the life that she, her husband, and their three kids live in France. She describes an unusual French specialty, chocolate sausage. She tells how she once accidentally invited an elderly priest for a visit, then had to entertain him when neither spoke the other’s language. And she asks the vital question, what is the proper French etiquette when someone’s hair catches on fire?
Whether you buy this book, read the stories on her blog, or just dip into A French Collection from time to time, I guarantee you’ll enjoy getting to know Annette and her family.
You can purchase A French Life here.
Oh boy, I love books about France and this is one of the best.
France is full of fascinating places to visit, like Paris, Provence, the Riviera, Normandy, and more. There are so many that it’s hard to decide where to go! Well, it just got harder because Janine Marsh’s description of her tiny village in “middle-of-nowhere-France” is so delightful that you’ll want to go there, too. I know I do.
Fifteen years ago, Janine and her husband Mark bought a wreck of a house in the Seven Valleys region of northern France. They didn’t plan to buy a house; they were on a shopping trip from their home in London and stumbled into a real estate office to get out of the rain. The next thing they knew they were looking at a place that cost “less than a Hermes handbag.” They bought it as a bit of a lark, thinking it would make a nice place for vacations and the occasional weekend getaway.
But life had other plans. The little village captured their hearts and soon they packed up and moved to France. The next dozen years were spent refurbishing the house (including a septic tank explosion that earned Janine the nickname Madame Merde), collecting a vast collection of farm animals (including a demented chicken named Ken) and settling into the local community.
Janine and Mark are those rarest of birds, expats who have really become members of a French village. They drink at a local bar that looks like someone’s living room circa 1955. They play charades with their neighbors, where everyone fights to play Johnny Holliday or Edith Piaf. They chat with the bread delivery man—their village is too tiny to support a boulangerie—who occasionally has questions about English (“What means the expression, ‘It sucks?’”)
The best part of the book is the way Janine writes about of her neighbors, a friendly and occasionally eccentric crew who have welcomed Janine and Mark with great warmth. There’s Jean-Claude, who teaches them how to trim hedges and make crow pâté. And Claudette, always ready with a hot cup of coffee and a plate of something tasty. And “Miss Pepperpot,” the tiny lady who occasionally needs help getting wayward cows out of her flowerbed, and offers jars of homemade jam as thanks.
I love Janine’s writing and laughed when she described a young couple falling in love over a shared passion for mushroom hunting (“one fungi led to another…”) And her description of a strong local drink (“Calvados can blow your socks off, and after a couple of hours we were all pretty much sockless.”)
If you are stuck at home and looking for something to brighten your day, think about taking a trip to this delightful corner of France. I just loved this book and I think you will, too.
You can find My Four Seasons in France on Amazon.
Val and I live part of the year in St-Rémy and we’ve tried to become as local as we can. An important part of that is getting to know our region’s history.
One way we’ve done this is through local associations, which are groups organized around a common interest. Associations are popular in France and every town and village has at least a few. They might be cultural, charitable, athletic—you name it. A friend of ours is in a walking group and she joins fellow members for “randonnées” in the countryside every weekend.
We’ve made it a point to go to lectures put on by our town’s historical society. Want to know about the women of the French Resistance? How about what the Pont d’Avignon looked like before it collapsed? Or maybe the REAL story of Mary Magdalene in Provence?
Read all about it at Perfectly Provence!
It’s summer: time for long, lazy days and maybe a book or two. Looking for something good to read? Then check out this hilarious true story of an American who buys a house in a tiny village in Brittany and begins living there part of the year.
As a part-time expat myself, I find that author Mark Greenside does an exceptional job of describing the many fish-out-of-water moments of life abroad. He also writes movingly about how his experiences in a new land have changed him. This is a book not to be missed!
Check out my review in My French Life.