Making the Best of it.
When you move to a new country, things will not always go as expected. Read about our mistakes and how we made the best of them and had lots of fun anyway!
We Made a Mistake…
No, not moving to France – that was a wonderful decision! But we have made plenty of mistakes since moving to France less than two years ago. Here are the top ten mistakes we’ve made (so far):10. Assuming we can find familiar ingredients. Some of our...
Things I don’t miss about the United States
Recently I wrote about things I miss about living in the U.S., now that I live in France. One reader commented that she would be interested to know what I DON’T miss, and I thought that was a great topic. So today, here is a list of the top ten things I...
What Do You Miss?
One of the most common questions we get about our move to France—aside from “Why did you move to France?” doesn’t relate to our move, but to the U.S. “What do you miss most?” we’re often asked. So, I decided to give that some...
Finding a Home in France, Part Two
If you read “Finding a Home in France, Part One”, you may remember that we expected to close on our apartment purchase in April. But France is full of surprises! On March 7, just over three months after our offer, the apartment was ours. The closing was...
Buying a Car. Buyer’s Remorse. Lessons Learned.
When my husband Phil and I moved to France, our plan was to buy a car after a couple of months. We knew we wanted an electric car, and not being fans of new cars, we wanted to buy used. I began researching online in February 2022, only to find that used EVs were rare,...
Finding a Home in France, Part One
When my husband Phil and I moved to Montpellier on January 22, 2022, the day after I retired from my U.S. healthcare career, we had a rough plan: wait a month or two before buying a car, make learning French our top priority, and rent a furnished apartment for the...
A Shifting Sense of Home
Recently my husband and I took the longest trip of our lives—a 15-day transatlantic cruise, followed by almost three weeks in the United States. It was the trip of a lifetime, and we loved every minute of it. As we spent time with people on the ship, American...
Learning French: Ce n’est pas facile!
When we decided to move to France, we knew our first priority (after finding a place to live and buying groceries!) would be learning to speak French. My husband Phil had taken a beginner’s class years ago, and he used Babbel before we moved, but he was still a...Online Survey
