New members of the France forum, introduce yourselves here - 2021

Hi, Deb! Steffifi is right: Assuming you and your family are not already citizens of an EU country, your options for living permanently in France are limited. You can come over on  a tourist visa and stay at most 90 days, or on a student visa (your daughter would qualify, once she's accepted to a French university). A job for any of you is out of the question, as you must be a resident first and second, your areas of expertise must be somewhat unique (the government doesn't like foreigners taking jobs away from French citizens). If I'm wrong about any of this, someone please correct me.

BTW, I moved permanently to France from California, but was able to do that because I arrived on an Italian passport, not my American one.

Bob

Hi Emmi,

Pay no heed. I moved to France last year. I think I am one of the only English people in the town but people are welcoming to me and they appreciate my efforts to speak French properly. I want to emerge myself in their culture and life. As soon as I get proficient enough with the language I will start doing volunteer work.

Typo..immerse.

Hi,

Welcome! I speak French well enough to carry on a conversation, and to read books and magazines. One thing that helped me immensely when I was learning was to start reading children's books. You’ll be lost at first, of course. My first book took me a month to read but I got better with each one.

Bon chance!

I found that listening to the songs of Georges Brassens over and over supercharged my vocabulary, comprehension and pronunciation. I went from 0 to 60 in a matter of weeks. You need to read the lyrics (with translations side by side) while listening, and sing along when you can. Check out https://sites.google.com/view/brassenst … ions/home.

Hi! I am living in France and would love to help any foreigners to get there

Hi!
Planning to move from Ireland to France to live next February so need all the help we can get lol....really appreciate being on here and able to link in and get advice. Thank you.
I'm a primary school teacher, husband is a handyman/carpenter and has been in construction for over 20 years. We're both in our 50's and looking to buy our own little home and work part time!

Are offering me your help?

Yes, I want to work and help

When I first arrived in France I watched a lot of TV & wrote down words in French that I heard repeated over & over, plus I had a lovely couple of neighbours who wanted only to speak with me in French. It took about 6 months but after that I was good enough to begin teaching English. I pushed & pushed myself & it worked. That was many years ago now back in the 80's. I left in 1992 but want now to retire back to Languedoc Roussillon to a tiny village called St Juery, it's just so beautiful there, not far from Fournels & Chaudes-Aigues. I'm a lot older now, but want very much to come back with my physically disabled but very able on the I.T. front, who's now just over 22. Spent 10 & half years in India & found my son in Tamil Nadu when he was a baby of eighteen months! He likes the idea of living in St Juery & is young enough to clear off when he wants to! I've been widowed since the eighties & hope to make a friends in & around At Juery at Church, markets etc ..

Hello 👋

I have just moved to Albertville in the Savoie region from England. If anyone lives near the area and wants to meet up for a coffee then give me a shout! 😊

Thanks
Aimee

I am French and my husband is British and we are currently living in Cape Town South Africa . We are flying to Montpellier on the 1st of September .as we are looking to hopefully relocate in the Languedoc Roussillon area . We are looking for a company to assist us with our move with  real estate , tax , private health care etc . Your input will be greatly appreciated .

Hi,

What area of France are you planning on moving to?

I am looking for someone in the Toulon area who is looking for part time work managing the holiday letting on our house. If you will be nearby perhaps that would work for us both.

Susan

Hi,

We are Susan & Richard, a couple in their 50s with a home in Sanary-sur-Mer. We are hoping to spend a lot more time there in a few years but for the moment, we try to get there as often as possible & rent the place out on holiday let when we aren’t there.

If there is anyone else in the same boat around the area it would be great to perhaps meet up some time.

If anyone has advice on someone who can do house management for rentals or who is looking for part time work of that type, it would be great to hear from you.

Hello sir, I am looking for a job, I am from Morocco

Hello everyone

My husband Laurence and I first visited Nice in 2003 - it was our first anniversary - and we fell in love with the city!  In 2010 we bought our first small apartment in the Old Town and five years ago we sold that to buy a bigger apartment in Les Fleurs a short stroll from the Promenade des Anglais - we have recently returned from a magical three week stay (our first in 17 months due to the pandemic).  Our longer term plan is to continue to split our time between London and Nice but with more time in the South of France.

I'm looking forward to asking questions and meeting other members.

David and Laurence

Hello everyone, Newly single male planning on relocating from the USA to Toulon France at the beginning of January. Never been and ready to just get up and go. Im fortunate enough that i am retired and have a income so i wont need to work or look for work. Just a place to live which seems like the biggest challenge so far as everyone keeps telling me its to far away to rent anything  Any advice is good advice and appreciated.. Thank you

Hello,

Do you have a visa allowing you to stay in France for a long stay?

Yeah, the visa could be a problem. However, according to my girlfriend Dominique, who's an expert on this sort of thing, if you're an expert at naval maintenance, you should be able to get a work visa because that particular expertise is hard to come by in France and because there's a naval station in Toulon (and that's about all there is there, which begs the question of why would you want to move to Toulon?). I know you said you're retired, but getting a work visa might well be the only way you could stay beyond three months. If you do take that route, be sure to apply for the visa while you're still in the US, at a French consulate there.

If you dont feel Toulon is the best to go, Where would you suggest? I researched and that seems to be the best option at this point since i dont really know much of the area. Always open to suggestions.Thanks

At the moment i do not yet

With a US passport, if I can't get a long stay visa I can only stay for 3 months... so I can return and stay another 3 months only after I'm back in the US for 3 months before I can return... is that correct?  Any other way around that other than a visa?
Thanks!

Correct. Alternatively, if you were accepted as a student in a French educational institution, you could stay for the duration of your courses. Also, you could stay if you were married to a French citizen or, as I did, acquire dual citizenship, via a parent or grandparent born in the EU.

See the comment I just posted to Robare's question. Probably your best shot. My earlier response was specific to Toulon.

Thank you!

Hello all,

Am moving from Los Angeles to Paris in September and reaching out to say hello to everyone.

Martin Kunert
***

Bonjour Martin ! I assume you've got the visa situation all figured out, right?

Bonjour.

I'm an EU citizen.

Well, that makes it easy. So am I. Are you German, by any chance?

Hello everyone!

I'm a 27 year old American that just moved to Nancy, France this week. I came for work but am eager to explore all aspects of the culture for the year that I'll be here.

I don't speak much French yet, so it'd be great to get in touch with English speakers in the area.

I'm always up for a coffee or a drink, but some special interests I have at the moment are: attending music events, practicing French, forming/joining a soccer group, going dancing/to a dance class, playing chess, and meeting another Spanish-speaker.

Thanks to everyone on here for making this place so welcoming and a special thanks to Julien for organizing this forum!

Cheers,
Kelvin

Hi everyone, I’m new to the forum and would be interested to see what advice you may have to help with our retirement dream of moving to France.  We currently live in Yorkshire, where we’ve lived for nearly 35 years, but have always had a dream that one day we could move abroad somewhere warmer and close to the sea.  We don’t want somewhere with mad hot summer temperatures though, so thinking northern France might be suitable - somewhere with a climate that has less dark, dreary, wet days than we get in Yorkshire and many more days of warmth & sunshine so that we can enjoy more of an outdoor lifestyle.  Being close to the sea/beaches is also very high up on my wish list. I feel so happy and content by the sea - I love nothing more than getting my shoes off and feeling the sand in my toes, and having a paddle or a swim - not something I get to do often enough living in Yorkshire.  I’d want to be close to the amenities of a village/small town so as not to feel isolated, and would be great to regularly buy food at local food markets.  I like ‘arty’ types of villages and love wandering round old cobbled streets, browsing in artisan/local craft shops and taking photos of pretty colourful streets - I take lots of photos!     We currently have a gorgeous cocker spaniel who hopefully will still be with us to enjoy this new adventure as well - so we’re looking forward to spending more time outdoors with him (hopefully with less need for raincoats and waterproofs).   After some research, and a bit of help from my sister (who has a friend living in France), we think we’ve decided on our preferred location as being in the south part of Brittany. We particularly like the look of the Morbihan area (because of the climate and beaches).  Auray looks just my type of town and also Carnac, Vannes, Lorient.  Baud looks lovely too, but wanting to be as close as possible to the coast, this is too far inland. Ideally want to be max 30 mins away from the coast.  Further north, around Quimper might be suitable, but haven’t done much research on that area.  We would need to be somewhere with some English speaking residents as our French language skills are very basic (not studied since school days) but we are keen to learn so that we can integrate more fully into the French community. 
That’s a bit of an overview of what we’re hoping for in our retirement dream - maybe I’m ‘dreaming’ a bit too much and need a reality check?  That’s where I’d like your help please.  We are a few years away from making the actual move yet (once our daughter has finished university and more settled then we’ll be free to properly embark on our dream), but in the meantime we want to start investigating and visiting different areas to get a feel of what living abroad (rather than holidaying abroad) is actually like.   Any help, ideas, advice, recommendations etc… will be much appreciated.  Thank you 🥰.

Hello,
We are Turkish family that will move to Reims in 2023. I transfer from turkey to Reims factory. I will need many helps about living and especially for my son's education.
He is going to kindergarten in turkey with English language.
He will be 7 when we go there. I need some advice for the education system that he will start without any French
Which class will he start ?
How would he learn French ?
We want to send him to Public school for learning French easily.
Will he start from CP or CE 1 ?
What is CLIN?
What could we do for preparing him for French schools ?

I found this bilingual school https://www.internationale-farman.com/notre-primaire

For the public school, normally at 7, he goes in CE1, but you also to know that at this age, kids learn very fast language. Moreover there are public schools which welcome some non-French speaking pupils (from immigration/refugees/expatriation).

Also, like in many towns in France, there are also a Turkish community.

You have almost two years to prepare your relocation. You could try to find French courses for children (maybe a kindergarten... I don't know where are you in Turkey. Sure in Istanbul, you will find... Why not to try enroll him in a French school directly in Turkey? (if there is one close your location) or find a francophone student or expats (there are many too).

It is really a chance to have all this time before your coming

Bonjour everyone!

My name is Steph I moved to France 10 mnths ago with my husband and our dog. We live in the Creuse department.
For the past 10mnths we have been busy making the house we bought habitable.
Its a complete renovation project and we are doing it ourselves.

We are both self employed and taking private french lessons. We are super eager to learn French and love the rural life.

We havent had chance to meet any people in our area yet  but would like to make some new friends!
We are outdoors ppl love hiking, wild swimming, yoga, cycling ,dog walking visiting local markets , art galleries

If you live in the creuse and fancy a coffee and a dog walk let us know we would love to meet ppl who love animals as we are super passionate about animals!! 🤗🤗👍🏻

Thanks for reading

mmertbabur wrote:

Hello,
We are Turkish family that will move to Reims in 2023. I transfer from turkey to Reims factory. I will need many helps about living and especially for my son's education.
He is going to kindergarten in turkey with English language.
He will be 7 when we go there. I need some advice for the education system that he will start without any French
Which class will he start ?
CE1
How would he learn French ?
Immersion. He'll pick it up easily from the other kids.
We want to send him to Public school for learning French easily.
Good idea.
Will he start from CP or CE 1 ?
Check out this link.
What is CLIN?
[No idea.
What could we do for preparing him for French schools ?
Start reading age-appropriate books to him ASAP. Also, get several French-language music CDs and DVDs for kids, or have him watch French-language TV shows for kids, if available.

Hello Everyone

I am Lorraine and I am originally from Jamaica and an US American citizen.
I've actually lived in Germany for most of my life. My French partner lives in Alsace which isn't far away.

However, we plan on moving to Brittanny in a couple of years. I thought it would be helpful to get to know people in the area of Lanester where we plan to live. I think France is a very beautiful country. I'm still learning French. It's a bit difficult for me because in Alsace many people speak Alsacienne which I understand quite well. However, that won't help me in Brittany! So I hope I can make some friends here.

if anyone is visiting Alsace , please do contact me. Maybe we can meet up for a coffee. I live close to Strasbourg.

Thanks for taking the time to read this .

Small world: I'm an American expat living in Strasbourg. I'd love to meet for coffee. When would be good for you?

Hi. I am an American from San Diego, CA. After running an Irish pub for 20 years in the Gaslamp district, I am looking to semi-retire in Bordeaux and open an smaller pub. I am athletic and my daily rider is a motorcycle. Love dining out shared with a pint of Irish beer or a French Bordeaux with friends. I enjoy working out, car racing and boating.

Hello folks,

Hope you all are doing well and keeping safe!

I came here in France in April, 2021. I am from Punjab, India. I found this place as actually very beautiful and aesthetic. I dont know French. but have enrolled for the French classes which will start soon. Can anyone help me with finding the job here?
I am fluent in English. Currently I am pursuing PhD (Psychology) from Indian University only. I have been working as an Assistant Professor for nearly three years. I have heard that English speakers can get jobs in International schools here for which courses of Montessori are required. Please guide me how can I get into school jobs here.

Thank you very much 

Hello, everyone~

I have lived in France for 5 years and I am from Hong Kong. Frankly speaking, if you need to find a job in France, it is really not easy, because of language problems, and some bosses will think that you are a foreigner and will lower your salary.
I myself have done a restaurant here, and I have also done a massage. Finally, I have the opportunity to become a self-employed person in the massage industry.

After all, it is not easy for everyone to live in a foreign country, but you will always find the job/life you want to do. Come on, everyone!