Life in France

Human pincushion

Back in 2021 when Bill and I became eligible for the then-brand-new Covid vaccine I felt as if we were a porcupine with needles sticking out of us. First we had the initial injection and then a month later we could get the booster. Afterwards was our annual flu shot and not much later it was an empty needle that went in our arm to draw out blood for the yearly prise de sang previously known to us as a blood test. In addition, there were at least another 6 jabs that were either recommended in general or if we were in a particular health situation. Although it wouldn’t generally involve a needle, we mustn’t forget our annual physical, eye exam, and dentist visit to fit in there too. But now that we live in France we were in no rush.

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Life in France

The French are leaving?

When you are preparing to move to a new country and even years after you’ve made the leap, naturally you’re looking at all of the advantages offered in your new homeland. We still comment on the quality of life here, affordable healthcare for everyone, efficient public transportation, beautiful landscapes, the rich history and culture, and the sense of community that we’ve found from day one. With that in mind, it came as a surprise to read the results of a survey that was taken at the end of last year regarding the desire of the French to leave this country. About one third of the respondents in general were ready for a change of citizenship status to expatrié(e) while that increases to half if you look only at young people. 

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Life in France

Hey Siri, what’s your Siret?

Administrator Jennifer, of the Facebook group Everything French posted a story that opened with, “So, you require a new bathroom/kitchen or maybe you’ve decided that it’s time for a new roof….” Given that we’ve undertaken all of those projects to our house since we moved to France, I was anxious to read what she was going to say. She first mentions the importance of a SIRET (Système d’identification du répertoire des établissements) that I think of as a company’s registration number for tax purposes but it also proves the existence and location of a business plus the category of work that they do. Once you have a company’s SIRET what’s next?

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Life in France

Europe, a haven of peace for Americans

An advantage of glancing at a few French news sources each morning is that sometimes you are directed to an interesting story from a newspaper or magazine from elsewhere in the world. Such was the case when I saw in the Courrier International a story with the title that I used for today’s blog post. The original text that appeared in The Economist was actually labeled “Why Europe is a Magnet for more Americans” with a subtitle addressing the growing number of people “seeking to escape violence and political strife in the United States”. Although this didn’t focus solely on France, I still wanted to see what was drawing our fellow citizens to this continent.

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Life in France

House—1€, Village—25K€, Chateau—150K€

The headline on CNN Travel read, “This US couple bought a house in France for $36,000”, so of course we had to read that story. Author Tamara Hardingham-Gill recounted how California residents, Robin and Jim, were visiting friends in Cajarc (about 2.5 hours north of Carcassonne) when they began fantasizing about living in France. By chance, a cousin of the town’s mayor was selling her 800-year-old house for $36,000, an affordable figure for which Jim said they could either buy a new car or a house in France. After spending $12,000 on renovations they now have a comfortable home where they spend their summers enjoying a simpler life and less consumerism than they find in California. I wondered if bargains like this were still available.

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Life in France

A rainy day out

For the singing group The Carpenters, “rainy days and Mondays always get me down” but that’s not necessarily the case when you have adventurous friends. In an ants-in-the-pants moment, as Sally and Larry would call it, they suggested we jump in the car with them to head out to destinations unknown, at least to us, to shake off the blues of a dull day. This wouldn’t be the first time that they’ve taken us on a secret road trip and I definitely hope that it won’t be the last. Our only clue was that there would be food and wine involved, and with those magic words, we were off!

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Life in France, Travel in France & beyond

Free for all

There’s been a lot in the news recently about train travel in Europe for this new year. Headlines have included, “Faster trains and cheaper tickets; 5 New European Train Routes; and, Europe’s night trains are making a comeback,” all aiming to show the benefits of new routes, lower costs, faster speeds, and lower emissions. We’ll see the beginning of sleeper services from Paris to Berlin plus Amsterdam to Prague with a direct service from there on to Budapest. Bordeaux will be linked directly to London with no changes required as will Barcelona to Geneva. While lower priced tickets will be good, “free” is even better and that was the topic of an article about travel in Luxembourg.

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