Tag: Quality of life

Life in France

Purchasing power: France vs. USA

When we were looking to make the big move from the US to France, we gathered as much information as we could to find out about the cost of living here. There’s a “budget” tab above on this page that shows what we spend monthly and it remains one of the most popular topics for people who read the blog. What we don’t address, however, is what we used to pay back in Atlanta but considering that was over 10 years ago I don’t think that it would be relevant anyway. One person who does do exactly that is Jean-Noël, a Frenchman who now lives in upstate New York where he makes comparisons between Normandy and Ithaca.

Continue reading “Purchasing power: France vs. USA”
Unknown's avatarBob3 Comments
Life in France

The cost to live in France

Last week we talked about the concerns of Americans living overseas who were considering moving back to the States. That blog post was based on an article called “When Returning to the U.S. Seems Unaffordable” where that headline essentially states their worries. From health insurance premiums to retirement, all of the people interviewed shared their doubts about being able to afford the same quality of life back “home” that they had enjoyed in other countries. Soon after I had read that news item I saw another addressing how much money you needed to live in France. Obviously that comes with a definite “that depends” but still it prompted me to do some investigation of what others were spending to have a comfortable life here.

Continue reading “The cost to live in France”
Unknown's avatarBob1 Comment
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.

Continue reading “Europe, a haven of peace for Americans”
Unknown's avatarBob10 Comments
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!

Continue reading “A rainy day out”
Unknown's avatarBob9 Comments
Life in France

Don’t do that

When I tried to find out how many YouTube channels there are, the only agreement between websites seemed to be on the word “million” following numbers such as 37, 51, 113, or even 373, all of which translates to “a lot”. I (half) joked with Bill that you could learn anything, including brain surgery, from these videos. Spoiler alert: don’t search for that unless you have a strong stomach. We do use this extremely popular online platform for less serious matters that include improving our French and discovering more about the society in which we now live. A topic that I’ve seen at least once on almost every channel I follow has to do with mistakes to avoid as a visitor or new resident in France. The faux pas listed below are the ones that appear most often with our own experiences noted beside each one. 

Continue reading “Don’t do that”
Unknown's avatarBob7 Comments
Life in France

What’s the Point?

The magazine article headline that caught my eye was “A New Neighborhood is Being Built in Utah That Looks Like a European ‘One-Car Town’”. This told the story of developing a 600 acre (243 hectares) site in Draper, UT into a pedestrian-friendly town with favor given to bike lanes over cars. Author Andy Corbley said that this was like something he might see in the Netherlands. Realizing that potential residents could balk at going completely car-free, the developers are focused on making the use of an automobile unnecessary within the confines of the community. At least 45% of the city will be covered by greenery including sidewalks, bike paths, and roads that lead to the perimeter bus system with connections to Salt Lake City. Hikers and cyclists will have easy access to the river parkway and to the mountain trail system. In describing the target market, one of those developers said, “They want more urban features, they want to know their neighbors, they want to be part of a community.” Hmm, sounds like us. By the way, this new town is called The Point.

Continue reading “What’s the Point?”
Unknown's avatarBob5 Comments
Life in France

Retiring overseas

Chambord castle

Our friend Larry tipped us off to an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal that addressed the topic of retiring abroad. The newspaper contacted about a dozen of their previous contributors who had written pieces about moving from the US and settling elsewhere in the world. Because most of those original articles were so optimistic about this big change in life the editors were especially interested to see if that initial enthusiasm continued years later ranging in time from 4 years to 14 years in residence. Some discussion suggestions were provided such as what’s changed since you’ve moved and what advice do you have for others considering living outside the country, but to get things rolling they asked everyone, “How did your decision to retire overseas turn out?” Continue reading “Retiring overseas”

Unknown's avatarBob8 Comments