MOVING TO FRANCE: THREE CONSIDERATIONS

Although the vast majority of persons applying for French residency come from former French colonies in Africa, the number of Americans applying for French residency has shown a small but steady increase in recent years. I suppose that there's a Trump Effect, but that's too simple an explanation. There are a variety of circumstances that might make living and working in France desirable from an American's perspective. I won't go into them now. I will say, though, that I suspect that many of those deciding to leave the USofA in response to Trump's ascendancy will fail to successfully integrate in the long run. As I have said many times, one should always concentrate on going a place where you want to live rather than leaving a place that you no longer like. Running from a place for political reasons is bound to provide a less harmonious outcome than actively pursuing a place that suits your likes and your lifestyle, either in the States or around the globe.

Be that as it may, even in our little rural village in the south of France, not in Provence or near any other significant tourist magnet in the region, over the past twelve years a slowly building wave of Americans have been coming to visit, to buy second homes, and/or to move here permanently. And if we've noticed that trend, you can bet that both our French and our British neighbors have as well. Oddly enough, it is sometimes that case that the French are more welcoming than the Brits, but the animosity between Brits and Americans and the manner in which it manifests itself is a story for another time as well. The object of this particular exercise is to point out a few ways that Americans can more easily transition into their new French lives.

LANGUAGE

Yes. The French have their own language. It isn't English. And not every French person speaks English. Not every French person wants to speak English even if they can. Thus, moving to France without having at least some facility with the French language will make settling in more than difficult. 

Take community college classes. Join the local chapter of Alliance Français. Duolingo. Rosetta Stone. It's time to get cracking. If you aren't ready to do that, you're not ready to move to France.

Truth be told, I am anything but fluent, even after 12 years of immersion. I have a good grasp of simple verb tenses - past, present and future. I have no problem at the grocery store or the bakery or the butcher. I don't need an English menu to know what I'm considering ordering at a restaurant. But describing what's the matter with the car, or why I think that the plumbing needs work, that's another matter entirely. Requires preparation and investigation. And doing so over the phone is particularly difficult. But if you are going to live here, combining vocabulary with simple questions/explanations is vital.

Yes, Google is your friend, though deepl is probably better at providing a completely accurate translation. And yes, you can talk into Google in English and it will talk back in French. But that's no way to hold a conversation at the town hall or at a party.

Learn the language.

CULTURE

Learning the language and fitting in culturally go hand in hand. 

To be honest about it, if you were born and raised in the USofA and have lived in a relatively assimilated household, European culture should not be totally unfamiliar to you. And yes, I include folks of Asian and African descent in that statement. Assimilated, I said. Certainly, individual households can and often do reflect the ethnic and geographic heritage of the family's immigrant roots. But immersion in American culture has its consequences. One tends to melt into the melting pot. As a result, most Americans will eventually find their comfort zone in France if they stick to it.

Always greet the shopkeeper or the greeter behind the counter with a pleasant Bonjour. There's a joke about the cost of a cup of coffee, that it costs an extra euro if you don't say Bonjour to the waitstaff before ordering. And there are other rules about Bonjour. You don't say Bonjour to the same person on the same day. After about 6pm, Bonjour becomes Bonsoir. And on leaving, Bonjour becomes Bonne Journée. It's a simple thing, like saying Please (S'il Vous Plait) and Thank You (Merci). Opens doors.

People even say Bonjour to fellow patients when entering the doctor's waiting room or joining the line at the bakery.

Such rules and customs abound. That's why customs are so difficult to navigate...and rewarding when you get it right.

I see things all the time that are probably different than what you are used to. Get used to them. Dogs in bars and restaurants, often off leash. Children in bars and restaurants, often off leash. When a toddler drops a carrot on the sidewalk, Mom just picks it up, brushes it off, gives it back. Unaccompanied youth are a common sight, walking to and from school, hanging out after school and on the weekends. Two young girls that I don't know, no more than ten years old and without an adult in sight, just knocked on my door and sold me raffle tickets for their sports team. We're a small village, true. And that's the way that I grew up outside of a small New Jersey town. "Go out and play. Be home by dark." But that was 70 years ago. In fact, that's one reason that friends with two adolescent girls moved here more than a decade ago, so that their girls could grow up in the small-town atmosphere of past generations.

Invited to a neighbor's house? Bring a small gift - a bottle of wine, a homemade sweet or a bouquet of flowers. One dear friend often picks blooms from her garden on her way over. We write names on bottles of wine so that we don't regift to the same person.

The list of French cultural norms and the differences between those of the USofA and, in our case, the rural south of France borders on endless. Not enough room without writing a book, and I am not writing that book. It's been done. All that I can say is that the answer to successful navigation is usually as simple as an open mind and liberal use of Bonjour, S'il Vous Plait and Merci.

BUREAUCRACY

I am fond of saying that the French didn't invent bureaucracy but they did refine bureaucracy to a high art. And indeed, although the French economist Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay is credited with having coined the word, pejoratively at the very outset, there is convincing proof that bureaucracies predated the current French version by millennia. Why are our most common examples of ancient scratchings on clay tablets lists of mercantile goods or stockpiles in royal coffers if not for the overriding need of humankind to keep official records as though they had value in and of themselves?

We all hate paperwork. I get it. Damn those bureaucrats, keeping us buried in piles of paper so that they can draw a pay check. Petty. They find reasons to deny our most reasonable requests. Their rules are arcane, defying understanding. How wonderful life would be without those officious paper pushers.

You are wrong. Bureaucrats are your friends. Yes. I repeat. Bureaucrats are your friends. You just haven't been viewing them through the proper lens.

You see, you have the idea that bureaucracies are created to throw obstacles in the paths of the daily lives of ordinary citizens. Not true. Not at all. Rather, bureaucracies exist to confer power on the petty bureaucrat. That's the real secret. And though that sounds dangerous, think about it. The petty bureaucrat is so well versed in the confusing, often contradictory jumble of rules and regulations that they are charged to enforce that they know how to create any result, circumvent any prohibition. Approve any request.

Approve any request?

Yes. Approve any request. They just need a reason. Rubber stamping DENIED on forms all day can be boring. But having the power to find ways to use the APPROVED stamp is empowering. So, empower the bureaucrat.

Be on time. Be polite. Smile. Say Bonjour. Say S'il Vous Plait and Merci. Bring every piece of paper that the websites say are required. Then think of any other piece of paper that might remotely be pertinent to the matter at hand and bring it, too. Originals and two copies, if you please.

That's not so hard, is it?