PRIMARY RESOURCES FOR MOVING TO FRANCE? HINT: NOT FACEBOOK

I was planning on writing something frivolous this week. Maybe commenting on changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake Obama. Or wondering whether Reblochon, Cantal or Bleu d’Auvergne will taste different because the milk cows will be allowed to eat a higher percentage of imported fodder. (Stick around if that sounds weird. I'll explain at the end of this post.) That was the plan. Then, I read a Facebook post from an American family considering moving to France. A question was asked. What will they need to do in order to satisfy the requirements for a visa? 

Advice solicited. Advice received. Stupid, contradictory advice given as though being read from the Gospel.

As I read those comments, I remembered how our own journey began. In 1999, when we first considered moving outside of the USofA in retirement, Facebook wasn't a thing. Zuck was a teenager, a poor nerdy teenager having trouble hooking up. I had to actually do real research. In the intervening years, Facebook has indeed become a thing. Zuck is no longer a teenager, no longer poor, and I would guess would have no trouble hooking up. Still a nerd, looks like to me. But I digress. Facebook has become a morass of AI-generated garbage, a battleground for keyboard warriors, a font of content seeking to monetize engagement. There are a gazillion sites touting their connection to Americans in France, English speakers in France, English speakers in every department in France and every city in France, driving in France, investing in France, living in France, dying in France. Unfiltered. Wild West. 

Save Facebook for shits and giggles after you get a handle on things from research in the real world.

What did my research uncover? How did I mobilize resources to accomplish the move? I have been reluctant to name names. I have preferred to give generalized advice. But that previously-mentioned post on Facebook changed my mind. Some stuff needs to be said. I'll be relatively brief and to the point. Do your due diligence.

Start with the website of the French embassy in the United States. The English version is not the easiest to navigate, the answers to the question of obtaining a visa are not clearly laid out in bulleted form. But you'll be sent to https://france-visas.gouv.fr where you'll find FAQs, checklists, and the actual online form that you can fill out without submitting to get comfy with the process. Go to the source. Always go to the source.

I will now demonstrate that I may be opinionated, but I am also flexible. I came across Allison Lounes on Facebook. (Imagine that.) I have found her to be on point most of the time, with only the occasional nit to pick around the edges. I would certainly trust her when it comes to decisions around relatively uncomplicated visa questions. Here's her website. https://www.yourfranceformation.com/ffv/. 

For more complicated matters that require multiple areas of expertise beyond visas and some serious hand holding to go with it, friends swear by French Connection HCB. https://frenchconnectionshcb.com/ They sorted problems across multiple countries, schengen and otherwise.

Two publications of interest have served us well. International Living helped us settle on the Languedoc (now Occitanie) as a desirable retirement location. https://internationalliving.com/ While here, we subscribe to The Conexxion. https://www.connexionfrance.com/ English language news and guides that used to be very Brit centric but now recognizes that they have an American audience.

Finally, two real estate sites. With a huge database of properties searchable by price and by region, I still subscribe to notices from French-Property.com just to keep up with the market. https://www.french-property.com/ Poke around the site. Lots of info arranged around adverts because, after all, it's a real estate site. And then there's Freddy Rueda. I've bought and sold two houses from Freddy who specializes in the expat market. His agents all speak English and are all very accommodating. It says something that the agent who sold us the house that we bought in 2004 was still with Freddy and showed a house that we were selling in 2022. https://realestateoccitanie.com/

I hope that this helps. Questions in the comments will be answered as best I can.

Cows. As promised. Certain French cheeses, such as the ones mentioned above, have rules as strict as French wines. (For instance, up to 10% of the juice of the grapes making up wine in Bordeaux can come from outside of Bordeaux and the wine can still be labeled Bordeaux wine.) What the cows eat effects how the cheeses taste. Of course it does. So a high percentage of the feed for cows in the protected cheese areas must come from within those areas. Because of recent droughts, if the dairies would not be allowed to increase the percentage of imported fodder allowed, cheese production would have to be curtailed. So accommodations have been made. We'll see if there are hoots and hollers if the taste changes.