Attempting France: My Steps from Chicago to Bordeaux

The long, "short" version.

Let me begin by stating the following information is based on my personal experience. Moving to another country, France in particular can look wildly different for everyone who decides to attempt it. I can’t give advice on other’s journeys, all I can do is share my own and hope you either find it entertaining or useful in your own research.

The Decision to Relocate

I’ve been longing for old world surroundings since my first breath of Italian air in 2006. A few weeks in the Tuscany and Lazio regions, jolted my entire being in every possible way. With years of reading books in Latin class, studying impressionist painters for art assignments, and relishing in different cuisines, my younger self had a greater sense of belonging while wandering through Florence than I’d ever felt anywhere before.

I knew life abroad was calling, but I wasn’t sure quite how to answer it at the time. Nor for many years later, as chance took me through different careers, moves to new cities, and the challenges of relationships. But, the lingering ache that I was missing a part of myself that I hadn’t yet met continued to weigh on me. To soothe my pining for a different atmosphere and way of life, I traveled.

When I first met Paris, she inadvertently broke me, sending uncontrollable tears down my cheeks while seated on a little green chair in the Tuileries. I was watching the setting sun hit the facades of the Louvre Palace with my now husband, exclaiming how the light transformed the colors of the stone til my throat clinched, leaving me speechless with runny mascara. (I’m a romanticist if you couldn’t tell.)

A few more vacations later, a marriage, lots of shared dreams dissected, and ‘ding’ the decision to move to France was made in the Fall of 2022.

Now, deciding to one day live in France and actually making it happen are two drastically different weighted steps. One requires a great deal of discomfort, willingly flipping your life upside down, financial unease, layers of stress, upsetting loved ones, letting go of the familiar, and relinquishing possessions, all without the promise of it working out. Its the actual nitty gritty daily actions of relocating that can become a deterrent. But, the process is the price of admission to the adventure and for me personally, the regret of not trying far outweighs any possible obstacles.