Details
Maybe you are a curious person. Perhaps your interest, like mine, is regularly piqued by the lives of others, despite not knowing them well, if at all. It’s not our fault. No, of course we aren’t nosy. We just want to know.
That being said, the details of moving to France are items that seem worthy of documentation. There have also been a series of recurring questions, and it just so happens that I’m happy to appease most levels of nosiness. So, let’s have at it, shall we?
House: We did not sell our house. We have lovely tenants and have no plans to sell our little bungalow in Salt Lake City.
Cars: We sold my car — the Hybrid CR-V that I had wanted for years — back to the Honda dealership about 6 months after buying it, resulting in an utterly depressing financial loss. Had we known there was even a chance that we would be moving overseas, we would have never bought a new car. We did look into shipping it, but the costs wouldn’t have been covered, EU standards are different from US standards, and so on. I will never not be disappointed about this. The truck and Four Wheel Camper are in storage in Salt Lake City. I mean, how does one say goodbye to a paid off rig? But also, maybe it’s silly to keep it? We’re still unsure on this one.
Things: We moved out of our house in May, bringing only four suitcases worth of items with us. This stint has absolutely been the most minimal stint of my life, and I would not call myself a maximist in any which way. And while I have grown comfortable repeating outfits and cooking with one pot and pan, I am beyond ready to have our bed and Breville espresso machine here with us. Some clothing and other incredibly random, nonessential items did arrive via Air Shipment a few weeks ago. I want to say this was nice, but really it was a comical let down for both of us. Having a label maker but not a bed seems very foolish. We are still waiting on our Sea Shipment, which I think is scheduled to arrive in a few weeks? Heads up to anyone who may find themselves moving from the US to France —the list of documents required to arrange for these services was tremendous and a huge surprise. Marriage certificate, birth certificates, tax information, 12 months of utilities bills, mortgage payments, current and future job contracts, passports — the list goes on. I do not know if this is normal, but it is something I wish I had a better understanding of before we started the process. The movement of our belongings was part of Nils’ relocation package.
Visas: We applied for our long-stay Visas in Los Angeles before departing. The process was smooth and they arrived quickly, which we were super grateful for. There are only so many offices around the US that process Visas; LA was our easiest option. These Visas allowed us to stay for 3 months while applying for our Residence Permits, which we did receive, allowing us to stay in France until at least July 31, 2028. Nils, who applied for his Visa with a permanent job contract, was issued a Talent Visa, whereas I was issued a passeport talent famille, which also allowed me to work in France. The handling of our paperwork and applications throughout this process has been managed by an integration specialist provided by Salomon. I cannot imagine having to organize everything without this support, especially as someone who does not speak French.
Lucy: Woof. The logistics of getting Lucy to France were accompanied with heaps of worry. It felt like everyone we talked to who moved or traveled internationally with their dog simply brought their dogs in the cabin of the plane with them. Many encouraged us to lie and say she was a service animal, specifically a Psychiatric Service Dog. This seemed easy enough to bluff about, but lying about these types of services is not something I support. We booked with an airline that allowed animals to be checked as cargo (KLM), obtained a clean bill of health for Lucy, had her vaccines updated, got her microchipped, and bought a travel safe crate. We watched videos about dogs flying “in the hold”, read blogs and airline forums, and continued to worry about her comfort and safety during our travels. Lucy had most of meals in her new crate to help her feel safe in her new space, and spent a lot of time reacclimating with a crate (to be fair, she was kind of crate trained as a puppy, but, that did not hold strong). We exhausted her for days before our flight, and did everything we could to keep her from napping the day before we left — quite literally clapping in her face to keep her awake. We arrived at the airport 2.5 hours before our flight, ensuring we would be able to review her travel documents and crate specifications with time to spare. We walked the airport, inside and out, gave her the equivalent of doggy melatonin, and handed her over to KLM staff ~30 minutes before our flight. We kept an AirTag in her crate, which provided entertainment and some peace of mind. We saw her being unloaded and reloaded in Amsterdam, and were told she got water and food during our layover. She made it to Geneva safely, accident free, and totally fine. Fortunately, there is no quarantine period for dogs traveling from the US to France, so I can’t speak to those processes, but! I can say that getting Lucy to France was not nearly as bad as I anticipated.
Housing: We were provided housing for up to 4 months with Nils’ relocation package. This allowed us to have somewhere to live, and claim as an address during his trial period. A “trial period” in France is a period of time at the beginning a work contract where an employee can be let go without receiving benefits. After the trial period is over, an employee is heavily protected and very difficult to let go, regardless of work performance. Being in a trial period greatly impacts your ability to sign a lease for a rental property, as landlords typically do not want to rent to tenants who are in a trial period. This is something they are very strict with, regardless of your financial status. Fortunately, we were able to find an apartment after 2 months in temporary housing. And while we are grateful for all help that has been provided (of course!), there was nothing — absolutely nothing — glamorous or romantic about living in a European studio hotel room during peak tourist season. We were provided with an agent to help us find housing, which was a tremendous asset when addressing the rental applications and language barriers.
Finances: Nils thought it would be fair to include that we spent about $20,000 cash within our first 2 months here in France. $13,000 of that went towards buying our car, a portion towards starting a new lease (rent, security deposits, etc.), and the rest towards furnishing an apartment from scratch. No, we did not have to buy the car with cash, though it felt like the easiest option. Could you do it cheaper? Totally. Could we have spent more? Easily. Being thrifty with our apartment furnishings has helped, though it has required heaps of patience. While on the topic, and in the interest of transparency, I will admit that I did take a significant pay cut. Coming from a teacher, that may be hard to imagine. Frankly, it felt like an insulting punch to the gut when I saw my salary. And while I could look for a job in Geneva and reap the benefits of a Swiss salary, I am trying to acknowledge the balance of this new dynamic. The cost of living is cheaper, our overhead is roughly 60% less, there are fewer working hours throughout the year, more vacation time, health care, etc. That being said, it is hard to not define your worth by your career status or the figures on a paycheck. This self-assessment tool seems far more prevalent in the United States than it does in France, a cultural difference that I welcome, though there are decades of inner-dialogue that are not accustomed to this rhetoric.
However! I am trying to apply this logic — “my worth does not depend on what I have, don’t have, am doing, am not doing, will do, won’t do” — to many aspects of our new life here. As you can imagine, I felt much closer to "where I was going” before deciding to uproot our life. I don’t want to perseverate on this truth, yet I find myself doing so more than I care to admit. Perhaps I am closer to “where I want to be going” and I just don’t know it yet. We still have many unknowns, loads of logistics and details to sort out, and endless Need To Do/Want To Do Lists. I will save those for future overshares that make their way to the public domain of the World Wide Web.
Phew! Have I met the expectations of your nosy side? Are you ready to move to France? Did I leave anything out? I know I have, and much of this is oversimplified, but I don’t want to bore you (or my grandma) too much. Until next time, à la prochaine.
