La Grosse Cloche in Bordeaux
Photo by Joancharmant
Speaking of the company, it takes a lot of work to set up. You may have heard comments about the French bureaucracy, but I can assure you that they probably understate just how bad it is. I recently passed up an important trip to the UK because after months of waiting, we still can't get the French to issue me my residence visa, though I have the legal right to live and work here under multiple different laws. The French don't seem to mind the bureaucracy too much because they seem to think it's a small price to pay for the benefits they receive, but it's a shock to a foreigner. Without my wife's diligence and her background in project management and French law, this would have been a far greater challenge.
So what does this change mean for us? I honestly don't know. I should be traveling to London once a month for the new contract, but we have no plans to leave France. Now we're investigating Bordeaux as destination. It has a lower cost of living than Paris and, I suspect, a better quality of life. We might even wind up moving down to the Mediterranean, but for now, it looks like France is where we'll be staying, though with my trips to London, I might post a bit more about the UK from time to time.
So my apologies for terribly disrupted posting as of late. I'll have more information about how to become (and survive being) an expat in future postings.