August 25th
I turn 52 years old today. OMG! Where has the time gone? I had just turned 50 a couple months earlier when I started this blog (in its very simple form back then). I know to an outsider, especially someone who would love to live in France, my life looks like a dream. But as a blogger, that’s what my job is – to give form to your dreams and put forth the best of life. Unlike many bloggers, I have chosen to keep my life mostly private. But there have been plenty of highs and struggles – from culture shock, loneliness and isolation, huge difficulties with the language, lifestyle and routine upheaval, relationship adjustments, medical issues, financial struggles, losing my L.A. support network, and dealing with concerns about my financial future. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Moving to a foreign country is NOT for wimps, especially at my age. I’ve even been surprised because I had already moved to Italy and lived there for two years and made the adjustment well, but the difference is that this move was permanent. There is a huge psychological difference between “I’ll give it a try” and “This is for the rest of my life.” Additionally, I had a very established life in Los Angeles with a house, friends I had for 26 years, a thriving business, and a six-figure income. I think all of that made the move even harder because I lost so much and knew so little about France, Chambery, and the culture, having never really spent any significant time here before moving.
One of the biggest adjustments was from a big city to a small town. I had endless entertainment and social life opportunities in Los Angeles, but in Chambery, other than the summer concerts, there’s not much to do unless you’re a hiker or skiier. There are definitely no jobs for me here. The folks in this region are rather reserved, serious, private, and cold (a word they use to describe themselves). The other big adjustment has been going from warm, dry, sunny, southern California to unbearably cold, snowy winters and rainy springs and falls. There are also so many things I miss about the U.S. that I never even thought about before moving here: ethnic, spicy food; my doctors and dentists; my discount stores; TV channels and radio stations; U.S. indepth news; wine tasting events; daily routine; colleagues; Indie movies; ‘American foods’; celebrating Thanksgiving and 4th of July; being a $200 flight away from my family; my car; my privacy and independence, not humiliating myself everytime I open my mouth and attempt to speak French, etc. With the language barriers and few English-speakers in town, it’s been hard to find community. I haven’t been able to find French classes in Chambery that I can afford or work with my schedule, so learning the language has been agonizingly slow since I work from home and rarely use French. The biggest challenge I’m finding is producing an income – with no jobs in Chambery for me and the difficulties of running a business in France have both proven to be far more challenging than I anticipated. I’m actually working twice as many hours here for 15% of the income. And unfortunately, the industry that I spent the last 32 years working in doesn’t even exist in France.
Occasionally, I get an email from a reader who is thinking of moving to France and wants to know the ‘insider’ info of the experience. I’m sure I’ve popped a few bubbles when I respond with some of the challenges I’ve just outlined. I never hear back from them because I’m sure they would prefer to dismiss me than deal with these realities which put a puncture wound in their fantasies and dreams. But I’ve always been a straight-shooter, and frankly, I wish someone had sent me an email outlining the realities of moving to a small town in France, and I would have done a few things differently – things that would have made the move, finances, and transition much easier.
Enough bi*ching. There have, of course, been plenty of good things about living here. The videos chronicle those good times. The traveling has been the highlight and being able to share those experiences with thousands of people has been very exciting and satisfying. In the U.S. , I would never have had the opportunities I have here attending festivals, seeing so much variety of landscape, being surrounded by history and beauty, and being so close to so much diversity of culture. The French Alps scenery is astonishing and some of my favorite times are our motorcycle rides in the mountains. Of course, you can taste wonderful French cuisine and wine here and I love being so close to ‘vineyard life.’ The slowness and calm of a small city is less stressful to live in than the chaos and traffic of a city like Los Angeles. While people are less friendly here, they are also less superficial and shallow as in L.A. Having never had children myself, participating in the lives of Bernard’s teen and young adult children, has been very special and enjoyable. I’m one of the lucky ones – his children are wonderful and we have very good relationships. My in-laws are also lovely people who have embraced me warmly. Even though I lost all but one of my contracts from my business in Los Angeles by moving here, I’m trying to look at this as an opportunity to eventually recreate myself professionally by focusing on the things I love to do. My blogs are attempts at this as are my French Alps Tours and my French Alps Cookbook. I’m also looking into getting my certification as a Tour Manager/Director so I can lead tours for Tour Operators here in Europe during the summers. Slowly, I’m trying to piece enough income together to pay the bills, but with Bernard turning 50 and therefore retiring in a year, there is some urgency to this plan.
Given all of these realties and challenges, I’ve had to re-evaluate my life, and turning 52 has been a great opportunity to do that. My last existing contract has offered to increase my work if I can get back to Los Angeles more often to handle additional responsibilities. I can reduce my taxes by being able to use my many American-based tax deductions if I live at least six months a year in the U.S., and probably pick up some additional contracts by being there, not to mention other types of work. Bernard retires the end of 2011 so it’s feasible for him to live anywhere. The other factor is that in my hometown of Fort Myers, Florida where my family still lives, the housing market has crashed. It has the second highest foreclosure rate in the country. It’s a terrible thing for those people who lost their homes, but also an opportunity for me to be close to family again and for work. So for my birthday this year, I bought myself a house! I found a 2 bedroom, 2 bath home in a small town 20 minutes from Fort Myers and 45 minutes from the beaches and islands. I placed an offer on it and it was accepted last week! Now I’m waiting for the inspection on Friday and if there are no big repair/rehab issues, it will close escrow in September. No, I’m not rolling in the dough – I paid $28,000 for this house but I’ll need to put about $3,000 in it to make it perfect. This hasn’t been easy since the good homes have all gone into bidding wars as you might expect, but I was very tenacious and eventually succeeded. I hope you, my readers, will be interested in renting it (once it’s furnished) during the falls, springs and summers starting in 2012. I will be renting it for below market rates. Thanks to my sister, Sue, for looking at a zillion houses on my behalf and taking photos. Here are photos she took of the house:
Bernard and I spoke a lot about this and the plan is to live six months in Florida (the winter months, of course), and six months in the French Alps during the summers beginning in 2012. In this way, I can increase my contracts/income by getting to L.A. more regularly, still see family and friends, and enjoy all the things and people that I miss. I’ve even found French classes there. Bernard will have a European community to enjoy (lots of folks from Europe live in Ft Myers during the winters), participate in water sports/activities which he loves, and we can have his friends and family visit regularly for vacations. Southwest Florida is a resort area with lovely winter weather, boating, islands, beaches, fantastic nature, great seafood and ethnic food, and a very slow, relaxed way of life. It will be the best of both worlds, while solving many of the problems I’ve been facing.
By the way, if you’re worried about the blog, don’t be. The majority of the traveling we do in France is during the months of May through October – the months we’ll continue to live in France. Additionally, if I start leading tours around Europe and other countries, I’ll have videos of those adventures too. Florida too has many interesting things to see and experience and a few festivals that rival the ones in Europe. In fact, there’s one festival that will shock you and I can’t wait to get it on video! Los Angeles, where I’ll be spending significant time for work, also has plenty of interesting events to visually chronicle for your entertainment. So I see this new ‘lifestyle’ only improving the blog and expanding its horizons beginning in 2012.
So this is my birthday decision and gift to myself at the ripe old age of 52. Cross your fingers and wish me luck! 
After a year of planning, designing, researching, etc, 
I’m in Alsace, France for my birthday which was a present from my husband, Bernard. His daughter joined us. The town we are staying in, Rosheim, is a Medieval village with wonderful timber-lined homes. We also visited a 1400′s castle and another Medieval town, Riguewihr, which was as cute as it could be. Today we spent roaming the streets of Strasbourg and visiting its stunning Cathedral. It’s all on video and camera and I’ll be putting videos of the trip on the blog in the coming weeks. It’s a very German-influenced area but don’t say that to an Alsacian because they don’t like the German comparisons. The dialect here is quite interesting too – I hear German, French with a touch of the Swedish inflection.
Every year Vienne, a French town 30 minutes south of Lyon, holds an internationally-recognized jazz festival in its 2,000 year old Roman arena. The festival only lasts three weeks in late June and early July, but the talent featured is exceptional. This is the second year we’ve attended. The two groups we saw were French: 