Moving to France: Step 2 – Narrowing it Down

After coming up with a list of a few countries that were possible relocation targets, and eliminating options that had deal-breaking gaps in what we were looking for (e.g. no access to public or adequate private health, or no cool climate locations), it was time to think about visiting and scouting locations. 

Research and Reconaissance

Ideally, researching and scouting possible places to live should be a relaxed process with plenty of time on site to make good decisions. Relocation consultants and expat experts recommend two or three lengthy trips at different times of year to your area(s) of interest, staying in a self-catering rental, validating whether the area works for many of your requirements, and getting a sense of what it feels like to actually live there. 

Sadly, with limited vacation time courtesy of  American jobs, expense of both traveling and boarding pets back home, and state of things here at home, we didn’t feel we had nearly enough time to make more than a cursory visit to places of interest. 

We visited Germany and loved it, but it didn’t meet our health care accessibility requirements. We scouted Italy and enjoyed many areas there too, especially the less crowded towns in the foothills of the Italian Dolomites, but Italy’s financial qualifications for a retirement visa are a bit unusual and difficult.

And then we visited France and enjoyed that as well – at least in the northern half, as the south of France was over 100º F in August. The north of France met our requirements and seemed to be a someplace we could bloom where we were planted.

Scouting Specifics

The itinerary for a scouting trip is very different than that of a tourist visit, and it’s important to keep that priority in mind. Ideallly you have a few requirements in mind by the time you plan a visit, but the trip itself will also help you identify other criteria that are important to you. (I was reminded how much I dislike crowds and would prefer to avoid heavily trafficked tourist destinations.)

https://www.liveandinvestoverseas.com/travel/plan-your-scouting-trip-like-a-pro-tips-to-follow/

Our friends at Baguette Bound recommend that you check for the basic services in a town you are interested in: grocery store, bakery, restaurant/cafe, post office, pharmacy, doctor’s office, city hall (mairie), tabac shop (for civil services like fishing licenses and parking fees), and train station. 

Narrowing Down Requirements

Some folks want to live in an urban area, without a car, but with excellent public transit and busy, buzzing activity and resources. Others want to live in a popular tourist area with attractive sights and experiences, lots of expats, and high percentage of English spoken. Many relocation experts suggest that expats often prefer to live in a town or city for immersion in community and immediate access to resources. 

It’s important to identify what’s important to you and your family, and which items are required and which are perhaps flexible! And then write those down as a checklist. 

For Kit and I, it was:

• Access to public health and local medical care

• Cool climate

• Detached house for loud dog

• Local English speaking and expat community

• Little to no crowding

• Small to medium town (1500-5000) that is lively year round

• Within 30-45 min of sizeable city with medical center and high speed train stations

• Access to outdoor recreation – hiking, swimming, boating, etc

• Close to areas where SCA (or other re-enactment community) is active and welcoming

I also have a preference for hills, mountains, lakes and seasides, and a strong desire to live in a quiet location. I’d also like access to a visual arts community, with maker spaces, and supplies available, but life online has made art community easy to access, without geographical limitations.

It’s entirely possible to plug all those requirements into ChatGPT and get suggestions, although the results are usually limited and somewhat imprecise. There are also lots of “Best towns for expats/retirees” articles, but the towns they list tend to be crowded, by default. 

An interview with a relocation consultant struck me – the expert suggested that looking for the perfect place was overrated, as there are often many, many towns and cities that you’ll love in your country of interest. He was right. 

Our Process

We started by looking at the regions of France by culture and interests, and cross-indexed those with average temperatures.

Based on that, we knew we were most interested in Brittany and Normandy, as those two departments tend to have the coolest, most temperate summers, are relatively affordable, and are a good fit for our interests. We picked a central spot in each to stay in a vacation rental, and identified a few towns we’d like to visit. 

We drove around a lot, sat at coffee shops, walked around the downtown areas, checked out public transit, wandered through supermarkets and pharmacies, and browsed rental and for sale advertisements. We went to regional markets, checked at the Mairie for local clubs and groups, looked for arts activities and community festivals. We even looked at a few available houses, met some expats, and window-shopped for clothes and household items. 

The general advice is to choose your community first – find one you love, that fits your needs, and feels friendly and accessible to you. Then, after finding your town or city, look at options for places to live. 

We had a couple of people point us toward the medieval town of Josselin when they heard we were interested in medieval history and re-enactment. When we visited the town, we absolutely fell in love with the place – it had everything we were looking for except a train station, and there is a train station in the larger town 15 minutes away. Could we envision not just living but thriving there? Absolutely. 

Is Josselin a bit of an impulsive decision, given our sharply limited time to stay there and experience local life? Sure. But the choice is also the result of a lot of advance research and careful thought about what we wanted most, and it met our requirements really well. 

Resources

Baguette Bound YouTube Channel
https://youtube.com/@baguettebound?si=fl6S5G1YWr-1gtWP

French Connections HCB YouTube Channel
https://youtube.com/@frenchconnectionshcb?si=XLMc5NeubxhI1lsI

And just for fun:

French Lifestyle and Property
https://youtube.com/@french_property_and_lifestyle?si=qQQkombz5kiFEBm8