France Tales

posts in this category contain a plethora of information pertaining to all the steps and processes of gathering documents to convince “les fonctionnairres” to let you come here.

I am once again legal to live and work in France for another year. I am set until December of 2009. This time around I worried a bit because I was changing my statute. It was quite easy and painless. This time there were no special circumstances and I could provide all the things they [...]

Image via WikipediaI never set out to write a blog just about tips for moving to France and I certainly never thought I’d know enough to give advice about how to live in France. Well, as I was looking over my archives, I found that I had, in fact, gained a lot of insights into [...]

I have been getting emails saying readers enjoy the blog but were expecting more practical info about moving to France, living in France, and coping in France. I would like to cover these issues but in a funny and narrative way. I have no interest in writing some purely informational blog. I am going to [...]

After the horrible experience I had getting my student VISA in DC, read about it here, I was dreading applying for my carte de sejour. A carte de sejour is a residency permit in France. Basically you have to get a VISA that allows you to stay in France for a period of time. Then [...]

We have an apt in Toulouse and we have “moved” in. There are several long stories contained within this narrative. they will become posts but for now we don’t even have the internet. I am at a McDonalds, of all places, accessing the internet for free. It is unlimited and free. We don’t know the [...]

Our container arrived last Tuesday morning. We packed the container ourselves and had help loading it. We did it this way because when we moved from CA to Philadelphia we used a moving company and they broke thousands of dollars of our things. We gathered all the documents and got quotes etc to make a [...]