The ABCs of Moving to France
The best ways to prepare yourself.
Roberto and I have written a lot about the biggest obstacles of moving abroad—from choosing a city to purchasing an apartment. You can find a summary of those posts here:
Today I’m going to discuss some of the small but vital things you could do to prepare yourself for a life in France (or anywhere else in the EU).
Spend some time with the alphabet. I am almost conversational in French and yet I still struggle to spell my name for people. Even if you name is John Smith, you will at some stage need to spell it out for a French person (their most common names are not the same as ours). Focus on the vowels. Most of the consonanst sound pretty similar to the American counterparts but the vowels can really stump you. For example, their i sounds like “ee” and their e sounds like “uh.”
Here is a little song to help you!
Numbers. In the same vein, you will use numbers all the time. The good news is that since people no longer use cash as much as cards, you aren’t always having to figure out the exact change situation (like when I lived in Paris in 1997). The bad news is that you will still use numbers contantly. I struggle with the difficulty of understanding people on the phone and not being sure if they are giving me an order number, a delivery time, a date, or a price.
Anyone who has studied French knows that the numbers are a serious pain in the derrière—the way they say 94 is quatre-vingt quatorze (four times twenty plus fourteen). The moment I hear the words quatre-vingt (80) I panic.
This video from Learn French from Alexa covers numbers 1-100. She has many good lessons, including one on the pronunciation of the alphabet (but I know you are already addicted to that alphabet song).
The frickin metric system. Blame this one on the US government. The US never converted for reasons of time and money, which are too boring to mention here. I confess to you that I have yet to find an easy way to convert measurements in my head. I relay far too heavily on Roberto, whose architect mind is quick with numbers. But you will want to understand when someone is telling you how far away a destination is, how many square feet in that 80 square meter apartment you crave, and most importantly, how many kilos of cheese or paté you want.
Speaking of numbers, let’s discuss the 24 hour clock which is used in Europe and just about the rest of the world. This is “military time” in the US, and my only experience with it growing up was movie drill sergeants screaming at their units “You slugs will begin your 80 miles hike at oh-five hundred!” Subtract 12 to find the PM times.
I am pretty used to this clock by now, but I still make mistakes, like the time we were supposed to meet friends at 17:00 and I got it in my head that that meant 7:00. But we learn from our mistakes (she says while glaring at France).
The temperature. They use Celcius here. Today it is 6.7℃, which is 44℉. I found this “super easy formula.”
Fahrenheit to Celsius, subtract 30 then divide by 2.
Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 2 then add 30.
If that is not as accurate as you want, here is the official formula:
To convert temperatures in degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 (or 9/5) and add 32.
Ugh. Who has time for this when all you want to know is if you’ll need a jacket today?
Floor numbers. In the EU our “first floor” is their second floor. They call the first floor RDC, the rez-de-chausée. In the UK, this is the “ground floor.” If you have difficulty saying rez-de-chausee saying the letters RDC is just fine.
Roberto and I went two days without electricity because the electric company told us to reset the fuse box on the second floor. Roberto spent 48 hours going up to the American second floor before realizing his error.
This is also very important when you are deciding if maybe you want to buy or rent an apartment, site unseen. Remember that it is probably one story higher than you first thought and almost none of the buildings have elevators.
Lastly, I want to say something about what I call a “French Loop,” such as you can’t get an apartment without a bank account and you cannot get a bank account without proof of a French address. Remember that there is a way out of these loops, and it usually consists of calling someone on the phone and/or writing a hand written letter. I have found it much easier to get people on the phone here than in the US, and in general I have found people friendly and helpful. Most importantly, whatever your problem is, they have heard it a million times. You are not the only one wrestling with the huge bear of French bureaucracy.
Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time),
Carolyn & Roberto
Also, I used to live near Montpellier. From 1994 to 2016. It's an interesting place but too hot in the summer for us now. If you need a good dentist though, I can recommend one but francophone only.
So true that it is much easier to reach people on the phone in France than in the US where it is virtually impossible. I (in New York City) recently had a problem with my bank account in Languedoc. At the end of my rope I desperately looked up the branch phone number online and just dialed it with no expecation of anything but voice mail. Shockingly, a real person answered, was friendly, helpful, and empowered to solve the problem (a setting on my account) which she did immediately. When I called back a couple of weeks later she remembered who I was!. All you need is the courage to explain the issue in French over the phone.....