Why France?

Choosing a country

Happy Holidays one and all. It is the day after Christmas 2022 and we are taking this moment to send Escape Hatch newsletter #2 explaining how we chose France as our retirement destination. I am also including my Holiday Music Mix at the end of the newsletter (a yearly mix I have been sending to friends since 2005). I hope you enjoy it.

In November of 2021 Roberto sent me to his friend’s Instagram account which was full of pictures of a dashing architect and his family who were renovating an old stone farmhouse in the Italian countryside. Soon after Roberto sent a New York Times article called It’s Never Too Late to Pick Up Your Life and Move to Italy in which an American woman describes a dreamy new life of medieval cities, cafes, and Italian food. At the end the author says, "I didn’t want life to become boring. I wanted it filled with adventure." After reading the article, Roberto and I agreed that we felt the same––we didn’t want to compromise on the next stage of our lives. We, too, were interested in moving abroad and having a very engaging (and yes, challenging at times) retirement.

I quickly began doing highly scientific research (I Googled "best places for Americans to retire abroad") and up popped lists of the top ten countries for retirement. Here is one of the first ones I looked at: 10 Countries To Retire Abroad for Americans.

France is in 9th place on this list, but we quickly eliminated Central and South America (which make up five of the top ten places) for the simple fact that we have no friends there, and we know many people living in Europe. Neither of us speaks Portuguese, and Portugal’s legendary Golden Visa will change in January 2022 and will no longer include Lisbon, Porto, or the other bigger cities that would have interested us. If you love the beach, surfing, and tiny towns, Portugal is still a great option. 

Spain and Italy were idyllic destinations, but when I looked at lists of what I needed to know about buying property in France the site would say things like 1. You will have to pay a notaire. 2. You will have to pay property tax. 3. You will have to wait a long time and do a buttload of paperwork. For Spain and Italy, the advice was more dire 1. Make sure the person selling the house truly owns the house 2. Make sure the real estate agent is an actual real estate agent. 3. Make sure a dog is not listed on the deed. I’m exaggerating, but you get my point. Roberto and I are rule followers. It’s one of the things that bonds us. France scores better when it comes to corruption, just ahead of Spain and Portugal, but significantly ahead of Italy. Here are some statistics: Corruption Perception Index 

Some of you may be thinking, "What about Scandinavia and their famous healthcare and over-all wonderful socialist safety net?" Because Scandinavians spend over half their income on said safety net they are not so keen for people who have not been contributing to that safety net to move there at the end of their lives and say, "Take care of me now, please." Residency is long and complicated. Truthfully, it is too cold and dark for me there anyway (So suck it super socialist safety net and highest life expectancy rate!)

For us, France scored the highest points for beauty, cost of living, weather, quality of healthcare, public transportation, friends nearby, and access (one of us already—sort of—speaks the language and has lived there previously). Spain was a very close second. (In our next post we will discuss how we chose a city.)

The biggest question people have asked us is "but how do you become citizens of France?" GREAT question. We don’t. It is a very complex and difficult process to become a citizen and we aren’t looking for French passports. We are only looking to become residents. To become residents we must spend 183 days a year in France for five years (We think. We will update you as we learn more.) If you are dying to know now, you can begin your journey down the rabbit hole here: Expatica.com 

This is part of the reason we have started our retirement plan so early. We want to establish residency before we move to France year round and need to be in the French healthcare system. We know that the buying property/visa/paperwork situation is going to be long and arduous but currently we have a lot of time to do it and aren’t feeling desperate about it. If we felt like we needed to flee the United Stated next week then this plan would be extremely difficult. We are choosing the slow and steady route, gathering information from as many friends and friends of friends as possible and trying to make sure our dream is not a pie in the sky (Do we think they say tourte dans la ciel in France? Hmm.)

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time)

Carolyn & Roberto