Moving to France w/o a job?

[Metasequoia]

This is probably just nonsense mixed with daydreaming, but does anyone see this as possible? I know *nothing* about living in France...

Do you have to be a French citizen to buy property (like in Mexico)? Is it harder to get a mortgage in France than it is in the US? Is it ridiculously expensive to live in the country & raise farm animals? We have no connections to jobs to there - how would you go about finding one? I could do childcare if needed & R. is a chef & a farmer, also handy with construction/repairs.

We homeschool so that's not an issue.

We wouldn't really need to bring anything, at least not furniture or cars - maybe just some small things & clothing/shoes.

[Metasequoia]

That sounds like we only want to buy but renting would be the plan, at least at first - preferably not in a noisy, bustling city.

[IsaFrench]

how much French can you speak ?
if not much, try to select an area of France with a lot of english speaking expatriates through which you could advertise your offer of childcare ...

about rentals, the rules are different for unfurnished and furnished = you would need furnished apparently since you plan to come over with very little posessions & it might be easier although more pricey to find accomodation that way, since you wouldn't have any regular income to start with (unless you husband gets a job as a chef prior to arriving ...) and mainstream owners would be unwilling to rent out unfurnished accommodation wihtout seeing a "contrat de travail" (it's a 3 years long lease, renewable etc ...)... unless again you make arrangements with some other expatriates who wouldn't mind so much renting out to foreigners from the same culture ...

it's doable .... & you certainly don't have to be a french citizen in order to buy a property (if you have the money .... on the other hand if you plan to arrange for a mortgage locally, I should think the bank would like to see a "contrat de travail" for at least one of you & for you to already have a portion of the purchase money for a property .....)

I 'm afraid that I don't know much about living in the country/costs involved nor about buying a property as a foreign national but there ARE a lot of expatriates in France so it's been done by others ....

make sure you read as many books on the subject as you can so as to smoothe your path .....

[Marylizah]

Speaking French would be hugely helpful.

Not speaking French and not having a job lined up would be very, very hard. The big difference between France and the US is the level of reglementation-- you could do childcare unofficially, but you might get in trouble for it. Also, if you don't speak French you might have a hard time finding parents who are willing to hire you.

As for raising animals in the countryside: I don't have any specific information, but you would definitely need to read up on the laws.

IsaFrench is right about renting-- it's hard to do under good circumstances, but if you don't speak French, don't have a job contract or a person who can vouch for you who has an income large enough to cover your rent, you aren't going to find many landlords (except possibly in the expat community) who will want to rent to you.

My advice: plan, plan, plan. You say you wouldn't need a car or furniture... Do you mean you would bring those things with you? Because you will need a car if you live in the countryside.

Nothing is impossible, but things can be very hard if you aren't prepared for the challenges you will face. Another really important thing to think about is residency permits, which are also hard to obtain if you don't have a job.

HTH, good luck!

[Metasequoia]

Thanks Mamas! I took 5 years of French in school, but that was a long time ago.. I'm much more fluent in Spanish, lol.

You're right, I suppose, about needing a car if we lived in the country. I've read that shipping is outrageous, so I figured if this was something we actually went ahead with, we wouldn't bring much.

I wonder if someone who lived in France, who was traveling for lengths of time, would rent their house out? I wonder if there's a web community like that (similar to house swapping)?

I've located a friend of a friend (an ex pat who married a French man) on FB & will ask a lot of questions.

Thank you!

[sphinx]

hey what a great idea. France is lovely. But seriously, instead of thinking about mortgages and such, if you own a house in the states, why don't you start out looking at something like an international home exchange program - i guess i am not allowed to list urls, but there are many, some run by agencies and others by the owners themselves;, then if you are thinking about living on the land with animals, gardens, etc, you could check out french ecovillages and other intentional communities, where joining the community could incur relatively minimal financial input and maximum benefit for integrating into french life? I also know of a couple of long-term squats in beautiful areas in the south of france, depending on your politics and willingness to be flexible with varied inhabitants, wouldn't cost much to live there, you grow your own veggies, share community tasks, for money you could teach english off the books, or otherwise trade skills, etc. In my experience, if you are not sponsored by some corporate entity, moving abroad requires a lot of thinking outside the box, and that approach can lead you to wonderfully authentic events! Good luck!