French Countryside living - would these trade offs be worth it to you?

Hey a little off topic but I've been watching your videos, great info and presentation thank you. I wanted to ask about specifics to the visa process. On renting your first place that you use as proof of address, for exactly how long did you stay in your first place? The whole fist 3 months? Did you use Airbnb? you had to show you had obtained a residence in France. You mentioned Airbnb and this tab thing on the site to provide proof of address and I can't seem find it on the Airbnb website, do I need to have a booked place for this option ? And I assume you were able to receive mail to this address or did you move to another place first and use the other place as your address for the process of getting you social security numbers and then your medical card? It seem you guys moved a lot before getting the house? Which makes total sense when you are looking for the right place to live. But i was thinking id get an Airbnb for the initial Visa application and then begin a search for a long term rental once in France. My goal os to arrive around this time next year. Lots of good vibes to you guys. Thanks for your patience and help. You really are helping a lot. 💪👌👍

If you live in a small town in France OR in the US, you will find the same "non existing" things: no drugstore (pharmacy), bakery and butcher (for France only, these do not exist in 99% of villages in the US), literally there are plenty of nothings in villages in BOTH countries. You will not find a bus, train station, airport next to you. Face it, you wanted to live in a small, isolated place, so, you will find missing a lot of convenient things in BOTH countries. That is the life that you chose. Enjoy it with its pleasures it offers, and do not grumble about what does not exist.

Close to where I live in the west of France a guy tried walk home on a country road after a dinner and he got hit by a truck. RIP.

When i was in Normandy and Antibes. I was shocked seeing a guy with his wife and kids peeing in the public park. Is it common in your region as well?

Hmm, it's French law that you have to have access to bread. We live in the middle of nowhere and they've installed fresh bread machines, supplied by local bakeries.. I agree about the rest though. Making money is not the primary objective at least around here. Enjoyment is the prime motivation. I love it here, (I came from the UK and will never go back).

To be fair, most of these issues would apply to the countryside of many other countries (including, speaking from experience, Michigan)

Ah les joies de la collecte des déchets SMD3! I live in Périgueux, im a close neighbor to you guys.Turns out Dordogne is the first administrative region in France to adopt this garbage collection system with its highs and many lows... But this will ultimately be roll out nationwide as other admin regions are taking on the Dordogne model. So yeah, not ideal to be early adopters with these quirks but i hope as years go by the SMD3 will iron the kinks and people will respect the system more.

Your mention of French websites being poor is very true. Information may not be updated, sometimes for years! Even commerce sites for large companies can offer entirely fictitious stock levels which can lead to wasted journeys. The French can be bizarrely averse to email communication, and polite enquiries (in French!) can be completely ignored. On the other hand if you can make face to face contact with someone they'll often go out of their way to help you.

122 / 5.000
Un train à grande vitesse ne peut pas s'arrêter à toutes les gares et à tous les arrêts. Ce serait incongru avec la grande vitesse.

It's always a laugh to watch Americans amazement that everywhere else in the world is not just like wherever they come from, isn't that why they moved there?

I lived in the US and found there are NO sidewalks at all outside cities!,

You guys are near a larger city than me but I like living in Nyon, CH. I haven't been allowed to drive since 2018 (stroke) but I do not miss it either. When I lived in Livermore,CA, the nearest store was 5 miles away. That was also true for Colorado Springs, CO (MCI) , Austin, TX (IBM), and San Jose, CA, (PacBell). Nyon is a town, Geneva is the nearest big city. ;) What y'all are doing is immigrating, something a heartily recommend.Your daughter will be raising her own kid, before things straighten out in the States. Settle in, get comfy, and enjoy the show from a nice distance.

PS. I like living in the oldest standing democracy in the world. Yes, I have a vote here too.

Could you do a video on how utilities work there? I'm sure they are similar but for example is trash service the same? Do they pick up curb side? Do you need to take your recycles in? Is it different if you are from a bigger village vs a smaller one? Just an idea! Thank you for your content!

I would like to make your life a bit easier and also that you understand it a little more:
Why do we Europeans separate trash and our consciences feel good about having done something good? 😊
Although we also find it a little bit stressful from time to time.
But over the years you get used to it. By the way, we've been doing this for over 50 years.

Why do we do it?
Here is an explanation:

As Europeans, our conscience is very environmentally awake.
We like to take care of our soils. Because if the soil is contaminated, our food is also contaminated.
Very healthy food and festive eating is very important in France.

That's why we take care of our air. Factories have filtration systems for their chimneys. Likewise for the wastewater that flows into the rivers.
Even cars have catalysts.
We don't like so much polluted air. Therefore we want to avoid acid rain, which makes the soil acidic. But, we wish to obtain healthier air and soils. So that our next generations still have a future.
That's the reason we separate trash, because of our love for our children.
Why also on top of that?
We don't have thousands of thousands of acres of arable land available.

I hope I could help you and trashing will be a bit easier in the future. Love, Esther

A friend told me lately, where there are spiders there is no moister. Spiders don't like wet aereas.

I spent the summer of 1985 in the southwest of France. Loved it. I was 25 and it seemed like such a better quality of life than the US. My opinion has not changed

Spiders in a house are friends... against bugs :)

It is not clever to compare French country and random USA… 😅

I gotta say---septic tanks, bugs, not everything open whenever you want it...etc. This is more Countryside living vs urban living. These don't really seem to be Franco-specific issues.

Thank you for sharing and we all appreciate your positive (& balanced) view on things. One thing to note is, unlike the US, food in France (& rest of Europe, Africa and Asia for that matter) is less genetically processed. That translates to less incidences of diabetes, hypertension, etc.

Ravi Peiris M.D.

Typical Americans That dont addapt to the place They live in you just want it just like in the US
Guys the life in a country side in a foreign country is not like living in a Town in the US you dude if you just come to FRANCE for free Healthcare you have to take the all lot of things don't shit on the country if you dont like it go back to the state Do you really hear what you say about train stations in each village ? Spider in your house ? are you serious really or just fool ?

So life is not a fairytale 😢


UK/Goa

Hello to you both! Just wanted to say that we love your videos and can relate. My wife and I also moved to France in 22! And we are not that far away from each other. Keep up the great work and take care.

1. I live in the north of La Creuse. The hommes poubelle/ bin men/ trash collectors, arrive once a week to collect the rubbish. Every other Tuesday they collect the non-recyclable rubbish, every other Thursday they collect the recyclable rubbish. I have two bins with different coloured lids for both types of rubbish.

2. If there are two bakeries in a town or village, they are not allowed to go on holiday at the same time. Furthermore, French bread is superior to the bread which is commonly sold in the USA.

3. People have been leaving the French countryside for years because increasingly there is no work there for them. Houses are left abandoned, hence the run-down nature of many of the rural areas. In the more prosperous areas, Normandy, Artois, Picardy, Paris, Bordeaux and Toulouse for example, buidings are much better maintained, besides, there is an upside to the unkempt areas, houses are much cheaper! The converse is true in the prosperous areas.

4. As you say there is not a train station in every village. Thousands of kilometres of track were pulled up in the 1960s because the lines were uneconomic. The same happened in the UK. However, once you get to a mainline station you will be whisked away to your destination at high speed and in comfort.

The one thing I'd have to figure out is how to put screens on the windows. I can live with a lot of things, even inconvenient things, but not bugs. I can stop them coming in under the oven, fridge, sink etc, but I'm not letting them in the windows! I will staple screens on every window to save my sanity.

I'm only part way through this, but up to now, it's like living in country Australia. My nearest supermarket is 90 minutes drive (each way). When the bakery is closed in town (200 people), it's closed: they're people, they need breaks. Those of us who can do so make choices. Spiders? Snakes? Yes, but also kangaroos, echidnas, emus and possums.

In America I found that one requires a car to travel to supermarket and then the prices are high and not as fresh.

what you siad about trains used ro be true but a lot of linea actually closes because it was not profitable. Basically the countryside was abandoned literally and figuratively.

Walkability is a myth in small town America too much more than in cities actually, having lived in both. However, small town America if you are immigrating to them (from a city) actually are very very uninterested in you. It's NOT a place where everyone will know your business; I've had small town neighbor tell me "people like to be left alone here. You'd have to move to a city to know your neighbors". Ridiculous but true. Ditto with recycling - I drive 45 min from my small US town to the nearest decent-size tiny city's recycling center in order to recycle. There is one dumpster style recycling bin in my town and it's not monitored to make sure people put clean only in it, so all of each batch has to be put in the landfill. Most of what is described in this video transfers from most any small countryside living situation, actually, so this is a lot less about France and a lot more about adjusting to a small place.

Thanks for this info and esp about the bugs - when I ask those basic questions in groups (cuz I'm from TX and we know places have bugs, yo, and ours pretty much all are dangerous to people), people think it's to get attention and be dramatic. It's not. It's that I know what pulls stress in the body when you are in a new place, and bugs you aren't expecting are at the top of that list. I don't mind bugs if I know what to expect and if they are not poisonous or toxin-producing.

Wait! You mean you're telling us that the French countryside is...gasp...a real place? I know, I know, it probably had to be said. It just shocks me that anyone, anywhere, would believe that anyplace is perfect. A funny country house story for you. Years ago, I moved to an old farmhouse in a very tiny midwest US town (old enough that you could see that the bathroom was an addition, and there was still the foundation of an outhouse in the backyard, just to give context.) One day, I went into the kitchen and opened a drawer, only to find a little snake sleeping inside. I quietly closed it, and when I went back later. the snake was gone. Old houses sometimes harbor critters, everywhere. 😆

thank you for the video. these trade offs are deal breakers. all of a sudden, america sounds pretty freakin awesome.

I continue to be encouraged.

As I'm listening to this, I'm thinking you are describing all the "challenges" we faced moving from Washington DC to a small town, 2000 population, in upstate NY. For several years I used to sing the theme to Green Acres, often times I feel like our house could be the set for the Munsters with all the cobwebs. You no sooner clean them off and a week later you're running into them again. Bugs (and mice for that matter) are a fact of life in the country I think. But once we adapted and got used to the new way of life the charm of living and making that move from the big city to the small town (where everyone knows your name, business, address, phone number, and what you had for breakfast two days ago), at least for us, was still there. There's an adjustment, there was for us, from moving from big city to small town USA. I can't imagine moving from big-ish US city to a small French town. Dealing with living in another country with a different language and downsizing as well. All in all everything you describe I'm thinking for myself... "sign me up". But I'm guessing the advice would be if you can't imagine living in a small town in the US, moving to a small town in another country may not be ideal or at least there will be a lot of adjustment. 😀 Another great video.❤

thank you for this channel. we are considering moving to france and your videos are like treasures!

Here in the UK, many people are terrified of spiders! Irrational, not realising how many insects the spiders get rid of, for free! But they are only happy if the spiders are dead!
The same goes for wasps!
It boggles the mind...

I used to take all of my companies recycling, put it in can with wheels and once a week on my way home from work i would swing by the recycle center and drop it off. No big deal.

I'm interested to see if this couple stays for more than 5 years, i hope they do, home sickness isn't easy to overcome, familiarity..Good Luck to this family❤

Contrary to what many people believe, it is a blessing to have spiders in the house. You should not kill them or chase them away. Spiders feed mainly on flying insects and they eliminate. They therefore limit the number of flies and mosquitoes in the house! They are not dangerous to humans and they are our friends!
For us French, what you say is absolutely obvious, and I understand that you are explaining them to American friends. It is a totally different life, but few people can have a campaign in the city and have the advantages of both, without the disadvantages.
Yes, the stores are closed sometimes. My sister ran a grocery store in a village of 500 inhabitants for 35 years and she often opened the store because a neighbor in the village was short of something on Saturday evening with guests at home. On the other hand, when her car broke down, everyone could help her get around and get supplies for the store. It's part of community life. Her replacement didn't want to do the same thing and 6 months later, the store was closed!
I live in a small town in Normandy and yet there are more than 120 different activities in the city, from yoga to archery, salsa, Russian lessons, the music conservatory and Japanese ikebana lessons. Life in the countryside, with its calm, its rhythm, its quality of life and spirit, requires a fairly simple organization, but having spiders at home and hearing the birds singing in the silence, being cold or hot depending on the season, walking in the rain connects us a little to nature ...
When the TGV arrived, the government wanted to make long lines and eliminated many of the short lines that connected the countryside. Many stations were sold. Today, we are going back and they are trying to recreate a network of small lines but it is not easy. It is one of the disadvantages of the countryside, ....you can't have everything!

I watched most of your videos, and I think your content is really doing France justice. If I was not French I would totally want to move there. Reading through the comments, many are considering France for retirement. I think it is a great idea. But you're in your 40's so some subjects for them has never been covered yet in your videos. For instance, what can I retiree, and especially an american retiree do in a small village in France. You could present for instances the golf courses around your region. Golf in France is very accessible, usually cheap often will many british players especially in your region. I think you should also stress out that, not too far from your region is bassin d'arcachon, a 2 hour drive where you can enjoy the summer vacations or surfing in Hossegor. Not too far is massif central as well, tat still qualifies for mountains or some great hikes. They have offsprings there, and during cold winters (like the one this year), you can ski (3 hour drive). You can mention that Angouleme not too far from you has one the biggest world comic con every January.

Ces Américains sont décidément de plus en plus Français qu'ils ne sont jamais contents de ce qu'ils ont !
Malheureusement, il est impossible d'avoir à la fois le confort d'une vie au calme à la campagne, un peu isolée et les commodités d'une grande ville ..... Il n'y aura jamais de gare TGV dans la première et il n'y a guère de grosse araignée dans les secondes. Il n'existe pas d'endroit idéal, juste des endroits qui ont le compromis que l'on attend au moment où on l'attend. Si l'endroit parfait existait, il attirerait tellement de monde qu'il en deviendrait rapidement l'endroit d'où il faut partir.
Bref, il faut choisir un lieu camp et essayer de ne pas le regretter !

That's the biggest issue I have with businesses in the EU.
Many don't have an online presence or one that looks 15 years old.
You check online to see if it's open, it says yes...but it's closed when you get there.

Well miving in the countryside and being surprised that there are insexts, ants and spiders everywhere is just normal. The absence of these would worry me because it would mean that the environnement is not healthy.

Thanks for the nice information. Only thing, try to find the correct prononciation for "mairie".🙂

Countryside living in France is obviously appealing, but clearly not for everyone. One big reason why I'm moving to Lille later this year is because of its rail connections to the rest of Europe, including Eurostar to the UK and Paris. Another is the ability to get around easily in this mid-size city, either on foot or by public transport. I hope the people who watch your videos can learn from your experiences and can then avoid making costly and painful mistakes.

i lived in a small town and in a rural settings on and off half of my life in the us, noticed that many things are similar! thank you! i live in a 120 year old home in the city and it def has the bugs at times!!!

Have you not concidered using a bicycle(s) to go arround there?

Je vis à Neuilly-sur-Marne (à l'est de Paris) et j'ai pas mal d'insectes qui viennent de ma terrasse (ils ne sont pas nocifs, j'y suis habituée 😊). Par contre, j'ai la phobie des cafards ! 😭

You're the best ambassadors to the french way of life ! Thanks a lot ! Glad you enjoy living un our country.

Bonjour!! Please read:
We've realized based on the comments we gave NO context for this video! Especially for those of you who might be new.

To be clear: we LOVE living in the French countryside. But not everything is perfect...it never is, anywhere.

We make so many videos that are overwhelming positive about living in France, we thought it was fair to make a video about some things that are different than we know many of our fellow Americans imagine them to be and maybe even a little annoying, even if totally worth it.

We want our channel to be a place that is real about the experience of living in France, as much as can be when sharing only a few minutes of life here. That includes everything.

Thanks for watching! ❤ - Raina and Jason