We are moving to France because it was always understood, after my wife and I met twenty years ago, that she wanted to return home after she retired. That was always a given for me. I just had to make the necessary adjustments. Adjustments, which I believe I have happily made.

My wife is Cannoise and though she has enjoyed her life in the US she has always missed her family connections and the culture of France. She has been in the United States for 37 years and has achieved a level success in her working life that she may not have been able to realize if she had remained in France. The consequences of course were the sacrificing of the benefits of the kind of French life style not available here in the US.

I have been able to observe her for the past twenty years and it has left me with the sense that maybe the French should not leave France because it may be difficult to maintain that French sense of hospitality, family and culture outside of France. Yes, I sense that Italian culture is similar, but I feel that there is more finesse to life in France. I know that this is a generalization but I believe that you get my drift. I know that it is difficult to maintain a “French table” here in the US although we try. We have been visiting France at least once a year since we met. We even purchased a small studio at St. Laurent du Var for our vacation stays. So! We are essentially acclimated to the French lifestyle. We still have a lot of questions but our past exposure to French culture has helped eliminate any doubts about our move to France. One question I still have is what do we have to do to bring our cat with us? What is a “pet passport?”

My own family connections here in the US are weak. My connections to my wife’s family are much stronger and more satisfying. I have been accepted as a “brother, Son, Friend and Uncle”. We have been visiting family and friends, in France, frequently over the years and have established support systems that I believe will make our transition to our new life in France essentially problem free. My only problem is gaining a greater facility with the language. I am quite confident though that after three to six months in country, I will be basically fluent. I have a decent understanding of French grammar and the vocabulary. It is the nuance of language that I need to acquire, especially the plus-que-parfait du subjonctive and when to utilize the proper past tenses. It seems that I don’t have much of a problem with the present and future.

As an aside, I am considering taking French nationality in order to make a better fit of myself into French society. I am not sure of what the implications to my American citizenship would be, so I have reluctance to making that jump. There does not appear to be much of an impact, but I will need to conduct additional research before I make that kind of decision.

Anyway, the above essentially represents the reasoning behind our move to France.