Hi Bev,
Thanks for the good introductory information. I am an American and have been living in Catalunya (Spain) for seven years. I am married to a Catalan and I speak Catalan. We are now thinking of moving to Provence -- somewhere near Avignon or Arles. I have visited both and like them a lot. The reason for this move, if it happens, is because I find France more aesthetically pleasing than Spain (landscape, houses, restaurants and bars, less garbage everywhere, everything), I want to live in a town where I will have more cultural opportunities and will not have to rely on a car for my everyday routine (we live outside any town in an urbanization and have to drive to buy groceries, see friends, or catch the train) and also because we are looking for a less expensive property and life than what we have now. I am 60 and my husband is 77.

One of my concerns is making new friends. When we lived in Barcelona, all my friends were Catalans (I did not meet them through my husband, it was actually the reverse). Now they are mostly British. Because of the small-town, family orientation, it is harder in the area where we live now to make friends with Catalans than it was in the city.

My husband warns me that Catalans are far friendlier than the French and that I may be friendless in France (what a sentence -- I should become a poet!). I figure that I will take classes or join a group and I will meet new people. But the French do have a reputation for not being very friendly. If I speak passable (it will never be perfect) French, how are people likely to react? Because I learned Catalan rather than Castilian (Spanish), the Catalans were very warm and receptive to me, although they still keep a social distance.

Thanks,
Dvora