What does everyone do for a living?

[Katy Marie]

I have scanned old posts but can't seem to find this a thread previouly opened. I am sure a lot of you may be familiar with each others stories already but being a newbie, I would be very interested to know.....

What do you all do for a living? Did you change careers completely after moving to France? How did you find the transition to working in another country?

Katy

[Bevdeforges]

Like some of the other folks here, I'm married to a French person (and now am a French citizen myself). Had significant immigration problems when I first arrived - so couldn't look for work until things got cleared up. I'm an accountant by trade and training, and while many people seem to think the French accounting is "special" it really is only a matter of learning the local laws and conventions. But, there's always the language - like many trades, accounting has its own terms in French (and in most other languages).

By the time I got my immigration situation straightened out, my husband had set up his own business, for which I am the accountant and head paperwork pusher. Getting legal just meant I could finally put myself officially on the payroll, start drawing a salary and paying my cotisations.
Cheers,
Bev

[arstewart]

Originally Posted by Katy Marie

I have scanned old posts but can't seem to find this a thread previouly opened. I am sure a lot of you may be familiar with each others stories already but being a newbie, I would be very interested to know.....

What do you all do for a living? Did you change careers completely after moving to France? How did you find the transition to working in another country?

Katy

I'm a small business video producer, and my wife (who is French) teaches at international schools here in Paris. Neither of us changed careers coming to France, but I'm finding the French to be not very friendly to the ease of setting up and running a small business. Don't expect it to make me change though, I love what I do too much!

[Bubu]

Bedveforges, I don't know you but from your posting: thank you so much for what you did and do for newcomers on this forum. I hope to meet you one day and give you a sincere and a grateful hug. I've been reading this forum for years and I am so happy to have learned so many things from reading all the posts the reader’s questions and yours and others answers, which are all ready, live in France, answered. Thank you so much!

[morrisminorbzh]

Originally Posted by Katy Marie

I have scanned old posts but can't seem to find this a thread previouly opened. I am sure a lot of you may be familiar with each others stories already but being a newbie, I would be very interested to know.....

What do you all do for a living? Did you change careers completely after moving to France? How did you find the transition to working in another country?

Katy

Before I retired in 2010 I worked as a civil servant for one of the state, but regionally based, archaeology services (nearest parallel being English Heritage) - based in Brittany.

I'd studied archaeology in Cardiff specialising in Medieval Archaeology, on graduating I came to Brittany in 1977 - At the time to get a job in the state service (Ministry of Culture) I took (but not the only reason) French nationality - I was lucky, I was in the right place at the right time, there was a need for people in Medieval Archaeology - prehistorians, those interested in dolmens and menhirs already occupied the field in that branch of the activity.

About 50% of my time was spent in the field at the beginning of my career, less than 10% at the end when I spent most of my time sending younger colleagues out into the field - throughout my career this gave me the possibility to get to know Brittany well from all points of view. In the end, and still, I don't need a map or a GPS to get around (until I need to find a farm or village) - Still involved in archaeology and am an associate member of a research team base at the University of Caen.

I also do paid work translating into English articles for ex-colleagues

Love Brittany - would be very hard to leave

Michael

[GALLUS]

Decided to leave France because of job opportunities and other personnal reasons, and among them some highly political ones.

Working (loss prevention) for a prestigious employer abroad. Worked for international organisations. Part time Lecturer in a management school. Writer and ex-journalist (editor), ...

Spouse is a professional certified coach (bilingual French and English) living in Paris. She specialises in expat's integration and third culture kids. Contacts on PM upon request.

Will relocate to France soon (not because of political reasons) and keep job abroad.

Born and raised in Bourgogne du Sud (southern), worked in diffrent parts of France, and more than 50 different countries.

We own a house in Provence. We have children (beautiful, including younger ones). We both love red wine (among others), my wife hates sauscisson with a passion and I abhore Marmite.

what else, ... we love France, but I must tell you. This is not a faithful loyal love.

I got an MBA when I was 23... living in New York...started my first job as an analyst for a wall street venture capital firm...and I quit that job in a month cuz I hated that environment.... then I found a job with a Hong Kong based international trading company that had offices in New York as well. I took charge of one of their divisions for importing furniture from china, brazil, indonesia etc..and selling it through large retailers in the US.... I was in charge of design, manufacturing, operations,.. .basically the entire business. My boss was great back then giving me full control of how to run things...unfortunately the company went bankrupt after I worked there 4 years because they lost money on other ventures they invested in....I loved that job because I was travelling around the world in business class, had a limo drive me around manhattan and used my boss' helicopter when I needed to get to clients as well as entertaining foreign clients when they visited us. ...it was the perfect job for me but losing it was even better....lol. I was jobless for 6 months...then I started studying real estate and got my real estate license... I went into mortgage finance and real estate sales - did that for 2-3 years while buying my own properties and flipping them.....but 6 years ago something else happened and changed my life forever....lets just say I didn't have to work again...so I moved to France and enjoy a semi-retired life now.

[Cobachka]

Originally Posted by Katy Marie

I have scanned old posts but can't seem to find this a thread previouly opened. I am sure a lot of you may be familiar with each others stories already but being a newbie, I would be very interested to know.....

What do you all do for a living? Did you change careers completely after moving to France? How did you find the transition to working in another country?

Katy

I am very new to this forum and looking forward to get as much information as I can before making final decision to move to France.
My response to you is actually with more questions..sorry. I do not plan to change my career and like to know why you had to do so? My son and I musicians. My son speaks french and he is performer and composer.I am a teacher and my language will be music...
If you do not mind to tell where in France you are?
My son and I thinking about near Biarritz location.I am having difficult time to have response from any real estate agency there regarding long term rent and cost.
Hope to hear from you,
Lena.

[Bevdeforges]

Hi Lena, and welcome to the forum.

If you go back through some of the older posts on the forum, I think you'll find that real estate agents in France generally don't respond to e-mail queries, especially from abroad. Some of it is simply that they don't really do business via e-mail, and some of it is that the rental agent business works a bit differently here in France and seems to require face to face contact. What many folks do is to arrange for a short-term (say, three to 4 weeks) rental - like a hotel or vacation rental - for their arrival. Then, they can deal with the rental agencies face to face in looking for a more permanent arrangement. ("Long-term" rentals usually involve a lease of 3 years.)
Cheers,
Bev

[jamesOK]

Originally Posted by Cobachka

My son and I thinking about near Biarritz location.I am having difficult time to have response from any real estate agency there regarding long term rent and cost.

Have you searched Petites annonces gratuites d'occasion - leboncoin.fr You should be able to get a rough idea from that.
I also have a spreadsheet that I have compiled over the years of all the estate agents in and around Biarritz. If you would like it send me an email and I can forward it to you.