I'm French on a French expat forum , I was an expat in China for 6 years and I'm just back home, in my dear (but damn boring) Le Havre.
I miss the expat community, the warmth of the people I met along the way in China. I miss the feeling of -almost- instant complicity with fellow expats. I love my country and my people, but it's tough to be back to a normal life after the most intense 6 years of my life. And I do feel like I'm in a new place here. Old friends moved away, or changed a lot (or is it me?) and I find myself rather lonely here. I do have a couple of awesome friends but they're busy with their own lives.

Have you ever gone back home and had that feeling?

Do you live in Le Havre and want to meet up? Do you have an idea of where I could meet expats?

Cheers!

Most definitely! When I was younger, I worked or did research in various foreign countries. It was always hard to re-integrate in my home country when I got back, and I never quite fit back in. One solution was to hang out with expats from other countries who were living in the US.
For a period of years I spoke more Spanish than English while living in Chicago.

It has often been said that once you are an expat, you have no real "home." I returned back to the US after barely a year abroad my first time, and decided to head back to Europe on my own.

Things change in just a year, so you never return to quite the same country you left. You've also had your horizons expand and you've become used to different customs and habits, so you're not the same as when you left.

The best remedy is to get involved in some newcomer or expat groups to help keep the "awareness" alive of what it is like to be a foreigner in France. (It isn't easy.) The AVF is usually good - a nice mix of French and foreigners new to the area - or any of a number of group that call themselves "international."
Cheers,
Bev

Thanks, what's the AVF?
I can see we share the same feelings. Well they say home is where your heart is.

avflehavre - Le Havre - AVF

AVF is a newcomers' group in many French towns. The groups vary considerably, but all are based on the notion of welcoming newcomers to the area. Because they are a volunteer group, a couple of former expats active in the local association can go a long way toward making the group more "welcoming" to foreigners in town.
Cheers,
Bev

That's perfect, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks!

My father was in the British army, so while I was born in England, the first six years of my life were spent in Cyprus, Egypt and North Africa. Then when I was in my late 20s I came to France for a wonderful 6 years, then moved to the USA for 25 years. I spent most of my life feeling I was English, but then realized more and more that I could never LIVE in England again. In fact I've lived only a third of my life in England, and that third was a long time ago. I now live - happily - in France. I think if you've bopped around the world enough you become a sort of trans-national. (Especially if you're a child of ex-pat parents, as I was.)

On the other hand, there are some fabulous films being shot in Le Havre at the moment - 38 Témoins, Le Havre, and so on. Très tendance!

I can somewhat identify.

I was born in France. Lived there for first 11 years then moved and lived in the US for almost 20 years.

I am back in France and France is not home for me.

I am in the region of Auvergne now (though I will move in the future).

I am miserable in here.

Why are you miserable here in the Auvergne? and where in the Auvergne?

I love it here, almost as much as I love being in Corsica - both very different, and somehow similar, lifestyles. What's the problem?

H

There is the old saw that "you can't go home again." If you return to your homeland expecting it to be as it was when you left, you're bound to be disappointed.

I returned to the US after not quite a year away and was definitely not happy there. Living abroad changes things, and changes you. I wound up moving back to Europe - and ultimately found myself living in France.

There are days the country drives me nuts - but I know full well I could never live back in the US. I suspect you're experiencing the other side of that. Treat France as another new, uncharted landscape and be prepared to adapt to a new culture.
Cheers,
Bev