One more thing... I plan to spend the majority of my visit in Provence. A die-hard Julia Child fan, I'm hoping to buy a nice bottle of Montrachet while traveling South.

 

Welcome to the forum!

Have you given any thought yet to how you are planning to move to France? Given your age, "retirement" is probably not an option. In any event, give a shout as questions pop up.
Cheers,
Bev

 

Great question!! A friend of mine who lives in Paris now suggested an artist visa (I also have a degree in organ performance; French Classical was my emphasis, of course). BUT, I love teaching, and with a PhD in math + being a certified teacher, I'm hoping to do that. I love teaching at the university, but I also love teaching middle & high school. My partner is an RN so I suspect he is pretty marketable too.

Since you asked, does this sound like a reasonable path?

 

All public school teachers in France are fonctionnaires (civil servants), and you are not allowed to become a fonctionnaire unless you are French. (Believe me, as an aspiring English teacher, I have done my research on this). You are technically allowed to take the civil service test (the CAPES), but you need special permission from the départment in which you wish to teach, and given that you can't even be hired afterwards, the point is basically moot. You can take the CAFEP, which is essentially the same test but for private schools, but in reading the literature associated with it, it seems to be heavily oriented towards people of the religious persuasion who want to teach in Catholic schools, which makes me hesitant as an atheist Jew. Your mileage may vary.

To teach in a university, you have to be an enseignant.e-chercheur.e (technically in France, this happens automatically if you receive a French doctorate and are hired by a university in an official capacity, but I have no idea what the steps would be for someone with a foreign degree) or agrégé.e (which means you have passed the agrégation, another civil service test with the same pitfalls as the CAPES mentioned above). This is something you could possibly pursue, but I would assume you'd have to get in touch with the relevant personnel at a specific university (or universities), for as a second-year Master's underling, I unfortunately wouldn't be able to say specifically how you could make that happen.

From what I've read on this forum, any sort of medical degree is very hard to make work in France, as qualifications are very strict and, I assume, very distinct from those in US. You also have to have impeccable French to be able to work in the health care industry in France, especially nursing, where you're in direct communication with the patient.

Sorry to be a bearer of bad news.

 

Absolutely!! Thank you for the words!

 

Of course, welcoming immigrants like you and your partner are just the dose of fresh air that La Belle France needs. Hope you keep on trying.

 

I've been looking for a while at places I think I'd like to work one day. Do you think it'd be premature to visit the schools while I'm there this time? Maybe email first, etc.?

 

The public schools don't seem to be terribly open to visitors. But if there are some private schools you're interested in, you can always try contacting them and see what they say. (Worst they can say is no.)
Cheers,
Bev

 

With this in mind, how soon should I get a bank account in France? I assume with the Blue Cards it will be easier than trying to use an American credit card without the chip & pin. Any thoughts?

 

The only place where American credit cards don't work in France are in machines (most notably, metro ticket and Navigo machines). You just run the risk of getting a bit of a look when you ask for a pen to sign the receipt, as this practice has gone the way of the dodo since the chip system was introduced. (I always crack some joke about how it's "so very 80s". Self-deprecating humor has always been my schtick, which I have read here is very un-French. The even weirder looks I would get after said joke make a lot of sense now.)

Most banks require proof of income to open an account, so you'd have to get that sorted first. (I was able to get around that as a student, I believe I just showed them my proof of registration).

 

Lets be clear, the chances of you working in a school in France public, private or otherwise is less than zero. Sorry.

Getting a bank account in France with a 'Carte Bleue' is infinitely less difficult but equally as challenging.

Welcome to France.

 

Wow, Smeg. What a kind welcome!

 

Well, he said it more bluntly than Bev and I did, but in terms of secondary education, Smeg is not at all wrong, unfortunately. Expecting to come to France on a work visa for a public secondary school teaching job is just not going to happen.

You could try your luck at some universities, but given that you have to be a fonctionnaire to work at public universities (I actually did not know this), that's out, and I would assume you'd really have to plead your case for a private university to put in the time and money for the red tape. That could be a way in, but not one that I would necessarily count on.

A great thing about working at a French Immersion school with teachers who are from France, they all agree that I should have no difficulty at all.

Your colleagues are misinformed. Maybe at one time you would have had no difficulty, but with the way the international economy is now, and the way Education Nationale is set up, it's just not possible.

 

I tell it like it is.

 

A great thing about working at a French Immersion school with teachers who are from France, they all agree that I should have no difficulty at all.

 

There is mass unemployment in France. Regardless, jobs in France are 'qualification' specific' and most employers if not all will favour a French person over an expat for any given role because they will have the right piece of paper. Welcome to France.

Provence is not all about lavander fields, cigales and rosé. You really need to read/watch the French news. You could quite possibly get yourself a job in the suburbs of Marseille, Nice or Nimes. but I doubt it.......but then I would count yourself lucky.

 

I've got a few years before I'm looking to relocate anyway. Maybe things will change. <fingers crossed> Thanks to all who responded!

 

I appreciate your honesty. Truly. I didn't realize unemployment in France was what it is right now. As I mentioned, I'm thinking ahead, but it's good to know what's going on now. I definitely don't want to approach this with naive, rose-colored glasses.

What do you think is the most accurate news to follow there? I'm sure you know that Fox & CNN paint two completely different pictures of news in the US. Are there less-biased news agencies in France?

 

You have a PhD so you could go for a scientific visa, do you do any research at all? I work with several non-French professors (at a pubic University) that weren't French citizens (or even very good at French) before they were hired, but they were hired based on their research. If you have that kind of research background (and I think math falls into the scientific visa category, if you have a masters and above and are working for a government lab or a university), you could have an easier chance of getting 'in' at a university. Or if you are willing to take a postdoc type of position (it would mean a short contract-2 to 3 years likely-and pay is regulated to be not much but certainly decently liveable). I got my current job/visa pretty easily, (if by 'easily' you mean had gone to school forever and happened to have the exact criteria they needed at the time).

 

Also getting a carte bleu was really hard for me! I don't know if it was just the bank I went to, or I seem suspicious, but I had to have my colleague, who already had a bank account there, to be there with me, I had to have a visa, show my past three months statements from the US, have my contract with me for my job, and my lease, and a copy of my birth certificate (always).

 

Where there is a will there is a way. Almost everyone in my husband's family is married to a foreigner (6 siblings and multitudes if cousins). Oddly they all have jobs. No one in the family is unemployed. I know many expats where I live and they have also found jobs (the ones who want them at least). Rules and waysFrance are often unique to France, but at least in the south west, they are not always immutable. Check out Pau and Toulouse, I have come across more than one American teaching (or who has taught) in the area. My mom taught at a French school in Bordeaux in the 70S (lots has changed), but if you plan ahead, meet the right people, I would not say your chances are zero. Bonne chance

 

I think it's fair to say that, at the moment, finding a job in France is difficult - even for the native born and particularly for a foreigner who needs a work visa. That said, there are elections in 2017 and who knows what may happen by then.

You're going to be here in November. Ask around when you're here and see what sort of response you get.

As far as news from France, you can try France 24 (available in English as well as in French) - but France 24 is a government channel, set up originally by Chirac to compete with CNN International. Or, take a look at the French channels - all of which post videos of their news programs online (in French): TF1, France 2 and France 3. France 2 and 3 are also government run. TF1 is independent, but the government here has long had rather significant influence over all forms of broadcast media.

Generally, you have to take your news from a variety of sources, especially those in the local language, to get a balanced picture of what is "really" going on.
Cheers,
Bev

 

Generally, you have to take your news from a variety of sources, especially those in the local language, to get a balanced picture of what is "really" going on.

I think that's true most places. Just because a TV station is privately owned doesn't mean their news broadcasts are balance - far from it