Ex-pat for a year?
 

Greetings Fodorites,<BR><BR>After living through 9/11 My husband and I have decided to take some time off to live life a little. We are considering a move to Europe in the next two years. We hope to stay there for a year, although funds and visa's will certainly play a role.<BR><BR>We both speak rudimentary French and have loved our visits there so are leaning towards France. My grandparents lived in Genoa for many years, so that has an appeal too...<BR><BR>We are New Yorkers and city dwellers, but don't want to live somewhere as expensive as NYC or Paris. We were thinking Lyon, as it is centrally located, but something tells me we need to slow down a little more than that. Mostly, we need to live somewhere where we can walk to markets, restaurants, libraries etc. Getting in a car and driving to and fro is not pleasurable for us.<BR><BR>He is a writer and I am a photographer, although we both keep "day jobs". We are hoping to take some time to spend doing things that we love in a low-key, interesting, friendly place(arts music etc).<BR><BR>If you could be an Ex-pat for a year, where would you go?

Amy, why don't you become a poll taker for a year? That you you can meet the 70% of the US population who support our President (your comment reminds me of that journalist who couldn't believe Reagan carried 49 states "because I don't know anyone who voted for him").

I am just curious as to why you chose to post your response to my post here? Any reason?

to point out how off the wall you are.

Amy<BR><BR>Forget jerks like that "no life" idiot who abuses travel forums. <BR><BR>To answer your question, go live in the countryside just outside Amsterdam.<BR>Catch the train in when you want a dose of city life.

My cousin lives in Cadenet for 1/2 of every year. It is in Provence and taxes, etc aren`t too high. They live all the fresh fruit there. There is a town market. There are lots of little villages in the area, so you might think about that, since you speak some French. The area is about 30 miles north of Marseille.

Amy,<BR><BR>I read your post because I thought the responses may be helpful, but I guess your first reply from "xxx" wasn't much help. We already have plans to move to Europe for a least a year. Not because we dislike America, but because we are interested in experiencing life.<BR><BR>Our plans are to move to a small town in Austria where my Grandfather was born. We still have relatives there and are interested in learning more about our family, other than what we have learned from our visits. We are currently city dweller with day jobs. Soon we will be able to leave those behind and do something very different. I feel that living life amoung Europeans will help us understand more about them and ourselves. We havn't worked out all the details yet, but I would be curious to know how you are going to accomplish your dream. If you, or anyone out there thinking of doing the same thing, would be willing to share you ideas I would appreciate it. Good luck with your plans.<BR><BR>Greg<BR>

Many thanks Tom,<BR><BR>People sure are mean sometimes aren't they???!! <BR><BR>I do have a friend in Amsterdam. We can get cheap ticks from NYC easily, I have not been there, but just might have to check it out one weekend. I have heard many good things....How is the food?

Cadenet sounds lovely. Being near Marseille would be handy since we could fly direct from here. <BR><BR>Greg,<BR>I am with you. We have no bad feelings towards our country, but do dream of getting away to broaden our life experiences. My grandparents lived in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Genoa, Taipai, France(can't remember town) and Buenos Aires. I long for a little taste of what they experienced! I have been to a website called escapeartist.com. It seems to have some helpful links for ex-pats...Have you found any sites helpful. What about reading?<BR><BR>Its funny, but one of the biggest obstacles for us is what to do about our dog and cat?!! Can we take her with us, if so can we bring her back? Will some generous family member watch over her for a year...etc etc. The money of course is an issue, but these details are tough and can often lead to some stagnation in planning.....

Amy<BR><BR>I've stayed in Holland five times for both business and pleasure. I found the people friendly and eager to help travelers. Food choices were huge as the place seemed to be a melting pot for global dishes. Centrally located for travel in Europe. Do a global search for "Ex-pats" - I've seen websites before that had good info on Holland.

Hi Amy..do you live right in NYC - Manhattan? We are two young seniors who live in Toronto. An off the wall question - would you be interested in renting your place for the year? We adore animals (actually volunteer for SPCA) and would look after your animals! We have family in NY and have been thinking of doing something different with our retirement...husband just retired and I'm going in next year!

How about Florence? Markets, restaurants, and other amenities are close by, and the city itself is not as "loud" as NYC. It is also nearby a good number of smaller towns for you to spend long weekends, etc.

Hi<BR><BR>Think about staying near Montpellier. <BR><BR>Only 7 km from the Med, with decent climate, 80,000 students provide many good cheap restaurants, lots of museums etc.<BR><BR>You can rent a beachside appt cheaply Sept to Jun.<BR><BR>Peter<BR>http://tlp.netfirms.com

<BR>Lyon sounds like a very nice choice but if I had the opportunity, I'd pick Rome.

curious...<BR>We don't live in Manhattan but in the beautiful neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights. <BR>Which is SO handy to all subways and I never tire of the walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan. <BR><BR>FYI....our beloved animals are getting to be high maintenance (they are both over 10). They both were rescues so have some issues (though sweet as pie). It would be so hard to leave them, but we just may consider a generous offer such as yours. Keep in touch!

We lived in Lyon for a couple of years -- easy to walk to libraries, restaurants, markets, etc. I didn't have a car (didn't need one), my hubbie had one to drive to/from work outside of the bus/train commutes. <BR><BR>Lyon has plenty of museums, art exhibits and art fairs. I would suggest you check out the websites (tourism, etc) and see all that it has to offer. <BR><BR>BTW, you can't help but slow down in France.

Hi,<BR>You will not be able to get a visa anywhere to work in Europe if you are American citizens. If you have grandparents who were Irish, for example, you might be able to apply for Irish citizenship and then you are in. Otherwise forget working. We know a couple who rents every winter in the Trois Vallee area of France, and they get great prices, and they ski all winter, and then in the summer they trottle across in their VW van to Spain and rent there all summer. If I were going to pursue your idea, I would make sure I had enough money to live on without working, and I would stay mobile, try to see as much as possible, like a long trip. Since you say you don't like driving, you ARE better off in a capital but Paris, London, Rome are very expensive. I think Lyon would be a bit sleepy for a year, maybe a university town like Grenoble would be more open to short term foreigners. I have been an ex-pat 3 times and London is BY FAR my favorite. That is the place to spend a year! Not just because of the language but because of the richness and easy access to everything including meeting people. Otherwise go for a small university town.

Visas are the biggest sticking point about moving overseas. You need to do research on that before you do anything else. Some European countries will granted an extended visitor's visa IF you can show you have adequate means to support yourself without working. However, each country is very different, so you need to get the details on France, and where ever else you're considering.<BR><BR>Can't really give any recommendations for locations in France, but I can recommend living the ex-pat life. I did it for awhile in Ireland (Belfast). Loved living there, hated working there, so came back to the U.S. with plans to retire early and go back, without having to hold down a 9-5 job.<BR><BR>My main piece of advice for living overseas is to avoid expat groups once you make the move. They're a great resource before you go, but can become a crutch once you're overseas. If you lean too heavily on fellow Americans, you'll never meet local people and really discover what it's like to live in another culture.<BR><BR>I loved living in Ireland, but I realize a big part of that was because I already had my husband's family and a large network of friends there. But it's still a wonderful place to sit and watch the world go by. You can never be in a hurry in Ireland. It's just so relaxing and refreshing after living in a big city in the US.

Thanks to all for your helpful replies...<BR>I have been investigating "Ex-pat" sites and most English-speaking ones are from a British perspective. Does anyone know of any with an American point-of-view?

Amy, you will tend to find that a lot of the sites have more Brits than Americans. I just did searches on several search engines, and came up with a bunch of different sites. None stick in my mind, but they all had some little tidbit of information.<BR>