Scouting trip update

Alas, it has been too long since we've updated the site. I (Jim) have been super busy at work so I haven't been able to keep up.

Jane and I recently returned from our "reconnaissance mission" from France. Our goal was to make a decision on a village for our year in France and hob-knob with the local government.

It was wonderful to be in France but it was a lot of work and we covered a lot of territory. Ultimately we failed at our mission. We couldn't nail down a village. The apartment agencies weren't interested in showing us things because we weren't real clients yet...too soon to be looking for a property to rent in March. So...we decided on a new approach. We're renting for the first month in a gite where we have stayed before. We'll use this month to look at properties to rent for the next month. With this approach we'll know exactly what we are getting when we make our decision.

We did meet with the local prefecture to talk about visas, etc. Not surprisingly, the information was less than perfect. She was thrilled that we could speak French so she didn't have to explain in English. However she turned out to be poorly informed (I should have been suspicious when she kept going to the back office to ask questions of her supervisor). Upon further research we have discovered that the paperwork is even easier than we thought. Nothing more than a marriage certificate and passports! All of our translating was for naught!

We spent a few days in Paris and the rest in our beloved Provence. We had a great dinner with an old friend who lives in the suburbs of Paris. He offered to help us with our car purchase when we hit France in March. Very cool.

Upcoming scouting expedition

In a few weeks we're going to France to scout things out. I (Jim) have a technical conference in Paris for 2 days (CITCON 2009) and then we are headed down to Provence for a week. We're hoping to make some decisions about where we will spend our year. We've gotten some good feedback from others that, though beautiful, Avignon will have a lot of tourists. We'd prefer a place where the people are less transient so the locals will be more interested in getting to know us. We've also gotten some advice from other French folks that Aix might be a good choice. I think we'll be visiting lots of towns.

We'd also like to meet with a local appartment agent and check out a few places to get a sense of prices and paperwork.

Finally, we'll meet with a local prefecture to do an advance check on our papers...do we need something else? What are the expectations?

Will we have any time for fun?

Phones

Moving to France presents a couple of interesting phone issues:

1. What do we do about our current home phone number?
2. What kind of phone do we get in France?

The goal for our home phone is to keep our existing telephone number so that the companies who we do business with will still have our existing U.S. phone number. It's not important that we pick-up when called. Rather, it's just important that the caller can call our usual number and leave a message. We can call them back from France using a lot of cheap options. I'm hopeful that we'll be using Google Voice ( http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html ) for this problem. Google voice is expected to add portability sometime later this year so we can have our existing number ported to Google voice. Very cool...and very cheap.

The phone in France is easier. Our contract with Verizon ends pretty close to the month we leave so we'll buy new phones in France and pay-as-you-go for calls. We'll try to use Skype or Google voice for any communications back to the states.

The planning commences

After years of waiting for the right time we're finally in the planning stages. Jane and I are planning on our own "Year in Provence". Some of the basics:

• Leave for France in February 2010 (after the guys return to UW after Xmas break).


• Rent an apartment somewhere in southern France (hey...we're still planning).


• Return a year later.

The planning is a little daunting. Going some place for a year is a lot different than going for a month (we did this in 2001) but we have great friends and family who are incredibly encouraging. That's a hint. We would REALLY appreciate your ideas. Some of the things we need to figure out....

Work

Ideally I (Jim) would like to work for a French company but the chances are slim and none. France has a high unemployment and their priority system is French first, EU citizens second, and then the rest. While Jane is a British citizen (and thus an EU citizen) I am simply "the guy on her arm" (I'm not complaining...it's a nice arm). The next best option would be to work for an American company that has a French office. This would be great but the state of the economy doesn't make this a likely possibility either. The third option is to work remote for a U.S. company in France. This seems attainable. As a contract software developer, I'm confident I can find somebody who'd be willing to have me work remote. I might have to lower my rate signficantly...but we're not going to France to become rich.

Jane might be able to find work but we haven't really thought about her prospects yet.

Housing in France

At this point we are pretty open about housing in France. For cost reasons it seems likely we'll end up in an apartment but if we could find a little house in the country that would be ideal. Of course, it needs to be a furnished apartment (and have broadband internet). My research so far suggests it is best to deal with an agent. The agent typically pockets a month's rent for the help but I think it is worth it. Having somebody remote, looking for us is great. The agent can also help us with the paperwork. Jane and are hoping to find one or two agents during our 2 week "exploratory" visit in September.

House in Saint Paul

This is where we're spending the most energy right now. We plan on renting our home in Saint Paul for the year. We hope to cover the cost of renting housing in France with the rental money. There are basically 2 problems to solve:

• How to find the renters
• How to manage the property while we are away

We're contacting some management companies to see what they offer and we've talked with some friends who've rented their home for a year. The management company wants 10% of the rental but they do the marketing and the management. The marketing-only companies are cheaper but we have to figure out how to handle the "landlord" issues while we are away. Some of our friends had a handy neighbor take care of the landlord duties. They paid him a fair wage and they knew they could trust him.

Transportation in France

This is also getting some energy right now. If we were going to Paris, transportation would probably be a non-issue. We'd take trains on weekend/day trips. Otherwise we'd have the Paris metro. However, we want to be in southern France. We realize from our month in St. Remy that motorized transportation is pretty important in this part of France. That said, it might be that a scooter would do. Here are our options thus far:

• Rent/Lease a car – NO…REDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE
• Buy a new car and then have it shipped home we return (referred to as (European delivery). We will, in fact, need another car when we return so this has some potential.
• Buy a used car (voiture d’ocassion).
• Buy a motorcycle. NO…NOT SAFE
• Buy a scooter that can seat 2. Good for short distances but not a real solution for x-france travel.
• Don’t buy anything. Bike, walk, and take a train.

A used car is the leading contender. The sage advice seems to be to buy from a dealer, not a private party (much easier to navigate the paperwork and have some confidence the car will be in decent shape). Googling "used cars Marseilles" shows lots of dealers.

Ca suffit! Il y aura beaucoup d'autre sujet la prochaine fois.