Expat Life – Canada to France

For years Angela and I wanted to move to France. This month that dream came true. 

Roughly six months ago we decided that we would make the move. This was a concrete decision – not theoretical, like “one day we’re moving to France”. No, this was a decision made, a plan to change our lives and realize a life goal for both of us. After more than a year of watching Covid-19 rip lives apart, we realized that life is short, nothing is guaranteed, and if you want to do something in life you have to act on it. 

So we did. We made some pretty massive sacrifices, and left some amazing people behind…and we’ll get to all that in the blog. But for now, this is the story of our journey as we begin to unlock France and start our new lives in Montpellier – thanks for joining us!

New Year, New Life

We chose December 31st – New Year’s Eve – as our date to leave Canada and start over in France. As our plane was leaving in the evening, we were somewhere over the Atlantic when the clock struck 12, so that meant we ended the year in Canada and landed in France on the morning of January 1st. At some point near midnight the Air France staff brought around champagne and we had a subdued clinking of the glasses. Due to Covid the celebrations were muted thanks to the masks, but it was still a nice touch. Cue the grainy low-light cell phone pic…

People asked us why we wanted to make the move. Even the guy driving us on the airport shuttle from the Toronto Westin to Pearson International said, “what, you don’t like Canada no more? You got a problem with Canada?” No, random driver guy, we don’t have a problem with Canada. We adore Canada, but sometimes you need to follow your feet to a place that inspires you.

The answer to why we embarked on this adventure, really, is multi-faceted – but it basically boiled down to 5 key things:

1. Angela LOVES France! We both do, but she REALLY does. She dreams about it at night and has since she was a wee Nova Scotian lass, so that’s the kind of inspiration that sticks with you. She loves speaking French, eating French food, and basking in French culture, so we figured that by spending time in France there was a better than average chance she would get to do those things.
2. We both really enjoy international travel and exploring new places. Moving to Europe and soaking up all that France (and neighbouring countries) has to offer has always been a really exciting idea for both of us.
3. Canadian winters suck. As I write this it’s -25 degrees Celcius in the Toronto area and our friends and family are being hammered with the third snowstorm in a week. Here in Montpellier it was 18 degrees today and sunny. Enough said.
4. I have a passport from the Netherlands. As a citizen of the EU it makes a move to Europe so much easier than it would if we had to apply for visas and other paperwork. This is a huge plus (to say the least), one that we knew we wanted to take advantage of at some point in our lives.
5. Over the past few years we’ve recognized that life is short and there are no guarantees – we didn’t want to have regrets. Making this move gave us the opportunity to go after something meaningful to both of us.

Arriving in France

We landed in Paris at Charles de Gaulle around 8 am. The flight on Air France had been a good one and customs had been amazingly efficient, especially considering all the Covid protocols involved with travel these days. We had a long layover (made longer by a delay), but we were happy to be off our feet, so we relaxed in the Air France lounge where they took good care of us. After stuffing our faces with delicious Air France freebies we got on our short flight to Montpellier in the afternoon and made our first voyage to the south of France.

As we were about to land we saw a massive wall of fog that settled in over the region. It went for miles and was the thickest fog either of us had ever seen.

It was all very nice as the plane was about to touch down…that was until the pilot jerked on the yolk, pulling us abruptly back into the sky. We had come too close for comfort to another plane making its descent…apparently it’s hard to see other objects in the fog. Go figure. Pulses racing, we looked at each other, thankful that we hadn’t died before we got to have our first pain au chocolat. That truly would have been a crime.

Twenty minutes later the pilot tried again and succeeded to put the plane down without incident. We were finally in the south, in Montpellier, a city we had researched well beyond the scope of normal internet digging. Our new home for the foreseeable future. Tired but excited, we got off the plane, went through the traditional waiting and bag-collecting ritual and then headed outside to find a cab. The weather to us was nice for New Year’s Day, about 9 degrees and a light breeze. Everyone around us was dressed like they were camping at the north pole.

No cabs. We were late to meet Lulu, a lovely woman who was managing our apartment rental and assisting us with a few other things. We texted her and she very nicely agreed to come pick us up as the airport was only ten minutes away. We looked excitedy out the window as we drove in to the Antigone neighbourhood of the city, in the heart of Montpellier. It was dark so we couldn’t see much. Even so, to finally see our new city after the years of planning and research gave us both an adrenaline rush.

Lulu ushered us into our new apartment, a very nice two-bedroom unit on the top floor of a very unique building in the Antigone area of Montpellier’s downtown. After Lulu gave us the tour she left us on our own to unpack and crash. It had been a very long day and a half of travel.

The next day we got up and couldn’t wait to explore our new city, have a pain au chocolat, and try out the French we had been practicing on actual French people. We walked everywhere, each of us logging almost 20,000 steps on our trusty fitbits.

This is a gorgeous city, and we enjoyed taking it all in, beginning in our home neighbourhood of Antigone. The buildings here are built in a classical Greek style and there are statues and water features everywhere.

We walked and wandered, coming across this building that has a fantastic mural on the side of it of a…well, building. Sounds like the artist was lacking imagination, but honestly the mural delivers far more cool factor than if I was trying to paint a building on a building to try to make it look like a different building.

We went on to hit the Place de la Comédie, Polygone shopping centre, Arc de Triomphe, Promenade du Peyrou…we wanted to see it all and really dive into our new environment.

As we explored we were happy to see the trams that we had heard so much about (Montpellier has an excellent tram system) zipping all over town.

There were a few remnants of Christmas left, and the displays would be up for one more day at the Place de la Comédie…

…as well as at the Promenade du Peyrou, so we enjoyed strolling through and checking things out. It looks colder than it was, thanks to the fake snow and Christmas decorations. It was about 10 degrees out.

It was a cloudy day, the kind of day that I love when it comes to creating dramatic photos. I thought there might be many days like this but I soon learned that “sunny and perfect” is more the mantra for Montpellier, so this phenomenon – at least for us in our time here thus far – would be a rare one. I took advantage of the moment to snap my first pic of the monument at the Promenade du Peyrou.

We made our way back home, passing through the Arc de Triomphe, a smaller version than the famous one in Paris but still impressive.

Our first day in our new home gave us a sense of Montpellier, and confirmed that we had chosen a beautiful, interesting city. After years of planning, it felt surreal to finally be here. Hearts full, we started putting our new apartment together and planning for adventures to come.

Thanks for reading! Please comment or leave questions below – cheers!