Written By: Paul Bonjour! It’s been a while since our last Expat Life post here on Unlocking France. Instead of back-dating a bunch of monthly posts to get you caught up, we thought it best if we just did one post to update you – covering from the end of 2022 to now, July 2023. So this post covers a…
Written by: Paul Fresh croissants, regular trips to Paris and three hundred days of sunshine – these were some of the things we envisioned when we boarded the plane from Toronto to Montpellier exactly one year ago today. We were anxious but excited – after selling everything we owned and leaving our home country behind, moving to France was a…
Written by: Paul Our first August in Montpellier was spent close to home. We were scheduled to travel and also have a full house of visitors in September, so we decided to lay low and just enjoy the hot, lazy days of summer in our medium-sized city near the Meditteranean. Montpellier Each month I do a quick write-up on our…
It’s always nice when you have high expectations for a city you’ve always wanted to visit and those expectations are met – or in the case of Arles – exceeded. As Van Gogh nerds and lovers of quaint little history-soaked French towns, Arles was always on our radar. We finally made it there in July, seven months into our French…
Written By: Paul Our sixth month in France was all about one place – PARIS!! We spent most of the month living in Montmartre, a block from Sacré Coeur. Taking Paris for a “test run” as a possible future home was a brilliant experience, one that informed us about some of the highs and lows of living in the City…
Written By: Paul In our previous Expat Life posts we covered two months at a time, but we’ve decided to switch to a monthly posting schedule as two months at a time is simply too much to pack into one post! So Expat Life 4 will focus on our experiences in May, our fifth month in France. May was a…
Written By: Paul Everyone loves Barcelona. I mean everyone. When I told my family and friends we were heading to Barcelona for a four day road trip we got an avalanche of superlatives thrown our way, and since it was a place that we’ve all wanted to visit for many years, the bar was set high. When I say “we”…
Written By: Paul We’ve been in Montpellier for four months now. It’s flown by, and yet it feels like a lifetime ago Angela and I were cursing the snow and ice in Canada (an annual tradition undertaken by all Canadians except cross-country skiers and snowplow drivers). Today, a Thursday in late April, it’s 23 degrees and sunny, a perfect day…
Written By: Paul Sète is the kind of place that is made for day trips. It’s an easy eighteen minute train ride from Montpellier, making it extremely accessible, and it’s a festive, impossibly picturesque place ripe for exploring on foot. We had wanted to visit this gorgeous Mediterranean port city from the day we arrived three months ago, so we…
Written By: Paul Moving to a new country is both exciting and scary. On the one hand, there’s the potential for adventure, new beginnings, and in the case of Montpellier, a huge upgrade in winter weather. On the other hand, there’s a possibility it can all go sideways. Expats deal with mountains of paperwork, bureaucracy, financial challenges, and language barriers.…
