Last weekend marked my 7-year Paris-versary (pronounced Pareeversary, in case you were wondering). Seven whole years as a parisienne; seven whole years since I made my teenage pipe dream of living in France a reality. Seven years of grappling with the trials and tribulations of expat life and language barriers and bloody french bureaucracy. Seven... Continue Reading →
It’s just gone 8am and I’m speeding towards the Channel Tunnel at 221 km/h. I have a whole carriage of the Eurostar to myself - talk about social distancing. The journey marks the end of a two-week trip back to England, the most time I’ve spent in my native country since I emigrated to France... Continue Reading →
Search Google for anything remotely related to repatriating in France and you will find a wealth of accounts whining about testifying to the nightmarish near-impossibility of navigating french administration/bureaucracy. In my mission to prepare myself as fully as possible for my new life, I read many (oh, so many) of these myself before I moved... Continue Reading →
It’s May! Which means warmer days, greener trees, almost everyone in my phonebook’s birthday, and, if you live in France, annual tax declarations. Hurray! French forms! It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve been worrying about filing my tax declaration since I got here, 7 months ago. Actually, it’s a slight understatement, as I did my... Continue Reading →
Now, if you’ve read my earliest posts, I realise that it looks like I have completely abandoned the saga of my Quest For An Apartment and you would be forgiven for reaching that conclusion. Aha! Fooled you. Despite a two-and-a-bit-month-long digression, I have returned to my narrative to enlighten you further on the joys of... Continue Reading →
Today is a good day. Not only is it Friday, and a sunny Friday at that; today also marks four months since I started my job in Paris. This doesn’t sound like much of a milestone, I realise – but the significance of this four-month-anniversary is that it marks THE END OF JOB PROBATION. That’s... Continue Reading →
And so we return once more to the saga of my arrival à Paris, one Airbnb and two hotels down, and three Airbnbs - and five weeks - to go. Good grief, I feel worn out just thinking about it again. I had enjoyed something of a respite after the 'Experience' that was hotel no.... Continue Reading →
I’ve digressed a little in my last few posts, but as promised, I am returning to my ‘arrival narrative’ – I’d hate to leave you hanging! Relieved and somewhat sleep-deprived, I left Airbnb No. 1 on the Sunday morning and began the veritable trek across Paris to the hotel I’d booked for two nights –... Continue Reading →
In a previous post, I hinted that, despite securing a French job and bank account before arriving in Paris, finding lodgings was not exactly a walk in the park. Far from it. In fact, it took seven weeks, four Airbnbs, two hotels and what felt like approximately 4,726 viewings to find an apartment that I... Continue Reading →
Following on from my previous post, I have a confession: this is not the first year in which I have resolved to start a blog. Actually, it’s more like the fourth or fifth – but who’s counting? The problem has always been that I am a notorious procrastinator I didn’t actually have anything to write... Continue Reading →
Adventures of an Anglaise 