So Becky and I saw Sicko last night and it makes us (seriously) want to move to France. Our lack of EU citizenship, of course, makes this rather tricky.
A little digging around the Internets turned up this, which is hopeful:
A letter addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the press outlet designating the journalist as a permanent correspondent and specifying his duties and his salary. A minimum of €1,000 per month is required. The applicant must also provide proof of salary (pay slip, bank statement…)
I’m hoping that this means I could finagle something as a freelancer.
Of course, John Borland pulled this trick off when he moved to Berlin. Berlin is advantageous because it’s cheaper and seems to be easier to settle there.
France, on the other hand, is where I have family, where I already speak the language, and where I’m most familiar with. And plus, dude, it’s FRANCE!
There’s also this really awesome-looking language program for “Assistants d’Anglais“, and another helpful site here.
And here, here, and here are blogs of people about to start this program in various locales around the country. Booya!
Update: Here‘s the mother lode of information about this program, blow-by-blow.
More as this story develops.
I fully support this decision so long as you invest in a comfy couch and don’t mind month-long visits by relatively new friends.
Bien sur!
Dude.
Hey, like everyone I know and their moms did that Assistants d’anglais program.
You’re really gonna move to France? Because of Sicko? I haven’t seen it yet. Maybe I shouldn’t. It might scare me off.
I mean, I look forward to visiting. I suppose France and San Francisco are about equally accessible from where I am now. Tounkara would have to get a visa. Probably not very difficult with a Green Card.
I’m going to send you some e-mail addresses.
It’s one of many ideas that Becky and I have for how to spend our 2008-2009 year, after my book is done and her degree is finished.