Jeremy and I started going to a tutor recently for French and he gave more information about apartment shopping in France.
          First off, which I had my suspicions about but he confirmed, France is like the UK in where the 1st floor is actually the 2nd floor. While in America we say 1st floor, 2nd floor, etc., the French call the 1st floor the ground floor, the 2nd floor the 1st floor, and so on. So if you're checking into a hotel and you're on say the 5th floor, it's actually the 6th. In apartment ads, floors are characterized by T# or F#. For example, if an ad says T4 or F4, that means you're on the 4th floor (5th floor for us Americans). Also of note, if a building has 4 or more floors, it is required to have an elevator. Anything with less than that is not required to have one, so be careful while shopping.
          Another thing I kept coming across that was a little confusing was how many rooms an apartment has. For example, I would come across an ad for an apartment with 4 rooms but upon reading the ad I would find it had 7. They don't count the kitchen, bathrooms, or restrooms (I will explain the difference further on) as rooms. So even though it had a kitchen, bathroom, restroom, living room, 2 bedrooms, and one office/small bedroom, it was only listed as a 4 room apartment.
          Onto restrooms versus bathrooms. Restrooms have a sink and possibly a toilet, but no tub or shower. Bathrooms have a shower or tub, usually a sink, and either may or may not have a toilet. Toilets tend to have their own little closed off room inside or besides the restroom or bathroom. Restrooms are abbreviated as les W.C. in ads (leh doo-blah-vay-say) but when speaking of them, you typically say les toilettes (leh twah-let) and bathrooms are abbreviated as SDB, short for la salle-de-bains (lah sahl-duh-bahn).
          A lot of apartments come with cellar space. This is basically equivalent to renting out the smallest space of a storage unit in America but with lower ceilings. It's also typically difficult to get to (stooping and a flight of stairs are typically involved) so it can't be used to store larger items because it would just be impossible to carry those things down there. This includes motorcycles or bicycles.
          Another thing you might see on an ad is vis-à-vis or sans vis-à-vis. Vis-à-vis (veez-ah-veez) means your view from your windows is poor. Typically, you're facing another apartment or building, sometimes close enough you could probably play catch with your neighbor. Sans vis-à-vis means you have a scenic view. While ads typically tend to leave out if it has a poor view, don't assume just because it doesn't say sans vis-à-vis that it will have a poor view because I have found plenty that have gorgeous views but for some reason the Realtor or whoever didn't up-play it.
          The hardest thing I found to differentiate was yard types. Everyone seems to have their own definition. There are cour intérieures (koor in-tair-ee-uhr), espaces vert (eh-spahs vair), and parcs. Cour intérieure is when the apartment building(s) encompass a large area for parking. You will drive through an archway into the center of the apartment building(s) to park. It's typically cement and gravel with no yard. Espace vert has a wide range of definition but is mostly used for small patches of communal yard. Kind of like here in America where there is a strip of grass in front of apartments of between two apartment buildings. It's not huge, maybe there's one tiny tree or something, you can't do anything with it, but at least your dog has a spot to squat. However, I have seen larger areas still defined as espaces vert. Then there's parcs. A parc is a large area of grass. There are trees or shrubs and enough room to play fetch with your dog.
          So let's take all this and give an example to translate. This is an actual ad from leboncoin.fr:
Type de bien :Appartement
Pièces :3
Référence : T3
Description :
Bel appartement de 73m² dans immeuble récent, comprenant un grand séjour lumineux donnant sur balcon de 10m² sans vis à vis, cuisine séparé non équipée, 2 chambres, sdb, wc indépendant, un parking privatif, espaces vert communs.
          This would translate to:
Property Type: Apartment
Rooms: 3
Reference: Floor 3
Description:
Beautiful apartment, 73 meters squared in modern building, comprised of a large, bright living room with a balcony of 10 meters squared with a good view, non-equipped seperate kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathroom, seperate restroom, private parking, and a communal green space.
          I hope this helps people in the future, as it was quite a headache for me and I still would have had questions if the tutor hadn't helped me out. Thanks for reading and, as always, feel free to comment! Don't forget to do your amazon shopping through our link on the Support Us page!

          The Realtor in Besançon got back to us. Apparently all the things we're asking for in an apartment is not very "doable" in center city. We want an apartment that is at least 70 square meters (753 square feet) but preferably 80 or more with an elevator, fully-equipped kitchen, washer and dryer, 2+ bedrooms, parking, and a green space for the dog. "Bonuses" would be a balcony, cellar, community garden, and ample closet space.
          We wanted center city because the taxes are cheaper, but according to the Realtor green space, elevators, and balconies are rare. Unfortunately, my dog can't climb steps and I'm not carrying a 37 lb dog up and down who knows how many flights of stairs who knows how many times a day, and she won't go to the bathroom on concrete, so an elevator and green area are definite requirements. We'll have to talk to her again and make sure we're on the same page about what a "green area" consists of. I'm not expecting a park or huge area for her to run around in, I just want her to have enough grass to happily do her business in.
          Unlike American apartments that come with a fridge, dishwasher,stove, and oven, most apartments in France come without these appliances. Even a fully-equipped kitchen, or fitted kitchen as they call it, doesn't come with a refrigerator or dishwasher. It seems "fully-equipped" loosely means hob, oven, hood, and sink. Also, while apartments can come with the set-up for a washer and dryer, the appliances themselves are not included. These are all extra expenditures we were not counting on, as in our experience, apartments always came with all major appliances.
          The size we're asking for is a little problematic as well. Apartments are ridiculously tiny over there, with apartments as small as 25 sq. meters (270 sq. ft.) being the norm for a single person. There are some, but we won't have our pick of the litter like here in America where I don't think I've ever seen an apartment smaller than 650 sq. ft. outside of a major city like Philadelphia or New York. Our old apartment was 870 sq. ft. and now we live in a house so we are not willing to adapt to the French norm in this circumstance.
          You may be asking why we're not looking into purchasing a house. After all, we'll be there for at least three years, right? The reason we're not looking into buying a house in France is simple. You know how in America you usually put around 10-15% down on a house and mortgage the rest? Yeah well in France you're expected to put at least 80% down. Holy smokes! No wonder why every one rents there! I mean, houses are cheaper there than here, but that's still a whole heck of a lot of money! As for renting a house, that's a pretty expensive option as well and out of our budget.
          Our trip to France to look at apartments will be the first or second week of November. Hopefully we'll have some things figured out by then! Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to comment!

          I figured while I was home I should practice my French cooking. Besançon is the capitol of the Franche-Comté region, famous for their comte cheese (duh) and hearty meals. Their main meats tend to be pork, veal, and whole chicken, with beef saved mostly for stews or bourguignon. Their main sides seem to be green beans, potatoes, eggplant, and zucchini. They also use garlic generously and even have a garlic soup, which is fantastic news for me considering I LOVE garlic.
          As I went to experiment and decide which recipe to try first, I noticed that almost all the recipes call for at least one type of wine, boiled down a reduced. This is really expensive to do in America, so unfortunately I can’t practice as much as I thought!
          I settled with Pork Chop “Maman Blanc” by chef Raymond Blanc and added green beans. You can find the recipe here but beware: it is in metric.
          I got 2 pork chops on the bone, about 1” thick, and seasoned them with salt and pepper. Put a saucepan on medium heat and add 1 ½ tbsp butter. Let it foam without burning. Turn the heat to medium high and put in your pork chops. The recipe said let each side cook for 4 minutes for medium but mine turned out well. Transfer the chops to a warm plate while you make your sauce out of the remaining juice. Open a window or five, because this part gets smoky. Pour 3 ½ fl. oz. (a little less than half a cup) of cold water into the pan. Open another window. Scrape the caramelized residue from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon while it reduces to a thicker sauce. Disable your fire alarm if it's sensitive. This isn’t going to be a full, thick gravy so don’t wait forever. I probably waited about 1 ½ minutes. The pork chop is also supposed to be served with Dijon mustard but I didn’t have any and didn’t want to buy a jar for one recipe.
          The sautéed potatoes and persillade were started before the pork chops. I cubed the potatoes at about 1” thick, next time I will go smaller (should have followed the recipe and did ½”!) because they took a while to cook. I blanched, then sautéed the potatoes in extra virgin olive oil on high heat. The recipe called for rapeseed oil but I didn’t know what that was so I assumed it was expensive and didn’t bother looking for it. Turns out it’s canola oil! In North America they changed the name because of the negative connotation. The persillade was ½ shallot and a garlic clove, both diced. I omitted the parsley because one, I don’t like too much herb and two, my grocery store has a pretty horrible selection of fresh herbs. Once the potatoes were about done, I lowered the heat and added the persillade, 1 ½ tbsp butter, and seasoned to taste and let it all mingle for a bit before I deemed it done. I probably used more salt and pepper than the recipe suggested.
          For the green beans I used ½ lb of green beans, 3 oz. of water, 2 garlic cloves chopped, 1 ⅔ tbsp butter, and salt and pepper to taste. I threw it all in a saucepan, brought it to boil, covered it, and cooked it until tender which was about 4 minutes.
          Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take a picture, but below is the picture from the recipe page. I'll make sure to take some from now on!

Review: I don’t eat meat, but Jeremy gave the pork chops an A+. I found the shallots added a more mild taste to the potatoes. Americans typically sauté their potatoes with onion and garlic so the shallots made me feel almost like it needed something more, but Jeremy liked the potatoes a lot. The green beans were my favorite but Jeremy’s least favorite. It’s not to say they were bad, but it’s how I always cook them so he is just used to them while the other foods were more of a rarity. All in all, it was a good meal. I had never cooked pork chops before and I can’t believe how easy it was. I’ll have to do it more often.

Thanks for reading and as always, feel free to comment or ask a question!

          Well, it turns out shipping only covers "household goods" and cars and motorcycles (we were also going to bring Jeremy's Ninja 250) don't count as household goods. It's understandable but definitely a bummer. It's just not worth it to bring them if we have to pay shipping ourselves.
          Looks like I'll have to learn how to drive stick shift after all!

          I apologize for lack of posts, but until we move I'll just be posting information as I come across it. To bring the car or not is the question of the day. To bring your vehicle over, you have to pay 19.6% of it's value as a form of tax. That's almost as much money as we would spend to buy a junker car while we're there, plus still pay the monthly payment.
          While gas is slightly more expensive than diesel at €5.60 vs. €4.88, my car gets 50 mpg while the average over there is 21.5 mpg so while my car takes gas, it is actually cheaper. This site seems to be pretty on-key with prices, so check it out before you travel for gas and diesel prices.
          If we were to buy a car once we're there, we would not want to spend more than €2500 which would get us a junker with at least 130,000 km on it (80,770 miles). Who knows if we would wind up with something that needs constant repairs or breaks down in a year.

Taking the Prius:

• €2,211.38 in fees
  
• €5.60 gal/50 mpg is €0.11/mile
  
• If we drive 10 mi/day that's €7.70 a week
  
• €193.09/mo in car payments
  
• The first year would be €4897.38
  
• The second and third years would be €2686/yr
  
• That's €10,269.38 in total
  
• A possible fee for bringing it back to the US is unknown
  

Buying a Car in France:

• €2,500 to buy
  
• €4.88 gal/21.5 mpg is €0.23/mile
  
• If we drive 10 mi/day that's €16.10/week
  
• No car payments
  
• The first year would be €3272.80
  
• Following years would be €772.80
  
• That's €4818.40 in total
  

          Buying a car once in France would cost substantially less but maintenance cost is unknown whereas we can feel more confident the Prius is much less likely to need repairs. An added plus of bringing the Prius is that we'll also bring it back with us at the end of the three years, so we'll have a car when we come home instead of having to purchase one. We would probably put at least $3000 (€2317.14) down for a new car once we came home, so technically we could add €2317.14 to the total, bringing it to €7135.54.
          So basically this comes down to if €3133.84 is worth the security of having the Prius versus the unknown quality and maintenance required of a car bought in France. I'm usually the kind of person who likes security over risk and if I were working in France as well, I'd bring the Prius in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I will not be working and money will be extremely tight, making me lean more towards buying a junker while there and taking the risk. It's a lot to think about, and a decision not to be made in one day, so I guess I'll sleep on it.

          I got very little sleep last night. My allergies were so bad I was on the verge of throwing up, my eyes felt like they were going to burst, and my whole face felt like it was on fire. It made me wonder what pollen levels are like in France as compared to southern New Jersey.
          Depending on what you define as a city, there are between 19,000 and 30,000 of them throughout America. According to AAFA (Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America), Philadelphia is ranked 22 in hardest places to live with allergies. Good job Philly, keep it up.
          I am pleased to announce my research shows Besançon will be considerably less allergy-inducing than south Jersey. While south Jersey doesn’t go far below “moderate” at any given time, it seems Besançon is typically “very low” to “low” all year round with the exception of April. My fall allergies are far worse than my spring allergies so this doesn’t concern me too much.
          Now I’m more excited than ever to move to France! A night without searing pain at all sinus points of my head?! Sign me up!

          Recently, we tried calling around to get estimates for shipping our stuff to France. Jeremy's company is paying for it and gave us an awesome limit of 162 lbs each for the flight itself and then another 12,000 lbs to be shipped over via cargo ship. Well, no one will give us estimates unless we tell them what we're shipping but we don't know what we're shipping until we know the measurements of our apartment. It's a catch-22. Why would we bring our piano if it won't fit, or three bedroom sets if we only wind up with two bedrooms?
          Jeremy's company is also willing to bring us to France for a week long visit to try and find an apartment before we move, which is very generous, but with Jeremy's crazy work schedule it's almost impossible! This week and next week he's in Washington D.C., and then in October and November he'll be in Toronto for a week each trip as well. With no dates decided for the Toronto trips, we can't pick a date for the France trip.
           Meanwhile, the French side of the company is asking for the estimates, I suppose so they can prepare monetarily-wise on their end. We're probably just going to end up telling the shipping companies a bunch of stuff we won't even bring with us just so we can get an estimate and then revise it later after the apartment is picked out. Now if only the Realtor would get back to us...

          While this is the week of waiting, it's also the week of doctors. I have a whole bunch lined up. I want to get everything imaginable done before I go to France. Don't get me wrong, we're gonna have awesome health insurance over there, I would just prefer to speak with doctors who fluently speak my own language! I can't imagine what it's going to be like over there trying to speak broken French when something ails me.
          Speaking of health insurance, you don't need to be married to be under your significant other's plan. We have to sign a document stating we're sincere to one another, but that's it. This is a huge relief considering I won't be able to work while I'm there.
          That's right, while all we need is a paper stating we're sincere to one another to be under Jer's health insurance, we need to be married for me to work. This was a huge blow because they originally told us that after 6 months, I would be able to work. Turns out there was a misunderstanding and they had thought we were married which is why they told us that. Since we're not married, I will be going under a "long term visitor" visa, in which I am not allowed to work. I could try to find a job once I'm there that's willing to get a work visa for me, but France is very strict about hiring outside of their country. The company needs to prove that no French person could do the job that they would be hiring me to do. If I had the other visa, this could have all been bypassed.
          Considering I'm a veterinary technician with no other schooling, the chances are very slim. The government has a teacher's assistant program but you have to take a test proving you can speak intermediate French and you can't teach for two consecutive years. That means that, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to work for 7 months out of the whole 3 years we'll be there, as each year's program only goes from October to April. The application for the 2015-2016 year is due this January and I doubt I'll be able to pass the test by then which means I won't be working until October of 2016. If I'm lucky.
          We're going to be scraping by, that's for sure, so please support us! Under the Support Us page in the upper right-hand corner of this blog, there is a link to shop Amazon. There is no extra fee for you but we would get a small commission (very small but hey, every penny counts). Please try to think of us and use our link every time you need to shop Amazon.
          Thanks for reading and, as always, feel free to comment!

          I feel like this is the "week of waiting". Except it's taking way more than a week. Jeremy applied for this position in early June and here we are, finally getting our official move date (December 1st). Now we're waiting. Waiting for the estimate for our pets' vet visits (shots, microchips, health certificate) to be approved, waiting for the Realtor to get back to us, waiting to find out when we can visit to look at apartments. Waiting, waiting, waiting.
          I have to admit, they're taking very good care of us. They're paying for the Realtor and the week long visit to France, as well as shipping our items and bringing the pets over, it's just taking so dang long!
          A note for those who have never had a passport: the rules have changed, at least in NJ. You have to have the "long form birth certificate" in order to apply for a passport. My birth certificate was just the generic "name, date, time, place of birth" which is apparently not good enough anymore. The long form birth certificate has all of that, plus your parents names and information, the doctor who delivered you, all kinds of stuff.
          I ordered my birth certificate online here (NJ residents only). You need to attach an image of your driver's license, both front and back. If you want your birth certificate mailed to an address other than the one on your license, you just have to attach a scan of a dated, signed piece of paper stating you want it sent to a different address and give the address. I just used a blank piece of printer paper and it was good enough for them. I was really nervous that my scanned images wouldn't be approved because my scanner does this weird thing were it cuts off the border of the image all the way around, so my license had the border and some of the bar-code cut out, and my "change of address" paper had about half a letter from each side of the paragraph cut out. I was quoted 4-6 weeks and it came in exactly 8 weeks.
          So then with my new birth certificate and social security card in hand, I filed for my passport. They took my picture, kept one copy and gave me the other, and promptly charged me $11 for two stinkin' 2x2" pictures. You should bring extra passport size photos with you so I need to find someplace that will do it for cheaper than that. They also take your birth certificate with the passport form so if you need your birth certificate for something else, keep in mind you won't have it for a while. I got my passport in 4 weeks and my birth certificate back in 6 weeks. Luckily, the woman at the office had warned me I may not receive them at the same time or I would have been freaking out!
          While I wait, I may as well do something productive and go through more boxes. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment with any thoughts or questions!

           We have a dog and a cat, so I’ve been learning what is required to bring them. I went to this website and learned basically all I needed, but I’ll sum it up for you. Keep in mind this is for France only, if you’re going to another country, go  here and select the country you are going to.          
           Dogs and cats (and ferrets!) need a few things to make their way to France; they need a microchip, current vaccines, an official health certificate, and an airline approved crate.
           The microchip needs to be a standard ISO 11784 or an annex A ISO standard 11785 which are 15 digit microchips. If your pet already had a 9 digit microchip, you will need to purchase a scanner and bring it with you. Even as little as two years back, 15 digit microchips were not used as much in the US. It wasn’t uncommon to have to purchase your own microchip online and bring it in to your vet to insert it. However, it is becoming more common to use these universal, 15 digit microchips.
          My personal favorite is the Home Again chip, that’s what my office uses (for those of you who don’t know me, I’m a veterinary technician). We’ve never had any issues with reactions at the injection site or migrating microchips. If your vet only has 9 digit chips and you need a 15 digit chip, you can purchase one very cheap at amazon. If your pet already has a 9 digit chip, you can purchase a scanner at amazon as well. It’s possible to re-chip your pet with a 15 digit when it already has a 9 digit. It’s much cheaper than buying the scanner, but there can be complications if a universal scanner is used. The original chip will not be taken out of your pet, but the new chip will be placed in about the same area. Since a universal scanner picks up all frequencies of chips, 9 digit or 15, an error in the reader can occur. This can cause problems at the airport and problems if your pet ever gets lost, so please purchase the scanner versus re-chipping your pet.
          Your pet also needs to be current on vaccines, specifically rabies. Something very important to mention is that the vaccines will not be considered current if your pet was vaccinated before getting microchipped. Vaccines have to be given after  microchipping occurs (or at the same time according to a representative of the USDA I spoke to). Vaccines also have to be given at least 21 days prior to leaving the country. This stinks for me and my dog, Kisa. She was vaccinated in January, which covers her for three years, but she isn’t microchipped so she will have to receive another rabies vaccination before we go. Poor pup!
          There is also an official health certificate that needs to be filled out by a certified veterinarian within 10 days of leaving the country and then signed by a USDA agent. You can find your state’s agent contact information here. I would also print out the copy of the certificate with explanatory notes in case your veterinarian doesn’t feel like looking up what something is or means. That way the explanation is right there (it happens)! Also, it wasn’t listed on the site but I’ve read in forums that the certificate should be filled out in blue ink only. This is allegedly the “official ink color” used for French documentation and could be turned down if in black ink. Don’t worry too much though, because in the same forums everyone agreed that no one at the airports paid much attention to the certificate anyway!
          Lastly, there’s the air port carriers. While there are minimum requirements, each airline can request more so check with your airline before buying.
          Thanks for reading and don't forget to comment if you have any questions or just want to add your two cents!