With the official date of moving to France becoming finalized, I have decided to start a blog detailing my adventures. I, along with my fiancé, are going into this pretty blind. Until a few months ago, we had no knowledge at all on expatriation (living outside one’s own county) or the country we would be moving to! It is very hard to find current information, so I wanted to create something for expats in the future, as well as something for family and friends to read so I could feel connected with them while living in another country.
Here’s some background information on us. My name is Stefanie and my fiancé’s name is Jeremy. We live in Stratford, New Jersey (30 minutes from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and will be moving to Besançon, France. Besançon is the capitol of the Franché-Comte region of France. It is located in eastern France, about a 1 hour 30 minute train ride from Switzerland, 2 hours from Italy, 3 hours from Germany, and 3 ½ hours from Paris. Jeremy works for the US branch of a French company whose headquarters is in Besançon. A job opened up in the French branch where fluent English was a necessary requirement, he applied, and here we are today.
This is the first time his company has brought someone from the US over to France, so they are pretty inexperienced as well. We are doing just as much research as them about visas, bringing pets over, shipping items, and so forth, hopefully making this blog an invaluable tool for future expats.
Did I mention neither of us speak French? This is going to be fun!
Here’s some background information on us. My name is Stefanie and my fiancé’s name is Jeremy. We live in Stratford, New Jersey (30 minutes from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and will be moving to Besançon, France. Besançon is the capitol of the Franché-Comte region of France. It is located in eastern France, about a 1 hour 30 minute train ride from Switzerland, 2 hours from Italy, 3 hours from Germany, and 3 ½ hours from Paris. Jeremy works for the US branch of a French company whose headquarters is in Besançon. A job opened up in the French branch where fluent English was a necessary requirement, he applied, and here we are today.
This is the first time his company has brought someone from the US over to France, so they are pretty inexperienced as well. We are doing just as much research as them about visas, bringing pets over, shipping items, and so forth, hopefully making this blog an invaluable tool for future expats.
Did I mention neither of us speak French? This is going to be fun!