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I'm Moving to France. Here's Why.
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- Опубликовано: 5 янв 2024
- My family and I have chosen to move to Nantes, France - a city focused on equitable mobility, proximity to daily essentials, and solidarity. Let me tell you why we feel like moving to France is the right choice and what it means to leave a place that we know so well.
#france #urbanism #cities
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I moved to France after spending my whole life up until that point in Texas. I had visited a few times and as a cyclist both for sport and leisure, France is very good and hard to beat in the US. I'll probably never move back to the US. Life in France is for living. Life in the US is for working for money with no time to enjoy it. The food quality and effects on health is a giant factor as well. I am so much healthier in France due to the quality of the food. It tastes a lot better too.
Hi Devin, I understand this feeling. I’ve lived in Japan myself for over a year now, and to this day my family talks about “when” I return. When my friends hear this, they simply say to them not “when” the word is “if”. Since moving to Japan I’ve thought of certain things available to me that I would never have considered in America. Homeownership, a healthy body, the prospect of children. I know of course now more than ever that Japan isn’t perfect. But it would take such an energy that I don’t have to make America even half of what Japan is now. I miss Seattle too, I miss my friends who have stayed behind. But I know, as you do, that this was the right decision. Good luck to you in France sir, may you find peace.
What city in Japan do you live in?
This is why I don't take issue with Not Just Bikes saying people should give up on North America. He could have chosen his words better, but to an extent, he is right. Most places aren't going to substantially improve within a generation, so either you stick around and advocate for change, with no guarantee that it will happen, or leave to greener pastures. If you can make the move, you probably should. Personally, I like Seattle so far, but that is partly because it surpasses the exceedingly low bar of "better than Reno".
I'm hoping there's a middle ground that hasn't been explored much yet. A lot of my work in America was inspired by cities in other countries - Canada, France, Japan, Austria, etc. I would love to help make the connection between Americans, American cities, and policies or projects from elsewhere so that those things could translate to the US. Maybe that's optimistic, but optimism is one of the best American qualities, so I'll try!
as a fairly conservative leaning person with a strongly libertarian bent (that is tempered by an understanding of economics and that monopoly is the outcome of the magnificent initial and middle phases of a free market, so there is actually a role for government and that role is breaking up companies that have grown too big and are abusing market power (i.e. a significant chunk of the s&p 500)), we aren't getting anything done here because you guys have lost half the audience.
Stop talking about equity, because it's straight barf to half the population and it has an extreme observer problem where what equity is is highly subjective and depends on who is deciding what "fair" is. To half the population it just sounds like a lefty code word for promoting racism/sexism/[insert your]ism. There are good economic reasons to do most of the stuff not just bikes would consider good urbanism, abusing the equity shot caller to justify is unnecessary, counterproductive, and lazy.
The sad part is there really isn't that much that actually needs to be done to get a major benefit because the netherlands has proven most of it out already. Upzone most residential, allow more commercial, change building code a bit to get rid of problems like dual fire escapes that ruins smaller footprint mid rise economics, copy past netherland traffic design and apply to all new developement/redevelopment. a few decades later it we will just naturally be on our way to a much cheaper to run, nicer to live in, safer society.
@@barfnelson5967 Wow...I wonder how you thought that sounded as it was going through your head....
@@IronEarthDesigns I agree. I think Barf could benefit from reading Piketty (a Frenchman) on inequity.
@@barfnelson5967yes, in principle. But changing zoning will decrease the astronomical property prices. And I bet you everything that the same people advocating now for equity are the ones that instinctively understand that and are opposed to it. It has to be done through sheer force. Not very libertarian, but true
Welcome from France, and huge respect to Seattle, to all of Washington State and to all of US; hope you and your family will have a good life in my country ! I don't know Nantes really much, but I think it is a good place. Proud and happy to see Americans coming there
Welcome to Nantes ! I moved here 8 years ago after living my entire life in Mexico, and I'd be happy to stay for the upcoming years. This city has given me things way beyond anything that I or my family would've ever imagined (both the good and bad). RUclips recommended your channel to my feed, and I'm eager to follow along on your journey. If your thing is participatory urban design, walkable cities, w*r on cars, mutual aid, etc. this city has a huge history in that regard, and also a lot to give in the coming decades (again, both good and bad), there has been a huge transformation in the way the city is build and you can tell in every corner. Hope we'll cross paths someday :)
What a great video. Welcome to France! We've been here 17 months and love it. I do miss 🌮 but it's worth it for healthcare. 😅 Good luck with everything as you settle in!
You're moving to Nantes! Great choice for a place of living in France, I hope you'll find what you're looking for here. We'll be lucky to have you as an activist here as well :)
Thanks for the warm welcome! We're really excited to be joining the community. 🙂
@@devinsilvernail Nantes was great , it becames dangerous these last years
Welcome to France. We moved here 2 years ago and have never regretted it. Stayed in Nantes for three weeks and liked it but ultimately opted for Nîmes. Now that we live in Centre Ville it is a joy to be able to walk to the fresh market every day and interact with people who appear to enjoy their jobs and their lives, secure in the knowledge that they their health and their children's education will be taken care of.
fantastic and very touching!
Great decision. I wish Americans immigrating out of the country for a better quality of life was something more of us and our politicians were aware of.
Safe travels ✨
Same, same, and same! My family and I are moving this year too. See you on the flip side, friend!
I have goosebumps and tears in my eyes listening and watching this video. You deserve a million subscribers! I applaud your sense of gratitude to America, your optimism, and the fact you have a bigger vision than just yourself. Your choice of music is transformative. Beautiful storytelling, perfect sound quality, great choice of b-roll. We are filmmakers as well and we’re moving to France (our house in Denver is already sold). Hope our paths will cross some day… until then we will follow your channel.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate that. That's great! Congratulations. It feels so good to clear such a big step on the path toward living abroad and selling your house is a huge one! I hope you both enjoy France and good luck with the remainder of your time in the US. My advice is to fill it with the things and people you love, then set out on a new adventure. Wishing you a good transition and many good times in France.
@@devinsilvernail yes, that’s exactly what we are doing right now. Friendships and connection is so important especially In a world with so many people are lonely. And then, of course, there’s all that decision-making, donating, selling, packing… But we are truly blessed with lovely friends who are helping along the way. I look forward to seeing more of your informative and heartfelt videos.
As a Canadian living in a city with sprawling suburbs, this really resonated with me. I'm planning a lengthy trip to Europe in 2024 in part to experience city life that doesn't revolve around the car. I do what I can in my community to make it safer for active transportation (as if there needs to be a term for that) but at some point I could see myself trying to make the move to a city in Europe with safer streets.
It's great that you are doing what you can to help your community. Keep up that great work, but don't feel discouraged if you ever do choose to move. It's honorable to fight the good fight but we all have to help ourselves sometimes too.
This is the first time since your big Seattle video that RUclips has served up a video of yours in my home feed. And it seems it's well deserved. I'm jealous. I've lived around Seattle all my life, and I plan to move to the Netherlands for similar reasons as you for moving to France. I'll be honest, I haven't nearly researched France as much as I have the Netherlands, Germany, or Sweden. But this video prompted me to start looking into France as an option.
You can do it. I say dream big and work toward that dream. This move came after 2 years of preparation on our end. It takes a bit of effort, but we all owe it to ourselves to try. Here's hoping that you can make it to the Netherlands, but parts of France are pretty nice too. 😉
@@devinsilvernail Indeed, France has much more natural landscape than The Netherlands. From the perspective of someone from the US wanting a more walkable city to live in and raise children in, many European countries have a lot to offer. Just be careful with French cardrivers at sunday after lunch though.
@@CoenFiersti do not understand what you mean with the driver xD could you explain it to me?
@@fabianluethi03 Certainly, this is personal experience. Consider rural winding roads with a maximum speed of 80 km/h or 50 mph and limited visibility around corners. Not an issue for locals, they know every twist and turn. Sunday lunch has included a bottle of wine and mineral water. Many drivers on the road at the same time. Distances of 20-50 kilometers to get home, it's a large country... That being said, I greatly admire the French car drivers' attitude in general. No road rage at all.
Bonjour! Excellent video. Your activism resonates with me. We are retired educators from Portland. We just finished a long stay in Europe: 5 months helping a new school open in Lvivv, one month in Krakow learning about WWII, and a month in Tallinn. My focus as an educator remains on/for social justice, Socratic dialogue, engaging discourse, and access to services like healthcare, public transportation, and walking distance to markets. Merci beaucoup! Dean & Cindy
I'm right behind you. Perhaps our paths will cross.
Bienvenue en France ! La vie n'y est plus parfaite mais ce n'est pas mal quand même. Et puis Nantes est si près de la Bretagne où il y a une vraie identité avec des personnes que j'ai trouvées très accueillantes. Quand vous aurez visité la baie de Quiberon, si ce n'est déjà fait, vous serez définitivement conquis !
J'ai passe un ete a Quiberon quand j'etais plus jeune. La cote sauvage est belle.
Damn buddy this is a good video. I got here from your Seattle video and now I'm going to look at more of your past videos. Hope you will tell us what Nantes is like, as your time allows. I know you'll have a good life in France. I wish I could go but I'm too old.
I know I'm writing six months after you posted this - I actually discovered your other video about living in Nantes and found this through your channel. Just want to say as someone who lived in Canada (close to Vancouver for university and then in Montreal), I searched and searched for many years for the same thing as you - a dignified life without the need for always driving everywhere. I moved to Montreal from Vancouver and learned French to fluency so that I could have that a little bit more than what's available in the rest of the continent. And things were decent for a while. But it's never that good.
That, along with housing and healthcare being ever-present issues (even in Canada), made us leave N. America (perhaps for life) and we now have been living in Japan - a transit-loving pedestrian's paradise - since the last two years.
I'm sharing a little bit of my story and writing to you to let you know that I'm proud of you for making this choice for your family and yourself. France is great and I hope you're able to make it work there. Once our adventure with Japan draws to a close, we have decided that we want to ourselves move to France (probably Strasbourg) Hope it goes well for you guys. Cheers.
Also, just want to add - I know Americans get a lot of flack from other Americans when they leave (it's less the case in Canada since people more or less just ghost you haha) and I don't know if you need to hear this, but your story as someone who work in social organization to make people's lives better - you have done more for your society that those people who ever tell you that you have betrayed your country, or that you have chosen to cop out, or that you are a loser. I know I'm just a guy on the internet, but I really do understand where you come from and how hard it must have been to leave everything. You made the right decision and don't let those fools get you down.
Hey thanks so much for this comment. I really appreciate that and I'm glad to hear from others who've made similar choices. Some folks have indeed been negative , but 99% are people i don't know, so at least there's that. 🙂 I hope you enjoy Japan. That's where I hope we'll land in maybe a decade or so. Cheers! またね！
Aww Seattle 💓 I was there for 1.5 years and lived in building next to Seahawks stadium. Great place! Found this channel while researching moving to France as well.
As someone who also moved from the USA's pacific northwest to Europe, I absolutely agree that it's massively improved my quality of life. It's the best change you can possibly make to see true increases in your happiness and decrease in stress and anxiety.
I moved to the Netherlands next door to France, because it has the best bike infrastructure in the world, but I've heard some parts of France are pretty good in that department as well, and like you said it's definitely better than the US!
Congratulations and best of luck getting resettled, it definitely takes a while to feel at home again but it's worth it
Thanks for your encouragement. I really appreciate that. It's good to hear that another person from the PNW has made the transition over to Europe and that it has gone well! 😀
En France, c'est plus difficile de faire du vélo qu'aux Pays-Bas parce qu'en France, ça monte et ça descend beaucoup mais surtout, ça monte !⛰
I apologize if this is a personal question - I recently came back to the US after 10 years living in Japan, and though the friendliness/openness of strangers is nice, I'm reeling from shock at the urban sprawl, the need for cars to get anywhere at all, and how little people seem to congregate compared to what I'm used to. I spent several weeks in France with my French ex-partner last year, and have been looking into the idea of school or work in Europe, where I appreciated the trains and cultural centers, healthcare (ugh, I could go to the dentist for $20 in Japan), and food. May I ask if you're going on a work visa, to work with a company in France? I ask because I've been looking into the visa options quite a bit.
Best of luck with your move, I hope it gives you the freedom and mobility that you lack in the US.
Bon voyage!
Thank you!
Thanks for this video. I’m considering moving to South America for public transport, not having to buy a car every few years, health care, housing policy, environmental impact . It adds up. Recently paid a fortune for health care, and right now trying to decide whether to put another $20k on a car because I feel forced to in order to participate in society and visit friends and family, or just save and try somewhere else
Thank you Devin. I appreciate having had to opportunity to work with you. I'll miss your energy and dedication to improving housing equity in Seattle. Your move is a big loss for Seattle (and a big gain for France). The number of commenters who have already, are planning, or are considering a similar move should be a message to Seattle's so-called policy leaders.
Thanks Toby! I'm already missing working with you. It was really great to have that opportunity. Our work together was also testament to the good faith and collaboration that was already present on the Council, despite an unfortunate media narrative. Looking forward to joining you at public comment soon! :)
A lot of your story is similar to mine when I lived in the US, especially the not having a car and not having stable housing (I managed to avoid the debt part, thank gawd, but it was still rough). And then I saw an opportunity to move to South Korea for a job, with a government contract, and I took it, lived there for 5 years and it was the most stable I'd ever been in my whole adult life. Met my partner while there, who is French. I wanted to stay there but the Korean government defunded most of the program I was in so it was becoming too expensive for them to keep me on and it wasn't possible to move into a new job sector there because of the type of visa I had. So me and my partner decided to settle in France. We decided against the US for infrastructure alone, too many disadvantages. I'm not gonna lie the transition to France was much harder for me than Korea and I don't know exactly why, I haven't had many bad experiences here, I think it might've been just me, like I had way more culture shocks here than I ever did in Korea, maybe it's because I'm from California and am used to many different kinds of Asian cultures, lol, I don't know. But infrastructure where I live, just in the banlieues of Ile-de-France, is still much better than it ever would've been back in the US, I don't need a car here (though I wish my town and the ones near me were more bike friendly, they seem like they would be but they aren't), most of what I need is in walking distance, I can afford the healthcare here, I now own my home, sure it's a smallish 2 bedroom condo in a pretty big building and I have co-op fees to pay even after the mortgage is payed off, but I have a home that's mine that I'm not gonna lose. I would love to live in Nantes though, but it's not an option.
Thanks for sharing your story. That's quite an adventure. I'd love to live in Asia someday too, if possible. West Coast kid here too. The culture shock is definitely real when it comes to diversity in France. I hope the experience so far is overall a good one though. Thanks for your comment!
Thank you for an excellent video! Very informative. What are your thoughts about Expat seniors living in France? As retired educators (we helped a new school open in Lviv - Aug-Dec), we are exploring Poland (Dec-Jan), Estonia (Feb), and possibly France. Paris is beautiful and walkable. Nice too looks beautiful and welcoming. We seek a walkable, affordable, and comfortable place to call home. My wife Cindy has MS, so calm is a required component. I grew up in Los Angeles, working & driving 24/7, so the European pace is very attractive. Thank you. Dean & Cindy
Hi Dean, thanks for your comment. I'm not familiar with Poland or Estonia but I will note that Paris is nice but I'm not sure if it would meet your needs. The métro isn't accessible for all people. It's not a super calm place either. That being said, there are some nice French cities worth looking into. Strasbourg, Montpellier, Angers, and Nantes all come to mind. Very walkable, good public transportation, and more calm than Paris. You may want to check them out. 🙂
Thanks, Devin! We have much to learn. Dean & Cindy@@devinsilvernail
I'm curious about your decision on Nantes specifically? Did you tour a bunch of places? Hear about them online? Do you speak French? I'm sad that the US is behind and I'm hoping my city makes progress by the time I need it. I'm excited for you!
Thank you! I studied abroad in Paris in 2013 and have traveled all over France in the intervening years. Nowhere, even Paris, spoke to me the way that Nantes does. Luckily, I do speak French, so that has made things a bit easier, but people in Nantes have been incredibly friendly. It's also a place that isn't so far ahead of the US. My first time visiting was in 2016 and it didn't really feel like anything special, but each time I visited after, walkability, connection to nature, and solidarity between people seemed to grow more and more. So at some point, it just felt right. In some ways, it feels like a good model for American cities. Was very recently very different, but with political will, a lot has changed to make the city more equitable and accessible..🙂 I hope to dive into that a bit in future videos.
Nantes ??? hmm... It's not the place that it used to be :
@@devinsilvernail I hope you do! That sounds very interesting.
I feel this hard as a Seattle-ite who's likely moving to Norway before we have kids so our kids don't have to grow up in the US
Norway was likely complicit with the US in the destruction of the Nordstream pipeline, so you haven't escaped American imperialism.
Hope you document your integration into French Society.
I am curious: have you also checked out other cities in France that might have the same attributes you were looking for?
Luckily we have family scattered across France and I studied here when I was younger, so we had a lot of opportunities to visit other cities on vacation over the years. Paris, Rouen, St. Malo, Lyon, Angers, Montpellier, Toulouse, Strasbourg, and Lille (+ lots of smaller towns). Truthfully, I loved Lille and it has a bigger city vibe than Nantes does, but Nantes resonated with us on another level. Strasbourg, Lyon, and Toulouse are all great in their own ways too, but we found our heart always leading toward the Loire and Nantes. 🙂
@@devinsilvernail thank you for expanding on this. Toulouse and Strasbourg are on our schedule as well. I might also think about Lille now.
@@nicolavetter9071 I definitely recommend Lille. It's beautiful (Though different from a place like Toulouse) and people are really nice. The Nord Pas de Calais region is also home to one of the most well known french comedies of the last few decades: Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis. It's a fun one to watch. 🙂
@@devinsilvernail I'll check it out 🙂
What a brave move to make. I'm sure France will surprise you in many pleasant ways, air quality, variety of landscape, politeness of the people and of course cars that are about half the size you're used to.
C'est touchant émouvant..et fou ! And ..because .i looking in the French tv "Seal team" only one 6minutes advertising for a episode !.. .c'est un peu d'humour.😉
He only got a 125$ ticket for almost ending your life???? What the actual fuck like what the actual fuck
In the State of Washington, drivers are only really punished if they are intoxicated or if it's a hit-and-run (even then, punishments vary greatly). Otherwise, they're presumed to have simply made an error. Not a lot of protection built into State law unfortunately. Yeah it sucks. I couldn't walk for three months and that guy was allowed to keep driving.
Je suis en d’accord mais vous allez ou, en faite? Seattle c’est un ville, et la France c’est un pays énorme
Haha oui c'est vrai. Je vais déménager à Nantes. C'est une ville qui me parle beaucoup. Par chance, c'est une ville jumelée avec Seattle aussi.
j’aime bien Nantes!Vous avez de la chance, profitez bien!
Merci beaucoup !
What a great goodbye message to Seattle and amazing montage. Bienvenue en France alors! Nantes has a great public transport and accessibility (which isn't the case for many cities) and a boyant cultural life. Enjoy the journey.
What is your “chosen family”?
Lifelong/childhood friends and some relatives. This Wikipedia article gives a good summary of the definition of a chosen family: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_of_choice
Usually when people say this they mean their close friends
Maybe Seattle should be in the title 👏👍🏽
Assuming your spouse is French or EU citizen?
Im sorry
The population in Nantes is more than 50% less than Seattle, no wonder it's more livable.
A lot of times it can feel that way in smaller cities, but check out my video on Tokyo. I witnessed a lot of what I like about Nantes there too. Nantes is also much more dense than Seattle, so even though it is much smaller, in some places it feels much much larger. Very interesting how that happens.
A ce que l'on entend, la ville attire beaucoup de monde et elle n'est plus aussi sûre qu'avant
@@YvBernardarrêtez d’entendre des trucs et allez chercher des informations.
Well, street security in Nantes will disappoint. It's not the same as 5 years ago, already.
Make the most of the move but don't be naive about France current security situation.
ruclips.net/video/KTY_0hOoWyM/видео.htmlsi=ArthGvHnekkt27ao
Good luck, Godspeed and go 'Hawks !
“I wouldn’t go to France…because France is no longer France” -placeboing
Security in Nantes may disappoint, but your kids won't get shot in school...
That's exactly what I replied to a post above .
Nantes ??? hmm... It's not the place that it used to be :
As an immigrant to France and the spouse of an immigrant to the US, growing up with many immigrants and refugees, you're barking up the wrong tree with this comment. I'm excited to meet and build community with other immigrants in France - from all parts of the world - and just as it does anywhere, diversity makes any place better.
Go to Sweden or Denmark and see how diversity works for them ? It's an American concept that doesn't necessarily applies to Europe .@@devinsilvernail
Here is an excerpt of a comment from the Video link above
Living in Nantes for 30 years, I have been in the city center, Beaulieu and now 20km away in the "countryside". Yes, change in the space of 10/15 years is a real catastrophe. A park in Beaulieu where I went jogging, fishing... is literally invaded by black African immigration who monopolize the place, as a result, no longer a jogger, no more a fisherman, this park has become a cutthroat. Going to the city center after dark means taking risks for your health. And now even in the countryside we find ourselves with migrants hanging around without really knowing what to do, a real disaster. this city Nantes 15 years ago was voted 3rd most pleasant city in France to live in. 15 years of massive immigration and this is the result.
As someone else that lives car-free in America I sympathize with your frustration and am sorry you got hit by an SUV. No one deserves that awful ordeal and I wish they would have locked the driver up!
That being said, I still think it's rather cowardly and extremely pessimistic to just abandon your home nation simply because changes towards positive urbanism aren't happening fast enough...
If people run from problems, how can we ever address them? If you truly cared for the residents of Seattle, I am sure there are some neighborhoods there you could raise your daughter in that would allow you a comfortable enough car-free life.
Instead of just abandoning the rest of us that would like to fight improve our homeland, or don't have enough money to move, to stay in a car-centric culture that we currently have.
Things will improve in North America if we stay strong and keep building our movement, I don't care about you "cheerleading from afar", help us or just shut up. We don't need another condescending a**hole like Not Just Bikes pretending things are perfect in Western Europe.
I will stay subscribed for now to see if you have a change of heart, maybe use some of your prior experience to start a NEW non-profit that advocates for more active transportation in WA? I hope so, we could use ya on our team way more HERE.
I appreciate your optimism. I agree that we can do a lot of good here in the US and it's not doomed. It was a really difficult decision for me to leave Seattle. One that marinated over the course of several years. That said, I would like to believe I have given a good part of myself back to the place that made me who I am. I love the direct fight - that's what got me into policy work, but in a way I hope by giving space to others and helping to inspire (hopefully 😂) others, that will do some good too. In an ideal world, I hope that my next chapter will involve getting American policymakers on board with concepts from all over the place and using that shared optimism to contribute in a different way to the movement for more liveable American cities. I agree that we won't win this fight with pessimism so I really appreciate this comment. Thank you.
what is this BS ??? I had to stop my activities to stop youtube :)))) soo paranoia video
Excellent. Si eu am suduit vreun ceas
Safe streets? In Nantes? What about the drug dealers and aggressive homeless people all over the city? What about the crime rate? Nantes is ranked the 72nd most dangerous city in the world, just below Nairobi and Brasilia. Seattle is far behind in the ranking. You clearly have a biased vision because of your ideology.
You are probably using the rankings from the "Numbeo" website, which is an entirely subjective assessment from a few hundred users. Users like you who are undoubtedly fearful right-wing snowflakes. BTW, I'm from Oakland. I guess I won't be seeing you around, buddy.
Ranking comes from the "Numbero" website which is an entirely subjective assessment from a few hundred random users, most of whom are fearful, right-wing snowflakes. There are homeless and drugs in every city on earth, I'm sure this guy can deal with Nantes. Btw, I'm from Oakland, but I guess I won't see you around any time soon, buddy.
2:21 change "american drivers" to "americans"