Hello, your story, style, content and videos are so interesting to me. I look forward to following your adventure in France. Greetings and best wishes to you from Southern California. We enjoy visiting France every time to visit (and I would enjoy living there). My wife is working very hard to learn French and we hope to come for longer stays to France for her to enroll in French language school. Cheers.
Hello Karen, I think everything we're confronted with in life is a 'process,' and best dealt with through awareness and patience. From what you've shared, I think you're doing a great job adjusting to your new life in France. Assimilating into a new culture, particularly as an adult, will probably take more time than you'd like. Sounds like you're being too hard on yourself. Curious if you've studied France's history? It may help when getting to know and understand the French people and their culture better.
So beautifully said, thank you for these thoughts. As to French culture, yes, I'm very lucky. Not only did I get to do the OFII resident training which involves quite a bit of history, I also have the world's best French husband who is so passionate about French history and culture and he is teaching me so much, and I'm starting a university course this September. It really is fascinating! Encore merci ! :-)
It seems to be extremely difficult to make close friends with French people unless you have known them all your life. Private life remains private. Relationships that develop between other nationalities through work or leisure activities develop much less rapidly with French people. Formality and politesse often remain between people who have known each other for decades, in my experience. (Not that being polite is wrong).
This is what I've heard too, but I'm going slow and we'll see. I've found a few very sweet and lovely people and I'm working on it :-) Thank you for taking the time to write such a great comment!
I felt the same way about a show! I went to see Spamalot, and I loved Monty Python. I got a lot of the references from the film, but they inserted a lot of cultural references that I absolutely did not understand. At other times, the music or other sounds made it difficult to understand what they were saying... It was a very isolating experience. That said, being uncomfortable isn't necessarily a bad thing. We are doing something really cool - pushing our limits, learning, changing, adapting. It would definitely be more comfortable to stay where you were born and just focus on what you know.
Hello, thanks so much for writing! Greetings from Paris In fact there is no residency exam. You might mean when I talk about "getting rejected" for my residency card or "carte de sejour" --that was just my appointment at the prefecture to convert my original visa (1 year) into a longer-term residence card. They rejected me the first time because they said my marriage certificate was "too old" (it was a year old) and because although I had 2 proofs of residence (with my name and my husband's) they decided at the meeting that I needed 2 proofs from 2 different months from 2 different companies. That wasn't on the list. It slowed me down by a month b/c I had to request a new appointment. Just to follow up though, there is an exam for french nationality or citizenship--for me that will come a bit later as I still have a year and a half to wait to apply! I'll talk more about that as I get into it :-)
@@karenbussen Thanks for replying. My ultimate interest is to learn the methods an ADULT with no previous French experience would have to employ to get to the point where they would qualify for permanent residence. My impression, is that this level requires B2 level competence, but I could well be wrong. I've been following the stories of people who have moved to France, gotten a 3-year visa, but are having to increase their language skills in order to get a permanent visa. They are finding that going from zero to B2 is no small task, even if you live there.
Hello! I love your videos. Like you, I’m married to a French man & we’ve always lived in the US; married for 40 years. We are now talking about retiring to France, largely because his much older sister might need our help. I’ve been going back & forth for decades, but I’m thinking about transitioning there. It can’t be easy. If I may ask, why was your long- stay visa rejected the 1st time, given that you are married to a French guy?
Hi and thanks for writing! Retiring in France sounds lovely. I'm glad you asked about the visa. In my case, I got a list of documents required from the prefecture. One of the things I needed was two recent proofs that we lived together (phone bill, energy bill, lease, etc). So I brought two proofs but when I got to my pre-scheduled appointment (which was difficult to schedule) the official said that in fact I needed two proofs from two different companies but also in two different months. This info was not on the list of requirements, which I showed them but they rejected me anyway. I had two different proofs but in the same month. I offered to show him another month's bill right there and he said no, it had to be printed. But he wouldn't print it and he wouldn't let me print it and come right back. This set back my visa by at least a month as I had to wait for another appointment. It's just a good reminder to bring extra docs whenever you'll be seeing the French administration :-) But there are other reasons they could reject you as well--like if you didn't take required French classes or participate in the OFII trainings...hope this is helpful and bonne continuation !
Hello, your story, style, content and videos are so interesting to me. I look forward to following your adventure in France. Greetings and best wishes to you from Southern California.
We enjoy visiting France every time to visit (and I would enjoy living there). My wife is working very hard to learn French and we hope to come for longer stays to France for her to enroll in French language school. Cheers.
Merci ! That's fantastic that she is already learning French, and I wish you all the best with your plans to move :-)
IMHO: you’re awesome, from a New Yorker/ NYC 🗽
There’s no better compliment to be had-THANK YOU, you made my whole month 😊
Hello Karen,
I think everything we're confronted with in life is a 'process,' and best dealt with through awareness and patience. From what you've shared, I think you're doing a great job adjusting to your new life in France. Assimilating into a new culture, particularly as an adult, will probably take more time than you'd like. Sounds like you're being too hard on yourself. Curious if you've studied France's history? It may help when getting to know and understand the French people and their culture better.
So beautifully said, thank you for these thoughts. As to French culture, yes, I'm very lucky. Not only did I get to do the OFII resident training which involves quite a bit of history, I also have the world's best French husband who is so passionate about French history and culture and he is teaching me so much, and I'm starting a university course this September. It really is fascinating! Encore merci ! :-)
Wonderful, je vous en pris!
It seems to be extremely difficult to make close friends with French people unless you have known them all your life. Private life remains private. Relationships that develop between other nationalities through work or leisure activities develop much less rapidly with French people. Formality and politesse often remain between people who have known each other for decades, in my experience. (Not that being polite is wrong).
This is what I've heard too, but I'm going slow and we'll see. I've found a few very sweet and lovely people and I'm working on it :-) Thank you for taking the time to write such a great comment!
👍
I felt the same way about a show! I went to see Spamalot, and I loved Monty Python. I got a lot of the references from the film, but they inserted a lot of cultural references that I absolutely did not understand. At other times, the music or other sounds made it difficult to understand what they were saying... It was a very isolating experience.
That said, being uncomfortable isn't necessarily a bad thing. We are doing something really cool - pushing our limits, learning, changing, adapting. It would definitely be more comfortable to stay where you were born and just focus on what you know.
Thank you for this. You're so right! Cheers to progress and growth :-)
Have you described your experience of failing the residency exam? I’d like to know more about the reasons.
Hello, thanks so much for writing! Greetings from Paris
In fact there is no residency exam. You might mean when I talk about "getting rejected" for my residency card or "carte de sejour" --that was just my appointment at the prefecture to convert my original visa (1 year) into a longer-term residence card. They rejected me the first time because they said my marriage certificate was "too old" (it was a year old) and because although I had 2 proofs of residence (with my name and my husband's) they decided at the meeting that I needed 2 proofs from 2 different months from 2 different companies. That wasn't on the list. It slowed me down by a month b/c I had to request a new appointment.
Just to follow up though, there is an exam for french nationality or citizenship--for me that will come a bit later as I still have a year and a half to wait to apply! I'll talk more about that as I get into it :-)
@@karenbussen Thanks for replying. My ultimate interest is to learn the methods an ADULT with no previous French experience would have to employ to get to the point where they would qualify for permanent residence. My impression, is that this level requires B2 level competence, but I could well be wrong. I've been following the stories of people who have moved to France, gotten a 3-year visa, but are having to increase their language skills in order to get a permanent visa. They are finding that going from zero to B2 is no small task, even if you live there.
Hello! I love your videos. Like you, I’m married to a French man & we’ve always lived in the US; married for 40 years. We are now talking about retiring to France, largely because his much older sister might need our help. I’ve been going back & forth for decades, but I’m thinking about transitioning there. It can’t be easy. If I may ask, why was your long- stay visa rejected the 1st time, given that you are married to a French guy?
Hi and thanks for writing! Retiring in France sounds lovely. I'm glad you asked about the visa. In my case, I got a list of documents required from the prefecture. One of the things I needed was two recent proofs that we lived together (phone bill, energy bill, lease, etc). So I brought two proofs but when I got to my pre-scheduled appointment (which was difficult to schedule) the official said that in fact I needed two proofs from two different companies but also in two different months. This info was not on the list of requirements, which I showed them but they rejected me anyway. I had two different proofs but in the same month. I offered to show him another month's bill right there and he said no, it had to be printed. But he wouldn't print it and he wouldn't let me print it and come right back. This set back my visa by at least a month as I had to wait for another appointment. It's just a good reminder to bring extra docs whenever you'll be seeing the French administration :-) But there are other reasons they could reject you as well--like if you didn't take required French classes or participate in the OFII trainings...hope this is helpful and bonne continuation !