Annick

Hi all,

I'm French, originally from Brittany, and have been living in the UK for the last 5 years.
In order to compare my experience with yours, I wondered if some of you could tell me if they had any difficulties when moving to France, and what those difficulties were. I imagine that every situation is different,so feel free to share.
I also wondered what kind of help you had availaible. Are the French authorities any helpful, or do you mainly rely on other expats and networking ?
Thanks for your help.

Annick

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
It may help if you tell us what difficulties YOU had when moving to the UK, so that we can compare at this end. Also what your personal situation is - working? student? inactive? We're a mixed bunch here, including retirees, with those who came to France to retire obviously having more problems adapting to the different culture/communicating in French, etc... than those who have worked here.
I personally had no help available when I arrived, but already spoke French and had a salaried job to go to. French Fonctionnaires haven't changed much since I arrived, and the present concept of "expats" and networking didn't exist!
(If your enquiry is for personal interest, then fair enough. But if by chance you're doing a survey or researching, then take a look at Rule No.10 in the Site Rules!)

EuroTrash

Absolutely - but since everyone's situation is so unique, I'm struggling to see the value of sharing. It would just be a long and varied list of difficulties encounted and overcome (or not). Which is, pretty much, what this forum is in its entirety - a log of the issues that members have come across and shared with other members. By the time you've read all the threads, you'll know pretty much all anyone can tell you.

As DMU says, it would be helpful if you explained what specifically you're hoping to get out of this thread? If it's for research purposes, maybe you want to write a blog or something, or start a help-offering service, I think you should be transparent and say so.

In terms of comparisons, often a person's experiences are less to do with the external situation, ie the country they're in and the pitfalls they fall into and the help they access to get out - and more to do with the person: how able are they to take advantage of the resources that are available to them, how good are they at researching, how well do they communicate, what's their attitude to the authorities, do they accept the system and try to work with it or do they think it doesn't apply to them and try to oppose it all the time. Some people will adapt easily to most situations, some people will manage to turn those exact same situations into a series of problems, most people are somewhere between the two extremes.

Annick

Hi again,

Thank you for your replies. I realise my thread is a bit clumsy and can appear obscur. I apologize as this was not my intention. I will try and explain my situation.
I came across a few British expats when I was living in France and they sometimes seemed to have difficulties navigating the bureaucracy. For example getting to understand what kind of grant or benefits they were entitled to or not, or how the health system work. I was myself in the same situation when I moved to the UK, relying heavily on what friends and colleagues told me.
I was wondering if there is any need for help in that matter as I think this is a service I could indeed offer to British people thinking of moving to France.
I think you are both right in that my query may not be appropriate for this forum and that I could probably find my answer reading through previous threads.
Thanks again for your time and bonne continuation.

Annick

petitefrancaise

Hi Annick,

I think that there might be a "niche" business for you to do that in France not just for British people but for other nationalities too.
Valerie Lemiere now has a succesful business helping people with small business advice in France. Maybe take a look at her site Starting a business in France and think about the same type of thing for what you are proposing.

Bon Courage!

scot47

You expect people to pay you for this. That will be the problem. People have come to expect services like this for nothing ! My experience is that they will also object to paying for translation and interpreting work. My experience was in the other end of Europe - in Bulgaria. When British pensioners started arriving to live in their ultra-cheap properties they needed help with the bureaucracy and the language. I tired of the requests like "We do not want a translation of this letter - just tell us what it says."

petitefrancaise

French bureaucracy is incredibly difficult to manoeuvre as an outsider. It's not just a case of translating, it's knowing how to approach something to get what you need. OH and I had good french when we arrived, we had the services of the assistante sociale at his company too and yet with all this help getting the correct amount of conge parentale to be paid took 10 months. I couldn't provide them with the "December" payslip they wanted from when I worked - (we don't do end of year tax stuff in december do we?), to-ing and fro-ing and eventually someone with some experience in it told me to just write out a letter in french with the required information on it ,send it to my former employers, ask them to sign it and send it to the CAF. Got my money within 2 weeks. If only, we'd known to do that 10 months before... I could go on and on with examples of the bureaucratic nightmare that is France. Certainly, where I lived in Toulouse, there were plenty of people who would pay for help with all this - engineers from all over Europe working at Airbus. But not Airbus France so they don't get the services of the Airbus assistantes sociales....

I think there is a need but working out the business model will be the tricky bit especially when combined with business structures in France.

EuroTrash

Yep, I know just what you mean.
But to be fair, there are a few that are just the opposite and will load you with bottles of wine and offers of payment when all you've done is told them the French word for something. There's nowt so queer as folk.

But to get back to the OP, the problem I see is that a lot of people really do need actual hand-holding, somebody going with them to CPAM and the tax office and wherever to sort things out face to face, which would require a locally-based service. Knowing how things are supposed to work 'in France' is one thing, but actually dealing with fonctionnaires, who sometimes have their own quirky little local interpretations of the rules, is another.

petitefrancaise

There are relocation companies that do this - mostly for new arrivals and mostly paid for by their company as part of the relocation package - ie get a house, driving license if necessary.. kids at school.
Having someone who will phone up the necessary departments for information would be a huge bonus.

Annick

Hi all,

Thank you for your views and opinions. This is just an idea and I wanted to know if it was worth developing or not. Thank you also for sharing the site of Valerie Lemiere, it's very interesting and she's done a great job on it.
I will have to think of the kind of service I can realistically offer, knowing I am in the UK and not in France.
Thanks again for your help.

Annick

Shirtback

A bit late to the thread, however:

If I needed (I don't) the kind of help/service described (somewhat vaguely) above, I'd want 'boots on the ground' in-country.

petitefrancaise

I find your comment slightly amusing since you regularly contribute help/advice to this forum and you apparently do not have "boots on the ground". Neither do I.

If anyone wants actual "handholding" then there are relocation consultants in most large cities. You'll pay a fair bit for this personal service though.

I sent the OP in the direction of Valerie Lemiere because I think the model that Valerie has for startabusinessinfrance might well work for her too. I'd have happily paid $100 a year for that and a bit more for the odd one-on-one with someone who knows what they are talking about.

When we moved to the USA we were advised by the USA part of this forum to pay for AIG Inbound which is basically a concierge service. It was great, saved me money and time and it cost $450 for that year. It's totally online/email not even on the phone. They could be anywhere... Money well spent and I speak 'Merican! Imagine how useful that would be for people who can't speak French.

scot47

Petitefrancasie


Yes, what is needed is often more a "dragoman" than an interpreter. Someone who can help the stranger deal with the complexities of life in a strange environment !


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragoman

EuroTrash

But Valérie has extensive expert knowledge about business startups etc, having had professional experience of working in this field for a public organisation (if I remember correctly) before she set up her own website. She deals with professionals, or would-be professionals, who can pick up a ball and run with it. She doesn't set out to give people general 'living in France' advice when they're feeling lost.

petitefrancaise

Have you used Valerie's services? She helps people who want to (ahem, like it says on the packet) START a business. She's also great at helping people who have already started and got themselves in a bit of a pickle. Yes, she is experienced, VERY experienced in this area.

Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting that the OP do the same thing as Valerie.. but having somewhere to go (like Valerie's forum) to ask specific questions of someone who has sufficient knowledge of how the french bureaucracies work would be a great help - especially if they could easily look up information or make a phone call to clear something up. Which is Valerie's business model.

It is what AIG Inbound do. Got a question? ( need car insurance with no us drivers license, no us no-claims etc, or open a bank account, or find a college counsellor not employed by a school etc etc. ) they may not have the expert in that field but they are able to search around for you, find good answers and in our case, save us enough money to pay for their service.