I've been thinking long and hard about where I want to be when September rolls around this year. During the winter months, I think I went through a slight depression and maybe it was the election of Obama that gave me a newfound pride of being American, whatever it was, I was almost certain that I was going to go home next fall.
Since getting a job in France is sooo difficult and most of the time not very well paid, getting a good job back home would be a better idea. Furthermore, I'll have $20,000 worth of student loans to pay off starting in November. What am I going to do?
Obviously I miss my family and friends soo much, but I'll be home all this August so I'll have a month to catch up with everyone. I also have one of my friend's weddings to go to which I'm really excited about.
Ok so here's the decision: drum roll please.....
I'm moving to Paris! Ok yes, it's one of the most expensive places to live but it's also the city where all of the jobs are! I'm sick of teaching English so what other choice do I have if I want to stay here? Plus the idea sounds soo exciting!
Also, I say 'I' instead of 'We' because we still don't know about whether Christophe passed his concours or not. So the plan is basically, I'll be moving to Paris definietly and Christophe will either be starting his job as "professeur de lycée professionel" ou he'll be doing a formation to work in a restaurant and he'll be joining me later on.
Besançon is great and all, but there's just no job opportunities here, plus I'm ready for a change!
Christophe and I were thinking about either going back to the US or staying here. I had a hard time deciding. He said he would come with me back home if I wanted to go.
I made the decision to stay here instead of going home because I realized that I LOVE the french way of life. Who doesn't like 5 weeks of vacation per year? 2 hours for lunch at noon? Almost free health care? The fabulous food and wine? I'm sorry but I've come to love it here, I don't know if I'll ever be ever to live in the US again. Maybe one day. But the most important thing that the french do best: they enjoy life! They don't work themselves to death like us!
But the most obvious reason for why I'm staying is for Love, most importantly. I'm truly happy here with the life we have. Unfortunately money is a huge issue so this is why my mind is focused mainly towards working at the moment.
14 comments:
Exciting! I'm sure it'll be much more fun for you, and easier if you have to live apart for a while since you'll have lots of things to distract you. Good luck on the job hunt!
The great thing is that now you've made the decision, you can get excited about it and start planning! The French boy told me alot of french end up in Paris as thats where the jobs are!
And you can enjoy your month at home, will be amazing!
:-)
Thanks for the support! I'm so nervous but excited at the same time!
Paris is great! And I can confirm that getting a job is definitely a million times easier here!
Out of curiosity though - are you one of the lucky ones with dual citizenship?
ksam -absolutely not! My boy and I are getting PACSed so i'll have the right to work !!
How closely have you looked into this? I could be wrong, but from my understanding of the pacs, you'd only have the right to work in your department, because if you move outside of your department, you have to apply for a new cds. And I can't really see the préf in Paris giving you a cds for Paris if your bf isn't here with you (cuz then it looks like you got pacsed just to have the right to work).
umm, uh oh. i thought it was the right to work anywhere in France? I'll look into it. Thanks for letting me know.
If you're pacsed (and can prove un an de vie commune), you *do* have the right to work anywhere in France, but you are supposed to be living with your partner (otherwise in their mind, why would you have gotten pacsed?)
I did a lot of research into this about a year ago, and any time you move to a different department, you need to go to your nearest préfecture and reapply for a new cds. Which wouldn't be a problem in Paris if your bf was planning on moving here with you - but since he most likely won't be...
And you can't really just not get a new cds here because your future employer will have to fax a copy of your cds to the préfecture de Paris for verification - and they're going to tell them straightaway you're not supposed to be living in Paris.
It's unfortunately all very complicated....
I was just thinking - you could get around this if your bf pretends to move to Paris with you. Ie. you could put his name on the bail, EDF bill, etc and have him come with you to the préf to apply for your cds.
well he would be moving with me eventually, but I don't know how long it would take. That's why I was going to go first and get a place and get a job until he came to join me. But I guess that's a little difficult to set up. My boy will need to do some sort of formation if he doesnt pass his concours, so that's why he might not be able to right away.
Yes we might be able to get away with declaring that he lives with me if we do the apartment search together and apply together for all of the paperwork. We're in a really complicated situation so i'm not sure yet what we will do. Thanks for all of your input!
I'm going to the prefecture tomorrow to get all of these questions straightened out.
Again, just my two cents, but unless you're on a first-name basis with the pref employees, I definitely would NOT walk into the prefecture tomorrow and ask them these questions. If they get even the slightest impression that you are pacsing simply to have the right to work, they will refuse to give you the cds vie privee et familiale. Most prefectures are suspicious enough already of heterosexual couples pacsing because they have the right to get married, so you don't want to make it worse.
Not to mention that every pref is different and has different rules about they will and will not allow (especially when it comes to the pacs) - so you'd be better off making an anonymous call to one of the prefs in Paris and asking them (and acting like you already have the cds VPF).
oh là là là, what a head-ache. Ok i'm going to talk about it with my BF. I just read a few things backing up what you said about the fonctionnaires not wanting to give CDS VPF to foreigners so I don't want to make it worse. I'll give an update on what happens. thanks for your advice!
I think it's great that you've decided to stay, and moving to Paris is definitely a great idea. Unfortunately for Americans it's not so easy to just get a job in France (although, why should it be, right?).
You guys already have the un an de vie commun, right? So could you maybe delay the Paris dream for a year until your boyfriend has passed his councours or whatever, and in the meantime be a recrute locale for the schools? Not the ideal option, but at least you'd be making some money.
Yes, we do have un an de vie commun so i'll be eligible for CDS vie privée familiale.
that's exactly what we decided to do. If he passes his concours this year then we can go to Paris and he can do his stage there. If not, we're going to stay in Besançon and he will do some sort of formation to get a new job and I'll just do some temporary teaching in the schools. I guess that's the best we can do.
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