Look at where you have vacationed. Do you enjoy going overseas? If so, are you thinking that you might want to join the small cadre of one out of 100 retirees who live overseas, in most cases far from family and friends? Bob, my husband, and I have used our vacation time for at least 10 years as a platform to test if and where we might want to spend some time overseas. As a result, our vacations had more meaning. We also thought that the process of considering living overseas for a while and adapting to a new area might certainly occupy our minds and lead to a more positive outlook and better overall health.

Why did we consider France? 

We entered France through the back door---biking. The biking culture of France and its class D back roads had drawn us for four bike tours. Since neither of us is fluent in French, lovely English-speaking New Zealand, also a biker’s paradise, presented itself as an alternative. After biking New Zealand for a month, with its busy roads, we turned back toward France.

We also preferred France’s diversity of culture, languages and religion lends the creative spark missing in homogenous New Zealand. Then there is the stimulation factor. The orderly polite Anglicans of New Zealand are so much more predictable than the chaotic French. Perhaps that is why French political life has a streetwise vitality. France is closer to the United States and family. Finally, the when the French eat, they define it as the highest form of leisure and luxury unlike the New Zealanders (and those in the United States) where we eat to get the calories we need to keep going. The commercial life is different too. Downtown pedestrian-only areas of France are dotted with small owner/operator shops bursting with warm bread, fresh fruit and sweet vegetables. People walk in France. They drive in New Zealand.

We also prefer France to countries like Spain where we have also vacationed. When conservative French Minister of the Interior Sarkozy incited riots in one French city after another, we decided at the last minute to spend our six vacation weeks in Spain in support of its new Socialist President. Digging deeper we discovered that Spain was almost bimodal: fascist conservatives supporting the Catholic church which receives one third of its income from the Spanish state v socialists who want to take that money away from the church. The French principle is one of official non-recognition of any religion that means that no stipend or direct subsidy may be paid to any church.

The Spanish Church vaunts its ties to the state, including the extreme right wing governments of post WW I. In lovely Granada, stands the fourth largest Catholic Cathedral in the world. In the 1920s or 1930s someone authorized a stonemason to etch a foot high name in the outside wall of that cathedral at eye level:  Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, Franco’s role model (See Primo de Rivera).

Expatriates move to France because they love the French way of life. They move to Spain because they can live inexpensively in the sun. The first group cherishes that which is French. The second group ignores that which is Spanish. (The Ghosts of Spain)

Do not think about moving to France if you don’t have enough money to live in the United States. We found in eight weeks we spent as much to live in France as we spent in the United States. (But no more.)  One E for a kilo of tomatoes and 40 E for a book. Some things more expensive, some less.

 

If France, where?

We compared a list of the 100 top French towns in which to live (see Living in France) to a map of 2002 French voting patterns (see The Vote) until we found an enjoyable town filled with people who shared our political preferences. Number 11 on the list was Montpellier, a town that had elected a Socialist as mayor for over 20 years.

Montpellier also has the second oldest and the oldest contuniously operating medical school in Europe. We have both worked in the field of health care all of our lives. It has 50,000 students out of 215,000 people so it is certainly the university town we have wanted in the United States. It is in the south of France, a 30 minute bike ride to the Mediterranean with 12 month access to the out of doors. A friend who had studied there loved it.

We checked out its climate and found that we would want to spend the summer someplace else, too hot for us, but not for the thousands of tourists that come for the summer sun and the month long festivals on radio, dance, and music.

So, this time, getting closer to retirement and freedom to live any place we wanted, we decided to stay in one place for a month and study French rather than bike tour. We loved living in stimulating Montpellier, but I missed the green of the Pacific Northwest. Montpellier’s bike route was littered with cars and garbage. I still yearned to combine the stimulation of Montpellier with the green of the Pacific Northwest. Not Bob. With tears in his eyes, we returned to the United States having found that Christian Morgenstern was right when he wrote: “Home is not where you live but where they understand you.”

In 2007, we spent four weeks in green bike friendly Uzes, about an hour from Montpellier, a smaller protected medieval village of 8000 where it might be easier to make friends. Then we moved back to big brown Montpellier and fell in love with it all over again. Why? Because Montpellier feels like home.

Uzés

It was a surprise to find that we would choose the brown earth of extroverted Montpellier over the lush green valley and vineyards around introverted Uzes, about an hour away. What we had discovered in Uzes was that it is not enough to be in community, we thrive in diversity. We knew before we got there that Uzes had no Servas members, Oxfam or Artisans du Monde. It turned out to be a is a village of primarily retired French and British who want the good life, who have already made it, who have a lot invested in the status quo. 

In contrast, Montpellier is a city of the young. We are deeply nourished by its emphasis on diversity and community. What happens in a city of 215,000 where people value creative community? Here is what we observed after living in Montpellier for seven weeks in 2003 and 2005.

Lets start with the tram. It carries 70,000 people a day, making it possible for the downtown area of Montpellier to be pedestrian free. You can readily take a baby stroller, wheelchair or a bike on and off the tram. The TAM—which runs the tram—also rents bikes for 2E a day. You can rent a car from TAM for 33E a day and .33 E a mile, compared to 125E from private agencies.  People in Montpellier use the tram, walk, a few bike. Few drive in town. Most park their car at the outside of town or the outside of the pedestrian only area and use the tram to get around. Because folks walk, there is a continual process of rubbing shoulders, of being in community. One of the busiest stops is closest to the railroad station, another, up by the university. These folks will all get on the next tram. Imagine if someone were picking them up in a car!

Montpellier Tram Stop

Montpellier’s spaces and architecture, as well as its public transportation, support community. 7,000 can gather easily in the large square at the center of town, the Place de la Comedie.  65,000 can gather for a parade of protest in the Antigone where we live. Something is always going on there…a demonstration of 7000 to support strikers….a photography exhibit by French photographers who went to Darwin’s aborigine radio…the end of the Cézannes Criterion….a fair for persons who wanted to adopt animals…all in the space of  three days.

Finally, and for us, most importantly, people who love, study and work in Montpellier come from many countries. In contrast, 90% of Bainbridge Island is white and only 5% is brown or black. Montpellier's diversity enlivens the visual and intellectual landscape.

What is our next step? Two semesters in Montpellier to study French to see if, in one year’s time, we can master French sufficiently to participate as part of the community rather than an appendage to it.  We have decided to go to the university rather than a more expensive private school where every week starts with a new group of students. IEFE, part of the University of Montpellier, received glowing recommendations from University of Washington students. We hope to find some menial volunteer task at some community organization like the Doctor’s without Borders that allows us to work side by side with French who share our values. We will also be able to see if there is a way we can afford to live there three to nine months a year given the continued devaluation of the dollar compared to the Euro.

In the fall of 2008 we will join 50,000 other students who go to the Unversity of Montpellier. Carpe diem.