Why France?

Many of our friends and family members have asked us the same question, "Why France?"  It really wasn't a decision made overnight. It came with hours of research and of course a little dreaming mixed in there too.

I probably should start with the history of how this crazy came to be. Once Jeff started working remotely, we started making extended trips to Utah to visit family and we would hit a few other places along the way on these long drives across the country. To most people, they'd probably rather have a root canal done than drive with four children for 30 plus hours in the car, but we came to find out that we loved being on the road and our kids (and us) really thrived from traveling. Not that every moment on our adventures has been a cakewalk, but most of the time it has been very positive. I then started dreaming about how I'd love to spend a year traveling around the world as a family and experiencing all the beauty it has to offer. In 2011, the IRS was so kind to return to us a large refund and we were lucky to be able to go to Europe for almost a month. I was almost in tears when we left to go home and knew that it was something I would like to do again for a longer period of time. At this point I read every blog that I could find about families who actually lived this life abroad that I only dreamed of and found myself drawn more to reading about the families that lived in France. To me it seemed the experience they were having would be a great fit for my family too. 

Jeff and I were very lucky to be able to travel through Asia and Australia last year and I could honestly also picture us living in Sydney or Tokyo. When we were there, Jeff was working the night shift because he still works on EST - which wasn't too much fun for him. It would definitely take a toll on him long term to work all night. We then agreed that Jeff's work schedule from 2pm-11pm in France would work out much better for our family's schedule. Another thing we learned from visiting these areas was that there are not many daily flight options from down under and Asia to the USA and so if Jeff had to fly home for work, it'd be more difficult to make that happen. There are so many daily flights from Europe to the USA and Canada that would be way more affordable if necessary. 

I also remember when we had visited before feeling at "home" in France. I love the culture and the language and it has some similarities to America. It also is a very welcoming country to expats and so far we have been treated very kindly by the citizens of our host country.