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International Transitions

© Huw Francis

It’s the middle of summer and most expats are probably on home leave/holiday or in the middle of an international move – and at this precise moment I envy those of you on holiday, despite the fact that I am really excited about completing our move to France.

Our moving plans have not gone as smoothly as we hoped and we are still looking for accommodation. An international move always throws up unexpected challenges, no matter how much you plan ahead. Our hurdle rose up from within the legendary French bureaucracy. We had files full of paperwork to present various people as we opened bank accounts and visited new employers and estate agents, but it was still not enough to satisfy everybody.

A single sentence on one piece of paper meant we could not rent any accommodation!

Anyway, after a few phone calls a new piece of paper has been obtained, that hopefully solves the problem, and we can go to France, for the second time this summer, to continue our house hunt.

Our experience highlighted the need for one of the most important personal skills necessary to enjoy the expatriate lifestyle – adaptability.

No matter how much help, assistance and advice you obtain and how many books you read, things will always happen that that you had not planned for.

Where we went wrong was to believe what we read in two books on living in France – though I am still not sure where we could have got a more accurate picture of the process of renting a house in provincial France (anyone with any ideas please email me at: huwfrancis@altavista.net).

Without an address we can not apply for our residence permits, buy a car, or register the children for school.

Our planned summer ground to a halt at the first step.

Fortunately, we always plan for the unexpected and had a backup plan we could put into action, and our relatives have been pleased as we managed to see more of them than we had anticipated.

Expatriate living is continuously throwing up unexpected challenges and a good support network coupled with imagination and resourcefulness is essential to help you work through the issues.

Apart from staying with our relatives for a few weeks, we have bought a left hand drive car in England (where they normally use right hand drive cars) for a very good price because not many people want one and been able to relax on an enforced break from house hunting, furniture buying and language learning.