Weekend reading

North America...through the eyes of a European

Episode 1: the story behind the move

We made the move in August 2009. French Husband (still physically France-bound, although with us in spirit), English wife and 3 bi-lingual boys.

The expression “Fresh from Paris” would be a good one to use...however after 16 years of French life “fresh” is a relative term. But don't get me wrong, we love France!

The architecture is just stunning. Paris never ceases to amaze me, it's like being in an endless movie scene.

The food and the wine: what is there to say...?

The most simplest of ingredients becomes food for angels. I swear the best meal in my whole wide world is a bottle of good red wine (to share “à deux” bien sure...) a “baguette tradition” and a plate of (over) ripe cheeses. Pure bliss and difficult to beat!

The countryside offers...everything you could hope to find, from landing beaches, to Mediterranean beaches (remember that I come from the north of England where all beaches neighbour....the North sea. Brrrrrrr!) to county pastures and chocolate box villages to mountain resorts where the apres ski can only be surpassed by the actual skiing itself...not forgetting the vin chaud, the fondue's and the raclette...worth braving the cold for!

So why were we feeling jaded after 16 years of French living? Simple, we have entrepreneurial leanings. There, I've said it, and believe you me, if you live in France its best to keep it to yourself, because entrepreneur is kind of...a “dirty” word over there. So, “doing your own thing” to create wealth for yourself is an uphill climb. So, even though we do love France as a country...and created lots of great business, and still have lots of great properties over there, we were feeling a little...tired.

So imagine our excitement when my husbands company suggested he could chose a new country to develop: Australia....or Canada. Well, seeing I'm English, female (and a pretty outspoken one at that) I imagined living surrounded by the stereotypical Australian male inhabitant: at the best bronzed & muscled, at the worst chauvinistic “pommy” haters (that's slang for Englishmen...) and decided to look more closely at Canada. (Where is Canada actually??)...

Quickly realizing that a fast track education about Canada was in order we decided to contact a Montreal-based relocation agency, and by happy chance...and lots of luck, we fell on a great one (see the blog about my relocation path on www.ariannerelocation.com/blog/) who opened our eyes to the reality of life on a new, large, cold and welcoming continent called Canada.

So we'd made our decision (was there really one to make??) On paper, Canada was for us! but as we were preparing our boys and our businesses for move, the economic climate in Europe was chilling down, almost to Canadian temperatures.
The crisis had hit! Big time...