Bastille Day Drive

Happy July 14th, also known as Bastille day, but as I write this, terror has occurred in the country I love as they celebrate their nationality. This is saddening, this is heartbreaking, but I won’t focus on that horrid news, because this isn’t the place.

My intentions with my post today revolves around the idea of great change, of moving from one country to another completely different one that “calls you”.

I am often met with my desire to move with comments like, “Think of all you will leave behind,” “You have people here who love you,” “The grass is not always greener,” “Vacation and living are two different things”. But this assumes that I haven’t researched into the experience of the great change of moving to Paris (or France, for that matter). I have! Lord, have I ever! I have read books, I follow blogs, and I follow Instagram accounts of individuals who have also gone from the West to France.

And through this research I know it won’t be easy, I know it won’t be a walk in the park,  I know there will be occasions where I will say, “What have I done…” because I’m not naive, and while I’m – without any doubt – a dreamer, I’m also a pretty logical individual.  I have even reached out to the authors of many of these blogs, IG accounts, and even the authors of the books I’ve read and their replies have all been the same:
– It was hard but it was the best decision I’ve ever made
and
– Do it, or you will regret it

Each time I hear this from someone else who has taken the dive into Parisian waters, I feel a little more validated and a little more enthusiastic about my own prospects. And while the intentions of others is to ground me and have me think realistically about what I might be getting into, I have noticed a trend that most of their “reasons for not doing it,” are about other people, instead of reasons for me. My father once told me, “You only live one life and you have to live it for you,” and I can’t let “keeping other people happy” keep me from finding my own happiness!

And so, on France’s day of celebration, I’m feeling more invigorated by my own goal.

Post Scriptum
Here are a few titles of some of the wonderful books about people/families making the move to France (excluding the many literary masters who also made that switch in their lifetime!):
– Finding Myself in France
– A Family in Paris
– My Sweet Life in Paris
– A Year in Provence