It's odd, last night after I wrote my post I was reading jchevais' blog and was thinking that I am looking towards France to mitigate the stresses in my life while she is looking back to Canada to reduce the stresses in hers. Then, voila, a comment from Mrs. C. :-)
For me the toughest thing about being in the US is the complete lack of support from government and family. Of course my parents support me - on the phone - but they are both well over a thousand miles away. As far as government support, well we're getting a check in May for $1200 (or $600 or $1500 or I can't really tell from my husband's overview of the obtuse document that we received) called a "stimulus payment" because, of course, in the US everything can be fixed with money. You just have to make enough of it and then you can do, get, buy, more, more, more. I feel like a hamster on a treadmill - I'm always running, but there really is no destination. Time to pay for that school loan, time to pay for day care, time to pay for healthcare. It took us a year and a half to pay for my son's birth, and that's with insurance. Never mind that I pay taxes, but for what ? War and economic growth...?
Of course, stress does depend on where you live and your personality. I was pretty stressed in Chicago - and that was before we had a kid. We lived in the suburbs and worked in the suburbs so we had all of the stresses of Chicago without the convenience/culture.
We have been talking about either Paris or Bordeaux. Bordeaux would most likely be the least stressful environment, but we would not have family around us.
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Home prices have skyrocketed in Paris. In order to have a house these days, you have to go out into the boonies quite a ways. My hubs, who works in the financing of mortgages on the North Eastern edge of the Paris Burbs, was startled when he realised that people are now going as far as Picardy...
I don't want to discourage you of course... remember. I'm old and bitter... ;-) However, these are things to keep in mind as it's easier for english-speakers to find work in Paris itself. So that makes quite the commute.
Bordeaux could be really cool though. It's a gorgeous city and... only 3 hours from Paris by TGV...
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