One more loop around the world

We’ve reserved our seat in Nice

We’re down to our final few days here in Nice. We head to Taipei on Monday, January 20th. That’s going to be a long day. We leave Nice, laying over briefly in Munich, and then we take that marathon flight across Europe and Asia. But it will be worth every minute. I haven’t been there in 24 years. Chien-hui has only been back a handful of times in the past quarter century and each time it has only been for short visits of two weeks or less on average. I asked her this morning what, besides seeing her family, she was most excited about, and she said it was the food. This shouldn’t be surprising. I think food (including wine) and memory are absolutely intertwined in the human psyche. What we eat and love is imprinted not only as taste memory but also as feelings of security, connection, and peace. I think that is the definition of happiness, isn’t it? An entire month there will be an opportunity for her to reconnect with a culture she has felt slip away over the years. She says it’s different there now and she is no longer part of that place, nor is she ever really comfortable calling the US home either. It must be very uncomfortable being caught in between all the time.

I am about to have some understanding of that, however. After Taipei, we’ll be heading next to Seattle where we will finish our application for the long-stay visa in France. We have our meeting with the French consulate set up there for late February. I don’t anticipate any issues with getting the visa, so that will put us back in France as full time residents by April. We have engaged an agency to help us find an apartment here in Nice. They will also help us with other particulars like establishing bank accounts and setting up mobile phones and utilities.

We’ve done our homework in France as you probably know if you read this blog. We’ve visited and briefly lived in quite a few cities, towns, and villages over the past few months and only one has really checked every box, that being Nice. We love being able to walk to everything we want or need, and we can take the tram or bus for anything further. This makes us car-free which is a huge plus in my book. We love the relaxed vibe, the friendly people, the beautiful architecture, the human scale, the photographic light, and of course, the perpetual blue sky and sea. I like to say it’s Paris with a beach and for less money. I also like how international it is. There are a lot of Americans here, but also a lot of everyone else, too. Walking down the street we overhear Italian, German, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, and languages unidentifiable to me. Given its place on the map, I especially love the blend of French and Italian food culture in Nice, but we’ve also had amazing Asian food here, too (Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese, Japanese). The health care system in France is by some rankings the best in the world. When we are out and about, we see shiny brass wall plaques with doctor’s names engraved in them near the entrances of many of the most beautiful buildings. There are several good hospitals here, too. Yes, that health care will be available to us after three months, and miraculously, almost for free. It is considered a right here.

The lifestyle afforded us and the price of admission for said lifestyle are nearly impossible to believe for us Americans. The way we see it, the window of opportunity is open for us now, so we’re jumping through. We’re excited at the prospect of living here full time while using Nice as our base for periodic travel going forward. Between the trains and the cheap flights, we’ll unlikely ever exhaust places to visit. The agent we met with told us that she goes someplace with her sister, who also lives here, once a month: Rome, Geneva, Barcelona, all very affordably and in about an hour and fifteen minutes directly from Nice. Winter here is relatively quiet, although there is still plenty happening and the weather is miraculously beautiful. In the summer, when it gets hotter and the tourists come, we’ll go north.

What will be six months on the road full time will have been enough for us. Our experiences have been life changing but it’s also had its challenges as I’ve written before. From my perspective there is no such thing as a comfortable Airbnb. Some are better than others, but in my experience, they are all terrible. Cheap couches and beds, flimsy chairs, way too much IKEA cabinetry, and a lack of real cooking gear. (I am now traveling with a small set up that I have acquired over time including a lightweight Dutch oven, knives, a grater, a whisk, a screen, and a wine key.) These apartments are inevitably loud and always on very busy streets, even in the best of locations. A weekend here or there in an Airbnb is fine, but a month or longer? It eventually gets to you. I now dread going back to them each day after we tour around or run errands. I have an entirely new respect for hotels and hotel beds, and I only wish I had the resources to stay in them every day.  Reestablishing a comfortable home with my own things is just about the most exciting thing I can think to do right now.

I feel guilty saying that in lieu of the fires in LA. We have been glued to our phones and YouTube for the past week, like a lot of people. The images are mesmerizing and ironic given that they are near Hollywood. The loss is unimaginable, and it makes us cry to see the stories. I don’t care if they are some famous celebrities or just regular people. Loss is loss and loss of memories is especially painful to see and hear about. My aunt and uncle on my dad’s side live in the next community south of Altadena and they forwarded photos taken from their driveway of the hills at the end of their street ablaze and glowing orange on the first day of the fire, just like the countless images you’ve seen on TV or the internet. Sadly, this isn’t the first time, or even the fifth. Lucky for them, the wind changed direction and went north but their neighbors weren’t so lucky, obviously. It’s clear that we are entering unprecedented times in this world, and it saddens me, and no doubt all of us, to know that we will be witness to it.

I am also very aware that my blog could be interpreted as a middle finger to America and what’s been happening there between climate-driven catastrophes, shootings, political turmoil, and other divisive issues. It might appear to be me saying, “Hey, look at my easy life in the south of France. Ha ha.” I really don’t want it to be read this way. It has always been intended as a record of our experiences after we made the decision to take control of our time.

Part of that decision, for us, was to recognize that we would be unable to live in the US the way we would be able to internationally, plain and simple. The cost to retire in the US is just not feasible for us, even after doing the right things financially over the years (Mostly, maybe a bottle or two less). It’s an unfortunate reality for a lot of us Gen Xers that as we near retirement we face a choice between living comfortably in (fill in the international place) or living very tightly in a smaller town in the US because the costs of housing, including rent or mortgage, property taxes and home insurance (which will climb exponentially), running a vehicle or two, and rising health care expenses, will exceed our means. Add the costs of travel outside of the US to that. Some of us will have to work well into our 70s to afford these things so that we can stay close to our kids and grandkids. I know for many others, their plans are on track or living in a small town is exactly what they want and I applaud them. That wasn’t going to work for us and Chien-hui and I weren’t going to be able to afford the Seattle area any longer, and going back to California was out of the question, so we decided instead to be proactive. Thankfully, there is an entire cottage industry on YouTube of professionals advising you on how to leave, where to go, and how to make the most of your remaining time and money. There are also lots of other people sharing their actual experiences.

I hope sharing our personal experiences each week is at least mildly entertaining and at most helping you feel confident in your decision to stay or go, temporarily or permanently. There are many options out there once you open yourselves to them and it is exciting and rejuvenating once you embrace them as possible. If you asked me five years ago where I thought I’d be living (Seattle, of course!), or if I would still be working (Duh!), the idea that I’d be retired and living on the French Riviera would have made me laugh. I guess I’m still laughing now, but rather in one kind of disbelief over the other.

So, Nice it is. But first, one more loop around the world and then we’ll be back.