We came home after 11 weeks living in Colmar, France.
We expected reverse culture shock.
We didn’t expect our nervous systems to notice first.
This video isn’t about one bad moment.
It’s about the background stress we didn’t realize had faded… and how quickly it came roaring back when we returned to the U.S.
If you’ve ever felt like daily life requires armor, this one might resonate.
Thanks for being here and for following our Chaos to Croissants experiment.
📍 Small city life • 🥐 Real stories • 📹 New videos every other week (I’m trying)
Bakery walks. Public transit. Errands without a car.
Less friction. More breathing room.
Thanks for watching, and if you want to keep following along as we figure all of this out, there’s more coming.
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We’re an American family of four leaving the United States to start a new life in (or around) Colmar, France — trading the stress, high cost of living, and endless work hours for peace, charm, and small-city life.
On Chaos to Croissants we share the real experience of moving abroad with kids, covering:
🇫🇷 Moving to France as a family
💶 Cost of living in France vs USA
🏠 Finding housing in France
🛒 French markets & local food
🎓 Education & healthcare in France
🚲 Life in a walkable, bike-friendly city
If you’ve searched for “how to move to France,” “expat life in France,” or “cost of living in France” you’re in the right place.
📍 Small city life • 🥐 Real stories • 📹 New videos every other week (I’m trying)
26 Comments
Welcome back to FREEDOM.
It's a sign! Kudos to you for listening to your body, which doesn't lie.
I live in South America. I go back to see family about 1-2x per year. You can feel it within 2 minutes of landing in any US airport. The stress, the division, the anger and rage. It's awful, and it's everywhere. You have to feel it to believe, and once you do you want nothing to do with the US again.
I travel a lot and spend a lot of time in Europe. Often for quite a long time I have to say I don’t feel that. But I don’t live in Massachusetts I live in North Carolina. I enjoy coming home. I don’t live in the city. I live in the country and I just slipped right back in to a quiet stress-free life. but everyone’s perspective is different, especially depending on where they live at in the US. Although sometimes I feel that we also have a bias according to our own ideology. Just my own opinion just someone who spends a lot of time traveling a lot of time out of the US but does enjoy coming home. Different opinion, different perspective, different life journey.
That attack with the boy and the gun… a REAL GUN ! I am speechless, really speechless… happening in a daily traffic situation… and… as an European (Germany) it's difficult to me to understand all that required (mental ?) planning stuff before going out. I really make an effort but can't relate despite I believe you, that not the point. I not at all want to offend you but do orher people over there feel the same ? or are you particularly sensitive to such an ambiance of… anger, rage whatever scary vibes are over there ? It sounds horrible, puuuh…
Ah, Taunton …. Welcome back, man! 😊
I dream of the day when you release a video stating you are all headed back on one way tickets. Purge, pack, preserve and truly all my best hopes for your future plans ❤
There must be a reason why the life expectancy in France is 5 years higher than in the USA, while on average the US is still richer..
Stay safe and enjoy life, wherever you are !
funny, we felt the same way after a recent month in Nice
I live in Paris. My brain is car-free and I couldn’t imagine going back to a place where a car is needed.
I've been following along here since this family was about 3 weeks into Colmar. I'll try to keep my perspective short but it may be hard. I was born about 10 miles West of Taunton, I currently live about 40 minutes SE of Taunton. In 1989 I left the US for the first time. I was sent to Nagoya City, Japan for 3 months for work. That started just over 15 years of international travel; Brazil, Mexico City, several Caribbean islands (yes there is a lot of business travel in the Caribbean), several Canada cities in Ontario and Quebec, Ireland, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium. I was usually out of US for more than half the 12 months. I met a great girl in Ireland, flew her all around Europe with me as I worked there and eventually married her, started a family. My wife, being from Ireland but planted here – got involved in the exchange student program. Fourteen children over 10 years. My daughter, attended the French American school in Providence. Last Winter, my daughter did 6 months in Strasbourg on a college exchange and my wife went over and spent 10 days with her. I wasn't surprise when they were training and busing all over France and Germany – for about 10 Euro. Dining in great restaurants for under $70 Euro with wine, desert, starters. My daughter had the same healthcare and doctor experience as you see in this channel. Now here's the real fun part – Syracuse University – with no financial aid – $71,000 per year. Now my wife is thinking for that money she'll get a villa in Ireland or maybe even in France and my next child will attend college in the EU. and it's cheaper than UMASS Dartmouth, MA. When I was a kid, Blue Cross was the only health insurance company, I never saw my parents stress about a co-pay or not getting to see a doctor. I never heard a complaint about an auto excise tax to the town, income taxes to the state, auto insurance increasing after never having an accident, and on, and on and on. Not tryin to bash the US, my Dad fought his way from the Philippines to Tokyo in 1944 and 1945. We're all just saying we can't wait around for the adults to come back and fix this, we gotta go where we gotta go.
At least there's some beautiful snow
As a European listening to you, I can just say, you guys over there, have gone soooo wrong. What you are describing is normal here and I think in most parts of this wonderful planet we inhabit. The fear in your society should tell you enough.
Its not USA, its GTA ;o
L'Alsace et les cigognes vous salue tous !… Et Bartholdi aussi !🗽
I feel sorry for you, but why don't you stay there and fight for bettering your lives in the USA? There are more and more US immigrants in France, we find this quite exotic for the time being but at some point some French won't be so welcoming, it has happened with the Brits.
Well you know what to do: move to France! 🙂 BTW, I leave in Colmar 😉
What field do you work in, you and your wife ? Because the first thing to do is to see if there is demand in France for your professions.
Stress does exist in France too. Go to Paris or another big city (Toulouse and Bordeaux are renowed for their traffic), find a job in finance, ministeries or whatever with hard deadlines, you’ll see !
I follow some french poeple livving in the USA and they say that there is less stress in USA ! Canada has even less stress than USA ! I don't know who is right now.
I live in province in normandy , i would never live in paris , to drive in this city or parisian suburbs is a nightmare.
Can you try Canada ? A lot french youtuber travelling in RV say that Canada is a very good country without stress.
I remember when we moved to France and landed at CDG for our connecting flight. I was SHOCKED. It was so quiet. People weren’t angry. No one was rushing anywhere. People lounged by gates in structured sweaters and comfy loafers, effortlessly stylish. The difference in chaos vs non chaos is amazing.
Almost every American I know who lives here in France says the same thing: “I came in with a generally positive outlook, but what I didn’t expect was this level of peace of mind.”
Your content is very interesting, it feels genuine, and profond, and focuses on what matter the most for any human being in this modern world. Congratulations for your thorough analysis of major issues in US life nowadays. Just positive improvement request : drop this annoying and useless background music soundtrack, it is tiring to listen and adds stress, preventing to focus on your discourse. Peace & Prosper.
Has a European. That must be horrible.
I would argue that maybe the difference is that is't not as much an adaptation as a coercion at this point in the US.
I hope you will be able to come back in France ♥