We Left America Because Life Was Broken | Family Journey to Colmar France

I just found your channel and after watching a few videos I was a little worried it was an AI bot or just videos of France with music in the background. Nice to get an introduction to your family and situation. We are moving to France next year also in the Alsace region not far from Colmar. We visited Colmar 2 years ago as a possible place to settle but found a smaller town we really fell in love with. I hope your settling in goes smoothly and I look forward to hearing more of your experiences. Best of luck.

Have a marvelous new life. I lived in Lakeville for 20 years and I know Taunton. It's a small world!!! My fantasy in Quimper, in Brittany, but I'm single and older and have a different situation. Might never happen, but, dreams are a good way to get started.

Bienvenus en France

You check all the busiest places in the city and complain that there is too many people 🤦🏻‍♂️

The algorithm has got me here and I‘m glad it did. This is obviously none of my business, but I like the dynamic between you and your kids. You‘re joking about eachother and they don‘t seem to be afraid to speak their mind (and given they seem to be pre-teen/early teen, give em a few more years and I‘m convinced they’ll become pretty funny adults). Anyway, I wish nothing but the best for you and your family and that you enjoy a great future in Alsace. It‘s a lovely area and fortunately not too far from my home just across the border.

Dude you're already french! Hating on Paris for the right reasons 😂
Real parisian here, the only thing that keeps me here is my parents, I cannot wait for them to die so I can move out in the "campagne" (just kidding about dead parents but Paris is the most americanized city in France and it just feels! Like this sanity you came to find in Colmar cannot be found anymore in Paris to me)
Loving the message and "bienvenue en France" to your family 👍🏻

i admire what you’re doing. We did the same thing ourselves, from 2017-2018. Sold it all in California, gave away what Didnt sell, and packed what we couldnt live without. “Lived” between Malta and Ireland. Because we didn’t have legit residence visas, we did the shengen shuffle.
Our boys were technically adults, and they just weren’t ready to live in Europe. So, late 2018, we needed to go back to the states, to set them on their paths. It took 7 long years.
Summer 2024, we began to plot our escape. We planned, schemed and by December 2024, we had our long term visitor’s visa sticker in our passports. January, 17, 2025, we landed in Charles De Gaul. Took our train to Lyon, where a long term let was waiting. Found a place with a lease in the 4th arrondissement, validated our visas, and my wife and i were set!!
We quickly realized a few things;
1. Our Babbel French was woefully inadequate.
2. The year we spent abroad, compared to now, was totally different.
3. Life happens, and nothing is in your control….
In may, my wife was diagnosed with leukemia. Now, we are in France, not speaking the language, and forced to have a crash course in both French medicine and French administration. At the same time, scheduling our items to be shipped overseas and delivered to our apartment. Added to this, navigating the public transport of Lyon by myself, the pharmacies, paying bills, shopping for food, and doing my best to try and learn French as well as possible given all that was happening.

Then it hit me.
I was never stressed out. Were we scared? Of course. But we were in a panic? Were we massively shook to our core? Nope. We had insurance. I chose the highest level out of a gut feeling at the time. Our doctors took my wife by the hand, and told her she will be healed. And i believed her! The French social workers helped me with the French social security applications- which is the first step for Carte Vitale- and after being lost a few times, the bus to metro to bus daily ordeal became habit. And fun. While my wife endured the treatments, the sickness and the side effects, i made it to the French Assurance Maladie offices, and made sure our dossiers were complete. I learned that paperwork is king here, and having my American birth certificates and marriage license translated to French was invaluable, along with having all our records digitized on Dropbox for immediate access. Once she was in remission and home, we got our French bank accounts, and finally, last month, our items from the states!
My French is better, but it is still woefully poor. My wife has another 2 years of maintenance treatments. But the cancer is gone. Between our insurance, carte vitale and our mutuelle, we aren’t worried about being penniless. We’ve put in for our visa renewal- fingers and toes crossed! Life in Lyon, even with everything, is magical. We both wake up each day blessed to have had the nation of France allow us to be here. There is no place I’d rather be on this planet than France.
The last time we left, we were glorified tourists, never really having to REALLY live in a place.
Now we are residents. With all the rights and responsibilities therein. And I’d never trade a moment of it. Well, maybe the cancer part. Yeah, definitely the cancer part. But it has taught us important lessons, and made us stronger. It has shown us the humane side of humanity. The compassion side of compassionate. France has shown us what caring truly is.

Best of luck, thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing how your transplanted lives develop.

I am a Parisian and I must say you are perfectly right about the Eiffel tower area… It is a nightmare. Two things brought changes : first, the terror attack of 2015, after which fences were installed all around the tower, making impossible for people to walk freely ; the second : well, mass tourism. I am very happy that many people can travel nowadays, not just the rich. But it is true that we haven't yet found the solution about dealing with the amount of tourists. Try to see the Mona Lisa, and I guess you'll probably get a nervous breakdown even before seeing her 😂

best of luck in our old country, bud!

4:41 so you're probably the first people in the world who managed to use Wifi in the TGV 😂. Welcome to France 🎉