It has been one month since we returned from Alsace to Taunton, MA. This isn’t a quick update or a highlights reel. At 17 minutes, it is everything I could think of to show you the physical and financial friction of staying versus the life we found in Colmar.
I am showing you the dependency of the American car ride, the systemic neglect of the infrastructure, and the “Math” of a life spent in lines, stock rooms, and tax windows. This is the raw footage of why the decision to move is no longer a question for our family.
I am editing 4K on a machine that is struggling to keep up because the project was more important than the hardware. This video is a week late because I refused to cut out the boring, frustrating truths that most travel channels ignore.
📍 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)
15 Comments
So glad to hear that you’ve hired a realtor. Best of luck on the upcoming move and I’ll be rooting for you all for years to come 🎉
You're so Welcome in Europa mate, I really really Hope you Will find a way to move.
good luck and success for you! all the best and keep up the positivity!
s german.
Hard to argue, man, …. 😊
After the sub-prime debacle, hedge funds kindly stepped in to buy chucks of repossessed housing and your current rental prices are the reward :/
On vous attend avec plaisir. La France est un petit pays par rapport au USA, mais dés que vous avez vos visas, vous pouvez voyager dans toute l'Europe librement.
Are you trying to go back to Colmar or would you try a different city in France for your next foray?
In france after a few month working here, you can be covered by the same social system as french born : "la sécurité social". So the small amount of money you said you paid for doctor appointment and medicine when you came in holiday, would be reduced by more than half. Then, as you have a job, your employer has the legal obligation to offer you a "mutuelle" wich is an independant health insurance, that covers what is not already coverd by "la sécu" (basic health insurance). Your employer pays most of it, and theres a little portion left for you, directly taken on your salary. Most of the times, it's around 30-40 euros. But in the end, 95% of the time you DONT PAY ANYTHING for your medical care. Everything vital is covered 100%. Only "non essential" things like plastic surgery or higher quality than basic dental implants are not covered 100%. France is not perfect by any means, but i can safely say that regarding the "burden of medical bills" there's no comparison with USA. I just can"t understand how 340 millions of americans accepted such a system.
I think you answered my question at the end of the video. 🙂
Great video. I have subbed and will be watching with interest how you all make progress. You narrative hits the nail on the head. You vocalise what other people refuse to highlight in their videos on France because they refuse to criticise life in the U.S.
Hard to describe the "humm" if you have never experienced it….but I like how you describe it.
In terms of electric guitar pickups, you've found your "humbucker", that's Colmar🎸
france is not perfect, but still seems more human centered and less money oriented.
wish you to make it work in colmar.
It's mad watching the views, everywhere u go Ur an unwelcome stranger, nowhere to walk, the houses u pass are not sharing the space they own it, like u don't belong there Ur just passing thru, Ur not gonna stop n get out till u get where Ur going. I'd get so clostraphobic
And Massachusetts, as well as most of New-England, are reputed to be the areas the closest of the European way of living, I mean it"s not the redneck zone where there's moonshine in the baby bottle, it's not reputed for street gangs like the Bloods, the Crips, the MJ13, as well as not known for Hell's Angels activities but, in fact, this video really made me feel what you call 'the hum', actually, I couldn't help myself thinking about a quote from William S. Burroughs in The Naked Lunch: “America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil. Before the settlers, before the Indians… the evil was there… waiting.” and maybe because it's the Lovercraft country, actually, Taunton seems to give me a similar feel as his novels, I mean before things go bonkers in his novels, in the way he described the places, etc. Something like the city really looks lovely, calm et all, there are beautiful houses, a nice city square, but there is a tension in the air, you feel there's something wrong but you don't know what it is, something creeping in the shadows, you're just a few miles from the Cult of Dagon ruled area while only 1 hour driving north, you enter the Arkham zone…
I suppose I'll have to make you a list of all French movies that are the common cultural background for all, I mean the old cult ones (mostly comedies) of the likes of "La Grande Vadrouille", the Fantômas trilogy with DeFunès and Jean Marais, "Les Tontons Flingueurs", "Les Barbouzes", "Le Grand Blond avec une Chaussure Noire", "L'Aile ou la Cuisse", etc etc etc…
The must read comics : the "Astérix & Obélix" series, and these might be good ways to learn the language by having a good laugh, although I'm not sure all the humour will immediately work as it might be so deep rooted in our culture that some stuff may be hard to understand if you didn't grew up there, hard to say since I did…