Rachel Hosie and her husband moved to the Côte d’Azur shortly after getting married, hoping to make a home for themselves in the popular holiday region – but made an irritating discovery
A newlywed couple who relocated to southern France following their wedding discovered that what had initially appeared to be a brilliant decision had transformed into a complete disaster.
Rachel Hosie revealed she and her husband moved to the Côte d’Azur shortly after tying the knot, hoping to establish a home for themselves in the sought-after holiday destination.
Relocating partly due to her husband’s career, Rachel explained that after she resigned from her position and the pair sold their Hampshire property, they embarked on the nearly 1,000-mile drive and began laying the groundwork for their fresh start.
Possessing sufficient French to manage in both verbal and written communication, they anticipated that establishing a home wouldn’t differ greatly from doing so in Britain — but they were mistaken.
Rachel explained that the primary issue with attempting to build a new life in France was the bureaucracy — whether securing accommodation, arranging a broadband provider, or even managing daily bin collections, reports the Express.
All of this, Rachel said, generated a degree of exasperation in their new existence in a region where summer temperatures consistently soar to 40C.
Writing in the Times about their early experiences, she said: “It wasn’t long before we realised how naive that was. Honeymoon destination it may be, but life on the French Riviera isn’t all rosé by the sea.
“My husband and I speak passable French (for the average Brit), but that hasn’t stopped us feeling utterly out of our depth when it comes to bureaucracy and etiquette.”
Rachel revealed that the red tape was so overwhelming that they had resorted to carrying around stacks of paperwork, just in case they were needed.
She explained: “We’ve been told it may take the best part of a year to get our cartes de séjour (residency permits), and then there’s the carte vitale for healthcare, carte grise for our cars, and various other cartes.
“We’ve taken to walking around with thick wads of documents, including our marriage certificate and my husband’s job offer letter, as we’ve been asked for them for everything from registering our car to registering with a doctor.”
Despite the administrative nightmare, Rachel insisted she was still glad they made the move.
She remarked: “So, as I take the recycling out for the umpteenth time, I try to remember that there are worse places to start married life. But the bureaucracy? C’est terrible.”
Rachel isn’t the first British expat to spotlight the potential downsides of relocating to France, with one expat posting on Reddit about their dissatisfaction with life there, reports the Express.
User ‘k0zmina’ argued on the platform: “Here’s the big problem with France: terrible job market, very little diversity, and limited new business creation.
“The country is very centralised, as most jobs and opportunities are in Paris. Then there’s the issue of employers choosing to discriminate against you based on which elite, expensive school you did or did not attend.
“Networking — who you know — is a huge deal! Outside of Paris, it’s true the cost of living is lower, but so are salaries and job opportunities.
“Ultimately, you have cheaper rent and apartments but very expensive groceries, technology, and electric bills, etc., because of taxes and other factors I won’t get into.”