Six months ago yesterday, we landed in France, full of hope and excitement for the adventure ahead. While the road has been bumpy at times, France has largely delivered a satisfying experience for us and we’re happy to have enjoyed it so far.

We’ve made a few purchases lately to enhance our French living experience. Most importantly, we bought a bed a few months ago when we moved into our rented furnished townhouse as our backs are always sore and good sleep can be hard to come by in sub-par beds. Last month, we bought recliner chairs for our living room as the metal-framed, tiny IKEA couches that came with the house were uncomfortable. Both of these purchases have improved our comfort and quality of life.

And now this…

Introducing our car, a tiny electric 2023 Fiat 500! We had planned to only use public transportation in France and the occasional rental car for semi-local exploration, but several things changed our minds:

• Grocery shopping and then dragging the bags onto the bus or walking the 20 minutes home is hard enough on a pleasant day. We can only imagine how challenging that would be in the rain and wind of January!
• We want to explore beyond the reach of the public transport network. Trains, trams, and buses don’t often go out to the chateaus and cute villages beyond the city edges and if they do, they might only run in the early morning and late afternoon, leaving us stranded on foot for a whole day in a rural, single bakery village. Greg has seen so much of the countryside from his bike, but with me not being a cyclist and him not able to stop to wander villages in the middle of a long-distance group bike ride, there is much to be explored at our convenience.
• There are many social, historic, and cultural things to do just outside the city such as summer concerts and evening events along the river and in the countryside. We can’t get there without a car and there are no Ubers or buses outside the venues late at night to get us home.
• Renting a car is very expensive since we have to buy the full coverage insurance package, which always costs more than the car rental itself. There are car shares, but that’s also a challenge for cost and availability.

We are excited to see what we experience in the next six months now that our semi-local reach has expanded. We’ll still use public transportation in the city as driving and parking in any city is unappealing, and we’ll take the trains to explore additional cities around France, but this option gives us the in-between capacity we need to fully enjoy this experience.