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PODCAST

Seeking Tranquillity in France

Stories and reflections from an American and Irish citizen living in France leavingamerica.substack.com

society & culture wilderness

All Episodes

10:12

My Irish driving licence exam

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/12/05

In the month before our departure from the United States to take up new jobs in Ireland in 2009, my wife and I sold our cars. We had been living in Arizona, the last territory to become a state in the contiguous 48 states, where all the roads were laid out in a grid, distances between point A and point B always seemed vast, and surviving without a car is inconceivable. Now we were moving to a country smaller than the three largest Arizona counties where one drives on the left from a steering wheel

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6:09

Cycling through life's transitions

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/09/26

One sometimes hears comments like “swimming is a sport you can pursue no matter your age.” Or it might be golf, bowling, or even pétanque. For me it’s cycling: pedalling here and there for more than 60 years.I remember my first bicycle, the one with training wheels that I rode slowly over the uneven turf of our back yard in Massachusetts. It was red, and the training wheels didn’t help me achieve balance until my father took me out onto the seldom busy street, held his hand on my back as he ran

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5:05

A banking tip for new residents of France

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/09/05

Whether moving as a citizen of the United States or from any other country to reside in France, one of the first steps is to establish a French bank account. It’s very likely that in certain contexts—such as in obtaining a property lease—having a French bank account is a non-negotiable requirement. Some might anticipate this and open an account with a French international bank (such as BNP Paribas) before making their move to ease their entry to France, others will do so soon after arrival (and U.S

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14:39

Recalling boys' magazines of yesteryear

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/08/15

Growing up I loved to read. There were always books to explore at home, many of them had been bought for my father when he was a child. Some of them I read over and over. I especially liked the books by Thornton W. Burgess which told of the lives of many colourful animals who lived near “The Smiling Pool” and were forever teased and tested by Old Mother West Wind. Old “Grandfather Frog,” sitting on his lily pad, often told tales that explained the origin or the nature of things. Before beginning his

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7:57

My favourite bilingual (and trilingual) dictionaries....

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/07/25

I’ve always enjoyed learning languages. As children my siblings and I were expected to learn French, at least up to a point. It was fun, and memorable—my sister and I recently spoke of those times and about the children’s books we read in French and how much we enjoyed them. Later, I found French classes in school a boring and repetitive chore, but eventually in high school the grammar drills ended and we started reading real literature. That got me re-engaged and restored my fascination with

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7:36

God, human folly and laughter

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/04/25

“There are three things which are real: God, human folly and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third.”—John F. KennedyI don’t recall precisely when I read these lines for the first time, but since that day, long ago, the words have never left me. From time to time I’ve wondered about the context in which Jack Kennedy spoke them, and was surprised to learn recently of their origin. They were written, not spoken, and were inscribed on a silver mug

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4:48

Le jour où mon ombre m'a parlé

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/04/17

Vivre dans un climat tempéré tend à éliminer les excuses pour quitter l’appartement et faire de l’exercice en raison du temps médiocre. Depuis que j’ai déménagé à Nice, j’essaie de profiter du climat agréable pour faire plus de marche aérobique—mes « marches rapides, » comme je les appelle parfois en sortant de chez moi. Le meilleur itinéraire que j’ai trouvé pour cela est de monter la Colline du Château depuis le port de Nice, puis de redescendre du côté opposé, pour arriver au pied de la Tour

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3:45

The day my shadow spoke to me

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/04/10

Living in a temperate climate tends to erase excuses to get out and exercise because of bad weather. Since moving to Nice I’ve tried to take advantage of the pleasant climate to do more aerobic walking—my “power walks,” as I sometimes say when heading out the door. The best route I’ve found for that is to ascend the Colline du Château (Castle Hill) from Nice Port, then descend from the opposite side, emerging at the base of La Tour Bellanda, an old defensive tower that is now a favourite tourist

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2:48

A French service for streamlining bureaucratic...

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/03/27

It’s one of those lasting stereotypes of life in France—coping with French bureaucracy. French residents and citizens complain about it, and it’s a commonplace among writers in the why-not-move-to-France cottage industry.But the Administration française actually provides an online tool to make one of the routine nuisances of managing bureaucratic tasks easier: changing one’s address, whether moving within the country, or moving to a location beyond its borders. It’s called the Changement d'adresse

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17:13

Reflections on Bureaucracy and Daily Life in France

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/03/20

A few decades ago while working in Massachusetts, I had an employee who was an Italian citizen, but a permanent resident of the United States. In fact, he was born in Italy to Italian parents who already lived in the U.S., and he had lived almost his entire life in America. It was his personal choice to not become an American citizen. He therefore had to make periodic visits to the immigration office to renew his residency and work permits—and everyone in the office heard in detail about the

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7:23

A musician's perspective on language learning

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/03/13

When I first began to work with computing technology—I needed a database to manage a combination of bibliographical and encoded musical information—I became acquainted with two consultants at my employer’s computing centre, one of whom was a musician. It was in this context that I first heard the assertion that “musicians make good programmers,” and indeed I came to understand over the years that this was something of a stereotype, at least in the years before ca. 2000.Being a musician myself I was

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11:29

An approach to adapting linguistically in France

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/02/26

If you’re a relative newcomer to France, have a basic knowledge of French and want to gain fluency in informal daily conversation, there are many possibilities that do not involve a computer or mobile phone screen. Some of these opportunities are sponsored by associations.Although I already had a good foundational knowledge of French when moving to Nice, Côte d’Azur at the end of 2021, our first months comprised a coming to consciousness of the French I had never learned, that is, the things that

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5:26

Getting involved with French community life -...

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/02/13

There is a large and growing cottage industry catering to people moving internationally, particularly from the U.S. to France. These range from individuals and couples who have moved in the past couple years and are now offering how-to advice on social media, to corporate relocation firms that can handle or assist with many of the logistics and administrative paperwork involved. Some of these services offer advice on getting settled and building a new network of acquaintances, but few speak about

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11:50

Why Nice (France)?

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/02/06

A question I hear frequently these days is, "Why did you choose Nice for retirement?” I hear it from residents of Nice most frequently (who probably can already guess some of the answers), but from others as well—including some Substack readers.There are many reasons why we chose to move from Dublin, Ireland to Nice, France when retiring at the end of 2021. It was partly from familiarity—we had made several trips to Nice and enjoyed two Christmas holidays there as a family. We appreciated the mild

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7:17

Is there a road home?

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/02/02

In several posts I’ve referred to my family’s departure from the U.S., which was motivated by an eminently practical concern: healthcare. Family health and well-being had not only become unaffordable, it had also become inaccessible due to the the industrial policy of not insuring individuals with “pre-existing conditions.” Subsequently the Affordable Care Act addressed the latter issue, largely by not challenging the myriad issues of healthcare costs.At the time, in 2009, I saw our departure as a

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10:34

Leaving Home, Coming Home

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/01/29

We arrived in Dublin, Ireland in September of 2009 to begin new jobs at Ireland’s largest university, which at the time identified itself as “distinctly Irish.” We had never travelled in Ireland prior to the trip my wife and I made to Dublin for the job interviews, although the maternal side of my family was also, well, distinctly Irish. In fact, I’d never given much thought to my Irish ancestry—it was simply something that was there, and was not a salient part of my identity. I quickly learned,

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9:02

The extreme price of prescription drugs in America

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/01/22

Living in France I still regularly hear stories about Americans’ experiences with healthcare—often focusing on the extraordinary cost of prescription drugs. The most recent tale involved a prescription for a three-month supply of Eliquis (Apixaban) for a person using a Medicare Advantage plan. The insurer had provided a “Copay card” pre-loaded with $750 to be used when purchasing drugs. The Eliquis prescription turned out to cost $1,781—so paying for the prescription required $1,031 out of pocket.I

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17:25

German (then) French (now) (Podcast)

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/01/18

Growing up I found the notion of speaking languages other than English intriguing. The experiences of learning French in childhood, learning German in early adulthood, then coming back to French later in life has been a fascinating cultural experience. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leavingamerica.substack.com

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11:53

They 'Haint Any (Podcast)

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/01/07

Jack Howard (1875-1971) was a noted outdoorsman who made countless expeditions in the woods of northern Maine and New Brunswick to fish, hunt, canoe, and to photograph his experiences. He ultimately came to feel that there was more sport in “hunting with a camera” than a rifle, and became ever more concerned about conservation. From 1915 onward he spoke regularly to groups ranging from sportsmen’s clubs to policy makers. He delivered the following remarks to an unidentified group of Massachusetts

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4:58

The French Winter Sales are Coming !

Seeking Tranquillity in France ·

2025/01/04

Chances are, no matter where you live, you expect there to be after-Christmas retail sales—an opportunity for merchants to sell over-stocked merchandise and to reduce inventory for an annual tax-related inventory. It’s often a great opportunity for consumers. And you might expect other kinds of sales throughout the course of the year as the seasons come and go and demand for certain goods rises, then ebbs.In France, things are just a little bit different. This is a public episode. If you would like

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24 results

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