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Being Yourself in France: Embracing Your Identity Abroad

Being Yourself in France: Embracing Your Identity Abroad and Jacques’s Garden Salsa Recipe Dear Friends, I hope this letter finds you all in good spirits, ready to embrace the colorful autumn season ahead. As someone who holds both French and American citizenship, I often think about what it truly means to be yourself—especially when you’re living across an ocean from where you began. After moving from the genteel American South to the rugged West, and eventually to France, I’ve become a hybrid of all three. Each place shaping me, overlapping new perspectives over roots that were never deeply planted—shaped by not knowing my grandparents very well (they all died when I was young) or my Dad’s extended family. And by moving across the entire country as a teenager. Such early experiences of change and movement! France is a country that values individuals (think René Descartes, Sartre, Gainsbourg, etc.), but is also steeped in tradition. At first, I fretted about blending i…

How do you translate… ?

Newcomers, stay with us here: you might need this some day. Old-timers, has something like the following happened to you? You’ve moved to France and after several weeks, your nice bakery-lady realizes that you’re not a tourist but a bona fide resident of the quartier. She’s always found you genial, so one day she tries her luck, saying in French, “I want to put a sign in the window about all our offerings, to attract English-speaking clients. I would be thrilled to translate it myself, as I know a bit of English, but I’m not familiar with specific words related to gastronomy. Could I ask you to do me a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig favor and translate it? It’s not long-only three paragraphs. That said, please feel free to say no.” Several months go by and you find a job. You get along well with everyone, from the floor sweeper all the way up to the CEO. On your way out to lunch one day, the receptionist corrals you and says in French, “My son is looking for an internship in the UK…

History, Politics and… Camemberts

by Bernard Richard, Historian

Camembert is one of France's gastronomic emblems along with the baguette, champagne, coq au vin, wine and many other products that make up the French identity.

According to a well established, but undocumented, legend the cheese called camembert was created in about 1791 by a certain Marie Harel, a milkmaid whose statue was inaugurated by the French president in 1928 in the town of Vimoutiers, which is the administrative center down the road from the village of Camembert. Vimoutiers is in the Orme department in Normandy. The story goes that Marie, during the chaos of the Revolution, gave refuge to a priest who came from Brie, east of Paris, and that to show his gratitude the priest gave Marie the famous cheese recipe. But in fact much earlier, around 1705, Thomas Corneille, brother of the playwright Pierre, already wrote of the good cheese from Camembert.

The round boxes…

From Visitor to Resident with EasyFranceNow

From Visitor to Resident: How to Make the Leap Without Losing Your Mind You came to France on a visitor visa, or maybe you have been stitching together long stays, and somewhere between the boulangerie runs and your first real Paris winter, it stopped feeling like a visit. Now you want to stay. Going from visitor to resident in France is absolutely doable, but it is less a single decision than a sequence of administrative moves, each with its own timing, its own paperwork, and its own small ways to trip yourself up. The good news is that the path is well marked once you know the order. The catch is that France rarely explains it to you, and 2026 added new requirements that caught even long-settled Americans off guard. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute immigration or legal advice. Rules change, and your situation may differ: always verify current requirements with the relevant French authorities or a licensed immigration professional. What…

Small Is Good: Les Petits Plaisirs

by Harriet Welty Rochefort

A minuscule espresso, a petit piece of chocolate, a morsel of sharp cheese, a half-filled glass of wine: the French prefer tasting and sipping to gorging and guzzling. Small is good.

Small Size, Large

When I came to France, I discovered small. It seemed that everything was diminutive, and the word petit was everywhere. I go on a petit tour around the block to drink a petit café. Then I may do a few petites courses (small errands) before I wend my way back to my definitely petite home sweet home. On the way I might sample a piece of fromage, but it won’t ruin my appetite, samples being petit (as in thumbnail). Time for dinner? The meat or fish and accompanying vegetables barely fill, and certainly don’t overlap, the plate. My wineglass is not filled to the brim.

Do you wonder why the French aren’t fat? Here’s the answer: portions are petites.

In Ame…

Navigating the Tax Maze: U.S. Taxes for Americans Living in France

Navigating the Tax Maze: U.S. Taxes for Americans Living in France — FAQ Living the vie française comes with world-class healthcare, incredible food, and a high quality of life. However, it also comes with a unique set of administrative challenges. For American expats, the most complex of these is often the U.S. tax system. Because the U.S. is one of the only countries that taxes based on citizenship rather than residency, your tax obligations don’t end when you cross the Atlantic. Below are the most common questions Americans in France ask, with clear, practical answers to help you stay compliant. Do Americans living in France have to file U.S. taxes? Yes. The United States taxes its citizens and green card holders on worldwide income, regardless of where they live. If your income exceeds the IRS filing thresholds, you must file a U.S. tax return every year—even if you already pay tax in France and haven't earned a dollar in the States for years. Do I have to pa…

Paris Metro station names

It is said that the entirety of the ancient world’s knowledge could be found in the Royal Library of Alexandria (Egypt), built in the third century BCE. That might be so, but for what sometimes seems like the entirety of the modern world’s promulgators of, places for and perks from knowledge, all you need do is take out your Paris Metro map, nestle into a quiet corner and wish yourself bon voyage through the encyclopedia of station names*: Following the famous? (You may have to look some of these folks up, and we’re leaving out ones whom even your French fellow commuters might not know!) Alexandre Dumas, Anatole France, (Bibliothèque)-François Mitterand, (Bobigny)-Pablo Picasso, Bolivar, (Champs-Elysées)-Clemenceau, Charles de Gaulle-(Etoile), (Chaussée d’Antin)-La Fayette, Emile Zola, Félix Faure, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George V, (Javel)-André Citroën, Michel-Ange (of Sistine Ceiling fame), Pasteur, Pierre et Marie Curie, Robespierre, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, etc. Jumping …

Paris Lost & Found

Maybe it was the early job at a uranium mine. Perhaps it’s his fascination with the Paris catacombs. For whatever reason, acclaimed author Scott Dominic Carpenter relishes telling stories from beneath life’s mundane surface. A professor of French literature and creative writing at Carleton College, Scott Dominic Carpenter’s books include the 2021 Midwest Bookstore Bestseller French Like Moi: A Midwesterner in Paris, for which he was given a Next Generation Indie Book Award, and This Jealous Earth, a collection of short stories and Paris Lost & Found. In 2018, Carpenter won the Mark Twain House Royal Nonesuch Award, a national humor writing contest. His award-winning first novel, Theory of Remainders, a Kirkus Best Book of 2013, is currently under option by a major motion picture production company. Always searching for the next unexpected story, Scott Dominic Carpenter splits his time between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Paris, France.

List…

The Soul Trembles, Chiharu Shiota Exhibition

Chiharu Shiota Born in Osaka, Japan in 1972, Chiharu Shiota has been living and working in Berlin since 1997. She initially studied painting in Kyoto but, realizing that this medium had too many constraints and too much history to her taste, she turned to woven thread, making it her own paintbrush. In her work, she takes her personal experience and turns it into a universal one, by allowing the viewer to project their own story onto her work. This stands true for the work featured in the The Soul Trembles, held at the Grand Palais until March 19. Organized in conjunction with the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, this is the artist’s largest ever exhibition in France. Spanning over 20 years of Shiota’s career and featuring installations, sculptures, photos, drawings and videos of past performances, it is a perfect way to get acquainted with her work. It is also a great opportunity to visit the Grand Palais, which closed in 2021 for renovations and reopened briefly for the Olympic Ga…

Don’t Miss Out: A Guide to Recovery Rebate Credit for U.S. Expats

Don’t Miss Out: A Guide to Recovery Rebate Credit for U.S. Expats If you’re one of the many U.S. expats who are owed the 2021 stimulus money, you can still claim it through Recovery Rebate Credit. While it is too late to request a refund for the 2020 stimulus check, 2024 is the last year to get the 2021 stimulus check you might have missed! It will either boost the amount of your tax refund or reduce the taxes you owe to the IRS. Either way – you win! Don’t miss out on the opportunity to get the money you’re entitled to. Keep reading to find out how the credit works and what makes you eligible to qualify. What is Recovery Rebate credit? Recovery Rebate Credit is part of the Covid-19 Economic Relief program. The credit makes it possible for those who didn’t receive Economic Impact Payments (also known as stimulus payments) to claim their missing money. So if you were eligible for stimulus payments but did not receive them (or you received a partial payment), you can claim…