You don't say how you plan to support yourself, but indeed, getting a job could prove quite difficult. In any case, here's an interesting group blog on which many of the posters are ex-patriates in Paris. You could probably even email some of them directly for information if necessary. It's www.inparisnow.com

Also, Craigslist has a Paris site -- if I were you I'd be reading every post just to find out what's going on: paris.craigslist.org

I lived in Paris in the dark ages, when the only way to find an apartment was to try to find a flyer posted on the bulletin board at the Alliance Francaise...wish we had the Internet then!

If you're planning to move there alone, you're probably single -- it might be interesting to email some people from a site like Nerve.com just to ask questions, and maybe even set up an informal date when you get there.

Have fun, and bonne chance!

Just a word of warning to the letter writer: it is HARD to get a work permit in the EU unless you are an EU citizen or married to an EU citizen. Generally, work permits are only available to Americans whose companies/employers sponser them for a fixed period of time. Moving to France is a lovely romantic ideal, but the legal aspects of it are much more complex than Cary's letter suggests. My advice? Find a French citizen to marry or somehow get independently wealthy. Otherwise, by all means take a nice long sabbatical there, but don't plan on a permenant stay.

If the letter writer can't find a blog or a website about moving to France, I'm not too sanguine about the rest of the experience. There must be a dozen blogs, and plenty of people to give advice. Perhaps the writer isn't really looking for practical information, and just wants approval for this move. Or has not spent much of the day, idly Googling random word combinations, such as "expat" + "work permit" + France. (That combination turns up 25,300 hits.)

French or Foe by Polly Platt is a good book for the would-be ex-pat.

Amy Alkon would be a better advice columnist to consult--she lived in Paris, writes a syndicated column, is fluent in French, and is a witty writer besides.

I'm an American who's moving to France this summer, if the visa comes through.

I'm not even trying to get a work permit, though -- I'm going to keep working remotely for companies in the US. My wife and I speak French, we have friends who run a B & B we are moving in with (so we have housing free of charge already set up)... and it's still no walk in the park.

I think most people who've lived in their own country all of their lives are quite naive about emigrating elsewhere. My wife is Malaysian, and first moved to the U.S. in 1996, as a student. We were married in 2000, and she was only approved for condition-free permanent residence status a week ago, after two interviews with the INS (now Dept of Homeland Security), mounds of paperwork (including exhaustive "proof" that we are still married and living a shared life including tax returns, bills, photos, bank statements, etc.), applications being lost, multiple visits to DHS offices, etc.. Our application process was unusually long (it's possible to get through all that in only a few years) but I'm frequently surprised to meet people who think my wife was "automatically" a citizen on the day we got married.

Now remember that unemployment in France is much higher than here, and that labor has a lot of political clout, and you'll see why getting a work permit might be tricky (even if you're starting a business with the intent to employ French people, it's not simple).

I don't know the situation of the letter writer; has he/she travelled in France extensively? Speak French? Know people there?

I don't want to scare anyone off needlessly, but Cary's response didn't seem scary enough to me. Unless you're very wealthy, you don't move to another country as a curious experiment, as in "let's try France for a few months, then maybe India would be cool"; you have to be willing to endure a lot of frustration and do a lot of work to make it happen. If red tape and bureaucracy drive you nuts, if you get all confused when you read the fine print (and it's in French with no translation!), this may not be a project for you.

As far as information goes, see other letters; also, you will want to spend some time dealing with the French consulate in your part of the country:

http://www.ambafrance-us.org/intheus/consulates.asp

You can visit as a tourist (3 months max), but you can only apply for a long-sejour (long stay) visa from within the US. The consulate in Chicago has given helpful answers to our questions via email, which was nice.

What else? If you take my route and *don't* seek a work visa, you'll still need to show that you can support yourself whlie you're there (via savings and/or income), that you have health insurance that will cover you in France, your police record from the FBI, etc..

I just looked at the page on work visa requirements -- it's not very encouraging: "At the present time, the Office des Migrations Internationales only approves the work contracts for executives, seasonal workers for short term work and professional trainees." Working for an American company in France may offer more options, though.

So to the letter writer -- good luck, and I hope you find the next adventure you're looking for; if you know France is what you want, there's probably a way. If you aren't sure, make sure you investigate well before you quit your job here.

I've read a book by Victoria Pybus called "Live and Work in France" (not to be confused with "Living and Working in France," by David Hampshire, which I haven't read; I do notice that that one gets 4-star ratings on Amazon). The only review the Pybus book had on Amazon gave it only 2 stars, but that's because it pertains more to English people wanting to move to France than to Americans wanting to move there. This is true, it is geared to the English, but the book is a fine, informative book nonetheless.

One thing it was very clear about was that if you're not a European Union national, you may not move there to work without a visa; plus, those working visas are very hard to get. You must have a job offer from a French company to get such a visa; however, you may not visit France for the purpose of scouting out work beforehand (though practically speaking, I don't know how they police this). You must also get an Attestation d'Hebergement (a statement proving you have a home to reside in). Once you've gotten all this and gotten the visa, it seems a rather involved process even after that point. You have to register with the local authorities, the police if I remember correctly, and there seem to be a few visits required to the Ministry of Many Forms, and from there, to the Bureau of Getting the Forms Stamped, and from there, to the Office of Destination of Stamped Forms Yet with a Line of People Waiting for One Small Window Instead of a Dropbox. The book says that if you're lucky, you'll get a helpful bureaucrat who'll explain things to you, thank God, but if you're unlucky, you'll get staring, black-marble-eyes guy (you remember him, the guy mixing the drinks in that old Orelia commercial?).

An alternative, if it works for you, is just to go and rent an apartment for several months, and go on a regular tourist visa, without working, or even to take a Master's program at a university there (some of them teach in English). That way, though you'll go through some cash, you'll have the memorable experience you want, without the drudgery.

I have two friends who have moved to France. One of them, whose French isn't so good, is about to come back, and just feels out of place. The other, whose French is very good, has made a good life as a professional, and is happy as can be, decades later, and does feel at home. One thing's for sure: that country is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen, and contrary to stereotype, the people are the most cheerful, kind people I've ever met. There are some jerks in Paris, but that's big-city-itis, and there are fine people there too. I'm told that there can be difficulties if you're a person of colour, or if you don't speak French well. But if you get through the paperwork muddle, I think you're in for one of the most memorable experiences of your whole life. History, beautiful countryside, music/art/other high culture, and, yes, the food is the best in the world.

You know, if anyone else has done it, please write a letter and let us know how it went! Is the paperwork as hard to get as I'm making out? I'm starting to want to go too.