Posted on 11/08/2024 6:51:58 AM PST by aquila48
They moved to France from San Francisco in October 2023, but just over 12 months later, Joanna McIsaac-Kierklo and her husband Ed Kierklo say they are on the brink of returning to the US.
While Joanna, 74, and Ed, 75, intended to spend the rest of their lives in the European country, the retired couple have struggled to make friends and are becoming increasingly frustrated with French bureaucracy.
“We gave it a year here,” says Joanna. “And we just said, ‘Too much grief and no joy.’ There’s no fun. We’re struggling every day.”
“I honestly don’t think we could have put in any more effort to acclimatize to the French way of life,” adds Joanna, who describes their experience as “a nightmare.”
While they’re still working out the finer details of their imminent return, Joanna and Ed say that they’re “frustrated and exhausted,” by life in France and feel ready to “give up and leave.”
Uprooting their lives in the Californian city and moving to France was certainly not a decision taken lightly, they say.
Joanna and Ed, who’ve been married for 20 years, had already traveled the world extensively, both together and separately, beforehand.
“I didn’t get married till I was in my 50s,” says Joanna, who is originally from San Francisco. “So when I met my husband, we traveled.
“We have no children. No siblings. No parents. There’s nothing to encumber us doing exactly what we please.”
Joanna explains that she and Ed bought and sold three different homes during their first 15 years of marriage, “giving us a comfortable amount of cash to afford us the option to travel and even relocate to anywhere we wanted.”
(Excerpt) Read more at amp.cnn.com ...
But I doubt she learned anything!
My wife and I have been to several cities in the US where we said, Gee, I’d like to live here, but upon further and realistic review we found out the truth about those places and decided the grass was NOT greener on the other side of the fence.
Ha! France must be like Cal. on steroids
Gave up after a whole year of trying and became French surrender monkeys.
Moving back just in time for the new golden age......10 bucks says they don’t go back to San fransicko.....or crazyfornia even.
“’I honestly don’t think we could have put in any more effort to acclimatize to the French way of life...’ adds Joanna...”
Did you try wearing a Burka? *SMIRK*
The ‘French’ way of life is now prayer 5x a day, Lady!
That’s the same thing we’ve found. The grass is green on the other side of the fence, but not greener.
Living in America is easy!
That’s why millions are trying to get here!
When you short visit foreign country, it all looks rosy there, mostly because short term visitors are exempt from many laws and regulations.
Once you try to settle, you run into milliard of little things, you never thought it would be problem!
These people got rightly frustrated with French bureaucracy.
That’s probably the worst problem all Americans settling abroad face!
Every looney liberal should be forced to live in another country if they don’t like the US.
They hired a “relocation specialist” but later said they couldn’t find a primary care physician......I’d be asking for a refund.
CNN — No thanks (but I am sure CNN will thank you for helping it to stay in business).
Besides, those French have a different word for everything.
I’ve traveled all over the world and I have citizenship rights in Europe, but I have zero desire to ever leave the US. I certainly can’t imagine wanting to live in Europe.
sacré bleu , NO , stay
Not just any country.....anywhere in Central or South America.
Haven’t heard a peep outta Brittney Griner since she got sprung from a Russian gulag......a little more appreciative of our country I suspect.
Does not matter much where you live, but how you live that makes for a happy life. If you are miserable, a change of scenery is not going to make you happy.
I will be relocating to a different country by the end of next year, and this time I will be in America for my retiremnet instead of California.
These people may have messed up big time. They kept a rent controlled apartment in San Francisco as a backup plan but rent control goes out the window if you are not actually living in the apartment. Better hope the landlord does not read this.
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