Living and transitioning between two residences:
If you ask, most people will say that as they get closer to retirement, they want to travel. But what might travel look like? For some, it is one major trip a year; others opt for smaller trips sprinkled throughout the seasons. For a slice of the population, living for months at a time away from their “home base” is the best option — and they may even leave it for good.
Making the leap to Europe
In 2015, Carrie W, age 48, and her husband, Pip, age 64, visited his sister in England and hopped the Channel to Paris for a couple days. “We both loved it, so starting the next year, we decided to just go to Paris,” Carrie says. “After a couple years of going there, we started this pipe dream about what it might be like to move there.”
There were many things that attracted Carrie and Pip about Paris. For one, Pip is English, so the idea of returning to Europe for his retirement sounded appealing. Also, there is just something magical for them about the renowned French city. “In Paris, you’re like ‘Does anybody around here work? Because I’m pretty sure you all just sit in cafés and have coffee and wine,’” Carrie says. “The joie de vivre thing is real.”
Carrie downloaded real estate apps on her phone and began to peruse apartment listings in Paris, and they sold their real estate in the U.S. “It’s really hard to get a mortgage in France; it’s almost impossible for an American,” she says. They opted to budget based on what cash they had available from selling their property. “We wanted an apartment on Ile Saint Louis [one of two islands in the middle of the Seine near Notre Dame Cathedral] with a lift or no higher than two floors up on a budget that would basically be unheard of,” Carrie says. “To make things worse, I wanted a bathtub.”
Pip reconnected with a college friend who has been living in Paris for three decades, and it was this networking that helped them meet some expatriates and Parisian real estate agents. In 2022, they looked at apartments without luck, but as they made their way to the airport, Carrie found an apartment on her app. The real estate agent sent them a video the next day of an apartment that was a short walk to Notre Dame and checked all the other boxes. By the end of August, Carrie and Pip were owners of an apartment in Paris, but they didn’t see it with their own eyes until December.
They are now in a slow process of making the full transition to Paris, with one foot in Louisville and the other in France. They’re considering the logistics of things like moving their 13-year-old dog, how often Carrie can get back to the States to see her mom, and the process of getting a work visa. There are companies like Sanderling Expat Advisors and Ibanista that are helping Carrie and Pip make the transition smoother.
Continue reading part 2, South Carolina.
By Carrie Vittitoe
P.S. You may also enjoy Looking for an Adventure: How this couple travels in their Airstream
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