I may be in Australia now, but France will always have a piece of my heart.
My first taste of international travel was a trip to Paris and Provence with my mom when I was 11. I spent a summer in Provence when I was 16, a summer in Paris when I was 19, had mother-daughter shopping trips to Paris/Nice/Monaco on my long winter breaks at university–and most recently, I lived in Nice for seven months. I still haven’t ruled out returning to France for good–so when World Nomads asked me the best ways to work, play and stay in France, I happily obliged:
Work
I was sneaky when it came to working in France: basically, I managed to find hospitality work under the table with a creative interpretation of my student visa, a disarming smile and a stroke of lucky timing.
France has a high unemployment rate and a high rate of (both legal and illegal) immigration; thus, it’s not particularly easy to work there as a foreigner. If you have an EU passport, you’re golden. If you don’t, you need to find a job before you even think about moving there. Then you’ll have to get a work permit, a visa de long séjour, go to France and then apply for a carte de séjour. This being France, plan for plenty of red tape and workers with a creative interpretation of “customer service.”
For native English speakers between the ages of 20 and 30, a great way to spend a year working in France is the English teaching assistant ship program.
Play
France is the most-visited country in the world. For fashion, culture and architecture–and the world’s most famous museums and tourist attractions–head to Paris. Cruise through castles in the Loire Valley. Dash around the mountains overlooking the beaches in Nice. Party like the stars in St. Tropez. Take the ferry to see the clear waters and rugged mountains in Corsica. Relax in Provence. Sip the real bubbly in Champagne and Bordeaux. Enjoy Mediterranean views and some multiculturalism in Marseille. Eat–and eat a lot–in the gastronomic capital of Lyon.
Stay
The biggest hurdle to Americans who want to stay in France: the Schengen Agreement. It prevents you from staying in any country that is part of the Schengen Agreement–much of Western Europe–for more than three months at a time. If you want to stay longer, you need to obtain a long-stay student visa, a work visa or get married to an EU citizen. A great way to do this is via the Alliance Française: studying French can be an excellent way to immerse yourself in the culture, and this cultural organization can assist with setting up a home stay, finding an apartment and any visa questions you might have.
The ‘Blog your Backyard’ ProjectShare your local expertise and join the Blog your Backyard project! Become an ambassador for your country (home or adopted) by sharing your experiences and tips with other travelers. Submit your entries starting August 8th on WorldNomads.com for a chance to win one of 20 awesome excursions with Urban Adventures. Plus, if you want to share more of your local expertise or get answers to all of your travel questions, download the FREE ‘Ask A Nomad’ iPad app.
The World in my Oyster
We pick-up our story with SpunkyGirl moping around the Detroit airport…
As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Delta gave passengers meal vouchers and a hotel voucher when our flight was cancelled at 4:00 a.m. (10.5 hours after we had started to board). At first I wasn’t sure if I’d actually use the hotel voucher as I was keen to get out of Detroit and wanted to find a flight that was earlier than 7:15 p.m., but I was tired. I slowly (and painfully) made my way to the baggage carousel to pick-up my backpack and walked down to the Hotel transportation area to wait for a shuttle to take me to the Quality Inn. The line was huge. After 30 minutes I gave up and went back into the terminal to see if I could get myself onto an earlier flight.
I bounced back and forth between the hotel transfer line (which was quite large each time I went) and trying to find an earlier flight out of Detroit. Thanks to my Twitter addiction, I had been tweeting with someone from Delta, who was working on finding me new flights while I waited in the terminal. Thankfully they were able to find a flight going to Atlanta at 1:40 p.m. and then a flight going to Amsterdam at 5:30 p.m. I snatched at it immediately. I’ll go anywhere as long as I can get out of Detroit!
With new boarding passes in my hand, I headed to baggage drop-off and made my way to security. This is where I left the 7th level of travel hell behind and entered the 8th. I was selected for a very thorough pat down.
The female TSA agent collected my things off the conveyor belt and let me to a spot facing the wall. As I stood there, passengers were walking past me. The small black carpet was rough and bumpy on my bare feet and my foot/ankle was getting very sore. I listened to her explanation and tried not to think about it. I could be a tough girl. I could handle this. As it turns out, I was wrong. I was not feeling tough and I could not handle it. Tears streamed down my face as I was patted down very thoroughly by the female agent. Passengers were walking past me, looking, whispering. My foot was in pain. I was over-tired.
I didn’t turn around after my examination was completed. I silently put my shoes on, repacked my carry-on bags and tried to slink away -wishing my face was not so red and my eyes were a little drier. I walked back into the quiet terminal, found what looked like a comfortable small square leather chair and sat down. The chair was not comfortable, but I’m so tired that I don’t care. I need to have a nap, but sleep would need to wait until my flight to Amsterdam.
I boarded my flight to Atlanta with positive thoughts. I didn’t want anything to jinx my flight.
I sat in my exit row seat at the back of the plane and struck up a conversation with the woman two seats over. She was friendly and very easy to talk with. As the planed began to fill, a flight attendent who was commuting back home to Atlanta sat in the seat between us. It wasn’t long before the 3 of us (including 2 of the working FA’s) to strike up a conversation about travel, and of course, bad flight experiences. I wasn’t the only passenger on the flight to Atlanta who had been on DL242, so it didn’t take long for the story to make it’s way around the cabin. It was interesting to hear the version form the FA’s on our flight as we hadn’t been given a lot of information as passengers. As I told my tale of cancelled flights, broken plans and a need to get to Nairobi by the 31st, I could feel myself letting go of the frustration and putting away my inner drama queen.
We chatted, we laughed and by the end of the flight we were talking about this blog (which came up in a random conversation). I am so grateful to flight DL1108 for getting me out of Detroit and allowing me to connect with wonderful people who reminded me what I love about travel.
The remainder of my flights were uneventful. My seat was comfortable. I navigated the airports quite successfully and most importantly, I slept. A lot.