How our move to France turned out for our family

In 2019, we moved from the city in the Netherlands to the countryside of Burgundy in France. We bought an old farmhouse that needed a full renovation. And fortunately, we didn't realize at the time how much work exactly that was going to be and how long it would take because now almost 7 years in, we still aren't finished. So, here you can see a bit of footage from all the work that we've done. And many of you have asked questions about what our life here is like. And so, I figured I would share a little bit about that in this video and share footage from our normal everyday life here. So, a lot of you have asked why Burgundy. We chose Burgundy as we actually did not buy this house with the intention of moving here. We wanted a holiday home that we could escape to and so it needed to be close to the Netherlands and Burgundy is about 7 hours drive from where we were in the Netherlands and so we figured it would be easy to come here for a long weekend or shorter stays. I love the landscape of Burgundy. It has such a lovely cute vibe to it. I like the vineyards on one side and then the green forests and the lakes on the other side in the natural park. Also, we are not as remote as some people think. Bon is only 20 25 minutes drive. It is a small city, but it's big in terms of all that it has to offer and how well known it is because of the wine. So, it attracts a lot of tourists. So, it is always lively and buzzing with life year round. It also has schools, the shops that we need, and that's only 25 minutes. Then we're an hour, not even from Djon, which is a big city. We're also only 2 hours from Leon. So whenever I feel like I want to really go to the city, I go to Leon. Uh, and we're 3 hours from Paris. We don't have any shops in our village. So there aren't shops that I can walk to, but we have a couple of villages at about 10 minutes drive. The one we go to most is Arneluk. It has everything that we would need. It has a post office. It has three supermarkets. It has a couple of cafes and restaurants, a hardware store, a garden center, gas stations, boneries. It has primary schools. It has a good private primary school. And the college, that's where you go to between your 11th and 15th year. I don't know if you say that. And as soon as you turn 15 in France, you go to Li. So our older son goes to Li in Bourne. He takes a bus. And our younger son goes to Li in Djon because of the specializations that he wanted to choose. And he is in boarding school. There is no bus that takes you there. And so I guess I can talk a little bit more about our sons and how they have experienced our move because a lot of you have asked about it and I know a lot of you who ask these kind of questions are also thinking maybe of making such a move yourself and worrying if that is going to work out for your kids. I know I was very scared and worried about how my boys would react to this, if they were going to be happy here. It is a big life change for us, but definitely for kids. They were eight and 10 when we moved. I will start with the biggest plus that our move I think has given me and my boys and us and our boys and that is that they have explored a whole new country a whole new culture. They have learned about how other people do things outside of you know the environment that we knew in the Netherlands and the people that we've always known. they have been able to explore and also I think when you explore a new country and a new culture you in a way also explore other sides of yourself and I think that is such an enriching experience and the other thing that I really really like as a mom and that my boys now also say they're grateful for is that they are triilingual so they speak Dutch of course and they speak French now of course they also speak English because a lot of the things that we do at home, the friends that we have, the things that they do online are in English. So they are fluent in three languages. I think that is a gift that you give your child when you move to another country. Not all children might be able to make that transition and be happy. We've been very fortunate to see that our boys were actually thriving in the French school system. That was definitely against all of my expectations. They have made friends and yeah, I can tell that they are different because they move within all these different cultures. We have American and English family. So, we have that culture, then we have the Dutch culture and the French culture. The downside to that is though that when you move countries, part of your original culture gets lost. I hate to admit it, but it's true. I feel less Dutch than before we moved here. I can't imagine how it must be for my boys cuz they've only lived in the Netherlands not even 10 years. And I do find it very important that they keep that part of their heritage because, you know, it defines us. It's who we are. And so what we do to make sure that they stay connected and we stay connected to it. Keep up with the Dutch traditions. And also things like stupid Dutch TV shows. If you're Dutch, you're watching this. We love ick for tech kind of shows that follow people who move abroad and build a new life somewhere and it's so interesting to see other people's journeys. It's a very popular show. But a lot of the things that we want to watch are only available to people who live in the Netherlands and that is why a couple of years ago I started using NordVPN and they are also sponsoring today's video. When you visit websites, these websites can see where you are. based on the server that your internet provider is using. So if I go online to this Dutch website, that website can see that my server is in France. And so it's going to tell me, "Sorry, this content is not available in your country." What NordVPN does is offer me the opportunity to establish an internet connection with any of their servers worldwide. I can go onto my NordVPN app, establish a connection with the server in Amsterdam, and then go to the Dutch website, and it will now think I'm in the Netherlands, so I can view this content. But I also use NordVPN service for my interior design consulting work. My clients aren't just in France, they're also, for example, in the US. One of the things I do for my clients is that I source furniture and decor pieces. Now I can search for all these things but that will give me results for France. So I will connect to a server in the US in this case and now when I Google for the same thing I get completely different results from stores that my client can easily order these items from. NordVPN also has a feature that other VPN services don't and it is their threat protection pro feature. This detects fake websites and web shops, so it protects me from getting scammed. And this is particularly useful so I am not advising my clients to buy something from a shop that isn't even safe. If you want to browse the internet safely and have access to content around the world, you can now get NordVPN with 4 months free on all 2-year plans and a 30-day money back guarantee by using my personal link nordvpn.com/frenchcountry life. Another question many of you ask me all the time is, do you feel like you have integrated in your local community? How have you been welcomed by the French? Now, I know a lot of people feel that the French aren't very open and maybe that they're even rude. I just have to say I do not agree. What I will say is that the French are more private and may feel more distant at first, but you have to understand that this is their way of being polite. In France, being friendly means that you do not ask too personal questions when you don't really know anyone. That you keep your space so they don't feel like you're an intruder of your privacy. Really, we have been welcomed extremely warmly in our community. And as long as you respect these codes, you actually learn that the French are very open. Our community, our village is very interested in learning about our life, about why we are coming here. We also have a really nice and friendly village. We have a lot of gatherings year round with all the people from our village. We celebrate the holidays together. And I think everybody in our village feels that it's important to have that connection. We look out for each other. We depend on each other. Here, for example, if there's an issue with lights going out in the streets or a tree that has fallen on the street or anything you can think of in the Netherlands, I would say, "Oh, I need to call the city and tell them that they need to come and fix this." And I quickly learned since we moved here that the city, that is us. We are running the village. If there is something like tiles fallen off a roof, we'll get some fences and put them around it and everybody's safe and put signs up. That is us. So, what this has done for me is that it makes me feel like I'm part of this community where we take care of each other, of each other's animals, and it's something that we all do together. And I think as soon as you don't lock yourself up in your house, you try to speak French, you try to connect with people, you will be welcomed very warmly. At least we have been welcomed very warmly. We have made friends. We have made French friends. Our boys have made friends. And although the interactions I have with my French friends will always feel different, it's just because you don't have the same cultural background. I think that is something that you will never completely overcome. You know, I always feel a little bit like, oh yeah, see that's not part of my culture, but I'm learning every day. And I feel that the people are very supportive. For example, when I don't know a word or when somebody's making a joke and I don't get it or when I make a silly mistake, people will just very kindly tell me or explain it to me. And so, they want me to feel part of the community just as much as they are. This is just what we do here. I can't even count the number of times where I have found cows running off or onto the street or sheep escaping, you know. Then you call the farmer, you call your neighbor, you take the sheep, you take the dog, you bring it back home, you get groceries for your neighbor when they're sick, you bring them soup. It is just what we do in a village, at least in our village. And I think being in such a warm village has helped us feel very much part of the community. Also, I think it helped that we had young children. Um, the first year I was just kind of getting to know how schools work here, but as soon as my oldest went to college when he was about to turn 11, I joined the school board. So I would be very involved in what was happening in the school. I also got to know a lot of local politicians. I have to be completely honest that is very useful when we later had issues with setting up our rental business. It's so much easier to just approach them when you meet them somewhere because they know you. It's, you know, it takes your effort as well to want to learn how things work in this country. I will say it wasn't always easy to attend all those meetings and listen to finance and numbers and stuff, but I did really feel like I was learning way faster about how things work in France. And yes, that is going to be extremely helpful when you have your kids grow up here. But again, I think the French will always appreciate it when you show them that you're trying to understand their culture, that you're trying to adapt to their culture, and that you try to speak their language. They are always just very charmed that you're making an effort. I mean, that's our experience, and I think that is just the minimum that you can do when you move to another country. And so overall, yes, we have really integrated into our local community and we're very happy that this turned out so well. >> One of the things I also have really learned to appreciate is knowing that the people who come out here and decide to live here are the people who are very much like us. That's people that chose the quiet of the countryside, people that want this lifestyle. And so I'm meeting a lot of like-minded people, which also really helps me feel at home here. And yes, life in France overall in general is really, really nice. I keep saying this, it is just very different from the Netherlands. It is much slower. People appreciate the small pleasures and that's been very enriching for me. But of course, it is also, let's be honest about it, really hard work for us. This was a very big change. Olaf had an office job up until 2015, working as a mechanical engineer and project manager. I had a business in training and coaching since 2007. So, we were doing office jobs, so to speak. And coming here has dramatically changed how we spend our days. So I initially kept my business when we moved here. So that business provided the income to do all the renovation works and to pay for our expenses and our living costs. And Olaf had already quit his job to join me in the business and work on some of his own project and start his own business. And so we could both just run that from here from France. So that was a really comfortable start for us. But at some point I felt like I was not completely here. Like part of me was still in the Netherlands. My team was still in the Netherlands. I was on calls with people in the Netherlands all the time. And at some point I just felt that I just really wanted to be fully here in France. So that's when we decided to quit that business, close it, and we needed to start something here. We needed to have other sources of income. And that's when we decided to open rentals, build the cabin, and then that was in 2022. Then we opened the cottage in 2023. And that was a whole new way of working and providing for the family. But we actually really enjoy welcoming people and sharing the beauty of this region with them. But it's also physically very hard work. And I think sometimes when people see somebody else living this kind of life, they don't really see everything that comes with it. At the beginning, I also had people like really comment things like, "Don't you need to work?" And I was always a bit upset thinking, well, what do you think it is I'm doing? You watch me garden and clean and cook and make beds. What do you mean do I not have to work? How does this not look like work to you? But I think there's a lot of mystery around how people actually make money on YouTube. So, YouTube makes me a little money through ad revenue just from YouTube ads. So, thank you for watching and not being annoyed by them. Please understand that when you allow ads on your YouTube, you are indirectly paying the creator for the work that they make for you to enjoy. So, that is one thing. Of course, when you have sponsored videos like this one, then we have the rentals and 70,000 other things that we do to make money. So, this is a way for us to be able to afford this kind of lifestyle and we really don't regret it. But it's been a very long way for us. We started in 2019. We still aren't finished with doing all the building works and gradually turning this into the big family home, the dream place that we dreamed of. But I do feel incredibly blessed that we've been able to create this lifestyle and to be able even to buy this house and turn it into something that we envision. I know that I have not been given anything. Um, don't get me wrong, it's not like we have rich parents or anything. We have worked for this. But still, it doesn't mean I am any less grateful. I mean, I know it's my merit, but it's also just feeling so blessed every day that we can call this home, that our boys landed so well here, that they're thriving, that we're thriving, that we have this lovely village, and all these wonderful people that we've met, all the wonderful people that book with us and stay with us. All of this are things to be incredibly grateful for. And yeah, overall it just turned out really, really well for us. And if there is anything that I can help you with. If you're considering making a move like this, you have any questions, please don't hesitate to drop them in the comments. If there's anything that I can see, anything intelligent about, I'd be happy to share. And again, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for being here, for watching my videos, for following our journey, for cheering us on, for letting us know you're here. That makes me feel very connected with people around the world, which I really, really love. So, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for watching today, and I will be back, of course, with a new video very soon.