After moving to France in 2023, this couple from California has decided to return to the United States soon. At issue: the difficulty of the French to socialize and the inconsistencies of the administration.
They wanted to see life in roses and spend their old days in France, yet they decided to take a one-way trip to their country of origin, reports CNN. Joanna and Ed McIsaac-Kierklo, an American couple in their sixties who moved to France last year, want to return to the United States as quickly as possible.
These traveling birds, who fell in love with the south of France in the 2010s after a two-month stay in Nîmes (Gard), can no longer stand the lack of sociability of the French and… the complexity of our administration.
“Every day we suffer”
After an entire year spent in Nîmes, the couple regrets having left everything in California to settle in a region of the world where, it seems, “there is no joy”. “Every day we suffer,” Joanna McIsaac-Kierklo sums up CNN, speaking of a “nightmare.”
Although delighted to live in the land of veal blanquette, beef bourguignon and bouillabaisse, the two Americans nevertheless failed to appreciate French gastronomy on a daily basis.
According to Joanna McIsaac-Kierklo, it is difficult to find fresh produce on sale in stores that is satisfactory. Hard blow for this American who realized on the spot, as detailed by CNN, her disinterest in the country's food.
“People say, 'Oh my god, French food is so fabulous.' Yes, if you want to eat brie, pâté, pastries and French bread all day, but who eats like that?” she spoke to CNN.
Exhausted by the French administrative burden
Although the United States is also concerned by bureaucracy, the two Americans consider that in France, administrative obstacles can quickly prove insurmountable.
Together, they point out the lack of coherence of an administration considered too complex compared to what exists in their country of origin. “Things are very difficult to understand here,” Joanna told CNN. “You get used to your period, I suppose.”
But beyond the administration, there is a whole system that the couple cannot understand. And for good reason, after consulting six different general practitioners, none of them agreed to treat her. The reason? All refused to take on new patients.
Mayors issue a decree to prohibit getting sick
A situation that many French people know (and often criticize), but a surprising reality for Joanna and her husband Ed. “I would like more people to show the unpleasant side of France”, she explains to our American colleagues from CNN. “We have a flight going back to San Francisco in January, and I don't think we're going to come back. I don't want to say we failed, but it didn't work.”
