You will be living my youthful dream, congratulations on a wise decision.

I am so jealous of this grand adventure. Have the time of your life-you are going off shore!

and all the toil and trouble will have been worth it.

Congratulations!

I’m going through the same thing right now only I sold my condo in California and I hoping to buy a place in Santa Fe. I did all that furniture triage in the last few months in 2017.

Now the furniture I’m keeping is in storage in California. When I buy in Santa Fe I’ll have to go back, pack it all up again and drive it to Santa Fe and hopefully that will be for the last time.

I love France. One day....

Marseille is one of our favorite cities in France. Not over touristy.

Calanque and La Ciotat.

Visit the MUCEM and Fort St Jean(good cafe there near the bookshop). There are usually some interesting exhibits at MUCEM. The Panier district is great to walk around as in Cours Julien (a little rougher but still safe).
The tourist office on La Canebiere about 100 meters from the Vieux Port Ferris wheel is very useful.
Cassis is lovely. Eat at La Maison or Poissoinerie on the port. The calanques boat tours are multi lingual. Just past the lighthouse, perched on the point at Bestouan plage (the first beach out of the port) is the house that was used in the opening scenes of French Connection.
La Ciotat is okay, but Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer just a bit further along the coast has a much more laid back feel. And a flat sandy beach. If you're lucky you may see the Canadair's practicing, getting ready for the forest fires that plague Provence in the summer. They do circuits and bumps, picking up water from the Baie des Anges.
We could always meet for a coffee in Aix.

Always helpful. I appreciate it!

It's not my favorite Mediterranean dish, but very good.
https://www.loury.com/fr

Can you help?

Between Marco Polo and La Canaille on the port - Quai Calendal.
Rick Steves liked El Sol.
Check out Chai Cassidain 6 Rue Dr Séverin Icard le-chai-cassidain.com - Lovely place to have a quiet drink and buy some wine. Say hello to the very nice dark haired woman who runs it for her son. Her name is Pascale - Only speaks French. Tell her that Sam & Susan from Philadelphia and Aix said to come in.

I assume its just the two of you that are leaving. You will be happy once you get moved and settled in.

I'm quite envious, try though I might not to be. What an adventure. Do you know of a good site describing the pros and cons, things one does to get ready, how one can afford it....that kind of thing? I'd love that.

I have long toyed with the idea of moving to the south of England and using a small flat as a base of operations, with an eye to extensively touring the continent as I can, and the mood strikes.

The UK can't refuse me even a work visa, if I want one. All my grandparents were born in the UK, and grandfathers and father fought for King and Country. Worse came to worst, I could probably get an Irish passport, as citizenship by even a many-generations forebear qualifies, I've read.

Investigated a lot of sources.
I'm sure that there's an ex-pat Facebook group for Americans in England or Ireland. Just for your head, Ireland might be the better bet. Prices in England are insane, traffic in the southeast barbarous (get the BBC iPlayer app and listen to the afternoon drive shows on Radio 2. The traffic reports rival anything in the US as far as jams), and then there's the whole Brexit thing (and the Brexiturds).

Bon voyage

I am from Phila and lived in France shortly. Man, I am so jealous. Bon voyage!

Been considering New Zealand myself.
Never been able to learn languages -- computer language yes, but not tongues. They speak English over there.
Your post reminded me, when we moved in here about five years ago for a two-year stay, of all those cds and dvds and, yes, LP records from the sixties and seventies and until whenever we got our first cd player... We PAID guys to carry those boxes and crates to their truck and then to a basement closet here.
And I have a box of well-worn 45's from the sixties. I keep thinking there's a valuable one in there, but so far, what do I know?
We can't take anything with us if we move overseas. The piano has to stay. Oh, and did I mention the magazines from way back, documenting "The Revolution". LA Free Press before it became a porn rag? Most issues of The Realist. And two "Whole Earth Catalog" final issue.
Stop me, I'm getting nostalgic.

Have to liquidate everything to get to move there.

Thank you for the wishes!

Glad yours worked out well for you. Ours won't be so sweet.

Can no longer afford to rent in the PNW. Moving back to Mexico where my modest Social Security and small pension can keep us above water. Looking forward to the change of weather and the new life.

Everything must go, and that's going to really be hard. We've lived here for 8 yrs, and we've accumulated way too much. My heart is breaking, and my wife is not crazy about returning to her homeland. It just didn't work out for us.

Not sure how to wrap this up. Many a sleepless nights ahead. Time will tell.

Good luck to you in your new life.

So sorry it didn't work out for you.

All the best. I'm sure many of us are envious. I certainly am. Well, somewhat anyway; we can't see ourselves an ocean away from our three young adult kids at this point.

stuff. That’s stuff my wife and I accumulated along with 4 kids. 2 in colllege, 1 out of college and one starting medical school in June. And wife is a pack rat. Haven’t thrown a thing away in 31 years of marriage including kids stuff. Talk about stuff, We sold our shore house and now have stuff from 2 Homes in 1 house and a storage unit. Crazy this stuff definitely owns us lock stock and barrel. Just gave away 12 large trash bags of just my clothes many with tags still on to goodwill and that was just first pass through stuff. Have 2 more rounds of going through my stuff. I’m donating everything. It’s a daunting emotionally draining process. Finding things haven’t seen in 25 years. Where did the time go? Stuff, stuff, stuff, I’m drowning in stuff. Mother Stuffer.

1983 I was an exchange student living with a reverend and his wife in Australia attending University of Sidney. First night we are finishing up dinner (tea they call it) and my Australian mom asked if I wanted more food. I said no thanks “I’m stuffed “. Well she shot me a look in disbelief. The Rev told me they use the word “stuffed” differently there. Found out that Australians use the word like we use the word “ f_cked” so in essence I said told her “no thanks I’m f_cked” . Have since watched quite a few Australian shows and sure enough “get f_cked” is a often used term.

I've moved 4 times to 3 different states. At this time in my life I can't even imagine packing up another house full of stuff and moving again, never mind across the ocean.

They will clean out and sell everything down to the ajax. It's the only way to go in my opinion. You take what you want and they will deal with the rest and give you money.

They inevitably will have the name and number of a great estate sale person.

I am still toying with the idea of moving abroad after my divorce is final...but given how much energy it took for me to just
set up an apartment in Raleigh, I don't know if I could make a move abroad on my own in another year or two.

I wish you luck with the long-stay visa. I have an American friend in Lyon who just successfully applied for citizenship, but he is married
to a French citizen.

And Mrs GoS's Blue Cross will take care of her.
Need to investigate further. We're keeping an accommodation address here in the US. Until we don't need to.

I wish you peace, safe travels, and no regrets.

And my manual typewriter that I had since 1969.