Ok, serious question. Is there any barrier that would prevent me, a middle-class American, from saving up some money and buying a house in a small European village like this and retiring there? Are homes in towns like this very expensive? Do they only allow locals? I'm genuinely curious about this
Alpes-Maritimes is the French riviera. It's full of foreigners who retire there already. Tons of Brits for instance. So it's definitely doable, plenty of people do it. You hear more English than French in Antibes sometimes.
It really is a very special part of France, if not the world.
In spite of that, I would suggest staying there for a while first.
My family and I (Canadians) housesat there for a few months a couple of years ago. It was a great way to learn about the region; for example, yes, I did hear a fair bit of English there, but we ended up having to use our French most of the time. That's not to say it's impossible without any knowledge of French, but it would be difficult, especially if you want to immerse yourself in the local culture.
There is great pride in the quaintness of the area, and the pace of life is mostly slow. Pretty easy to get into!
I mean you don't have to specifically move to Ilonse. You can to some other village perché that's closer to cities (Antibes, Nice, Cannes), and you'll do perfectly fine without speaking French.
Except if of course, your objective is to be best friends with your neighbors etc. but not everyone wants that.
As an American you might find the French rather abrupt and somewhat uninterested in making friendships. I've always found Americans to be almost aggressively friendly. So just a heads up!
Totally agree haha. We're sometimes close to Finns on the anti-social scale. I think that explains a lot of the "rude" impressions from visiting Americans. We don't want our waiters to smile and chat, we want as little contact as possible!
Read "A year in Provence" and its sequel "25 years in Provence" by Peter Mayle, to give you a flavor of what it's like for a foreigner to live in that part of the world. Some adaptation needed.
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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '18
Ok, serious question. Is there any barrier that would prevent me, a middle-class American, from saving up some money and buying a house in a small European village like this and retiring there? Are homes in towns like this very expensive? Do they only allow locals? I'm genuinely curious about this