‘I Moved to France for a Cheaper Retirement—Here’s What I Didn’t Expect’

In search of a cheaper retirement, sisters Jen McGuire and Kat McAfee set their sights on moving overseas to a little hamlet in the spectacular but lesser known region of Dordogne, France.

The pair had ditched their expensive way of life in Beacon, NY, in 2022, with its $1,500-a-month mortgage on their four-bedroom home, $475 monthly to commute to a job on Long Island, and up to $600 a month to heat their poorly insulated house each winter.

“We saw that we could not afford a decent home in any areas of the U.S. that we would enjoy living in,” McAfee, 69, tells Realtor.com® of their retirement plans.

The sisters began looking abroad, researching the usual countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, and Portugal, and even considering a $1 fixer-upper in Italy.

Eventually, they settled in Dordogne, a castle-dotted region situated between the Loire Valley and Pyrenees mountain range. The region is revered for its Roman ruins, medieval towns, and prehistoric cave paintings in the Vézère Valley.

The sisters sold their Hudson Valley home for $315,000 and bought a two-bedroom Perigord-stone house—McGuire guesses it is “over 200 years old”—with a gated garden for approximately $89,000 and an extra $2,700 for the furnishings.

They applied for and received one-year Carte de Sejour Temporaire visas, renewed each year, which required them to prove minimum monthly incomes of about $1,200 each. They also had to show proof of private health care and a place to live.

After moving, the sisters and their five cats settled in for a more exciting and hoped-for cheaper retirement than the U.S. would have provided them.

But the move abroad also came with a host of unforeseen challenges, leading to their putting their home on the market.

Here are some things the sisters want to warn aspiring expats:

Don’t assume you understand the weather

McGuire says she thought that they had done their due diligence when it came to the weather.

“We looked at weather for the region going back a year,” she says.

While they didn’t expect the warm, sunny days of Spain or Greece, neither did they expect heavy rain every single day for almost their entire first year.

“I felt like I was rotting from the inside,” she recalls. “It’s the wettest place I’ve ever been. Everything just rots and gets moldy.”

She tells of walls that bloom with mold, paint that peels with moisture, and having to run three dehumidifiers all day long. She says her sister runs her clothes in the dryer before putting them on because they come out of the closet and drawers damp.

Would-be expats should do a deep dive on weather, she warns, especially as climate change pushes the weather of many countries into extremes.

If McGuire had looked at Dordogne weather patterns for the past decade, she would have noticed that the region’s precipitation levels had been higher than average.

She admits she should have visited Dordogne expat groups on social media and asked what the weather was like.

“We didn’t speak to anybody,” she says.

She warns not to rely on your real estate agent for an honest weather report, either.

“She would have never told us about all the rain,” she says of her agent with a laugh.

On the plus side, McGuire says the weather has lately improved.

Understand how to get your driver’s license

Before you toss your U.S. driver’s license in the trash, understand the rules of how to get one in your new country.

McGuire doesn’t drive, so McAfee took online classes three times a week along with many hours of study to prepare for a driver’s test that included a rigorous written exam—in French.

“The driving part was fine,” McGuire says of her sister. “But the written part was incredibly difficult, and made even more so because she had to do it in another language, one she had just started learning.”

France has both theory and practical driver’s exams—something McGuire finds comical.

“The French are the worst drivers in the world,” she says. “As soon as they pass the exams, they forget everything.”

McGuire laments that her sister didn’t take advantage of the reciprocal driver’s license agreements between foreign countries and many U.S. states. This allows people living abroad to be issued a driver’s license for their adopted country without taking exams.

Agreements vary by state, so check with your local Department of Motor Vehicles to find out in advance whether a reciprocal agreement exists between your state and your adopted country. 

France honors driver’s licenses from 18 states. While New York isn’t one of them, McGuire says her sister could have stayed with her daughter, who lives in one of the honored states, and gotten a license there.

Be aware that in some countries, the reciprocal agreement is temporary. However, it should buy you plenty time to study for the permanent license.

For McAfee, the third time was the charm before she was able to pass the exams and get her license.

Living abroad might be pricier than you planned

The main thing that surprised McGuire and her sister was that the cost of living wasn’t as low as they’d hoped.

Wine, health care, and vet care were all pleasantly cheaper.

“You save a bundle there,” McGuire says.

But other costs were much higher.

Take utilities. The sisters pay about $175 a month, or $75 more than what they were paying in the States. Yet they hardly run any appliances or their electric heaters.

What they do run, they try to do in the middle of the night, when utility rates are cheaper.

The price of gasoline is “horrendous,” the sisters say. It costs approximately $8 a gallon, and unlike where they lived in the States, there is no public transport.

Groceries have also become more expensive. McGuire says they spend about $55 a day on food for themselves and their pets.

Their TV, internet, and cellphone bundle runs about $135 a month.

“That isn’t that bad, but it’s not a lot cheaper either,” she says. “Which is what we were looking for.”

Because of the unexpected higher cost of living, the sisters have decided to offload their house for a less expensive one. It is currently on the market for $107,000. The sisters recently received a full-price offer.

Is it all worth it?

McGuire says none of the downsides of her adopted home are enough to make her want to leave.

“There is so much beauty here,” she says. “I can’t get enough of these gorgeous houses and castles. And the people are so warm, friendly, and so patient with butchering their language. They are very generous and not preoccupied with money, religion, and politics.

“Nothing I discovered about living here would have changed my mind, but they might change someone else’s,” she says. “We love it here, but a big move like this isn’t for everyone. There’s a lot you have to consider.”