An expatriation report by Sylvie Simon and Christof Willen.
On 19 August 2024, we, Sylvie and Christof, took the plunge and moved to France. We had bought our house in September 2021 and spent every third weekend there over the following three years, using it as our résidence secondaire (holiday home). Even before relocating, we had already gained first-hand experience of French tradespeople, the country’s bureaucracy, the level of digitalisation, the challenges of getting through by telephone and the seemingly endless waiting times on hold.
During that period, we tried to gather as much information as possible about moving to France. We felt we had done a fairly good job. But, as is often the case, you never have 100% certainty. Information found online is not always reliable, sources often contradict one another, legislation changes over time, and everyone seems to have their own version of how things work: “That’s how it was for me.” On top of that comes the human factor. Cases are not always handled or assessed in the same way, and the complexity of French bureaucracy can sometimes feel like an obstacle course – even for the civil servants themselves.
Here are a few examples that certainly kept us on our toes.
CPAM – The French State Health Insurance Scheme
To bridge the gap, we took out travel insurance covering a period of three months and applied to join the French state health insurance scheme immediately after our arrival in France. To do so, we made a special trip to our local CPAM office and submitted our application in person on 5 September 2024. Until you are issued with your Carte Vitale, there is no communication by email and no online account through which you can manage your case. Everything is handled by post, or so we were told by the member of staff dealing with our application. As two documents were still missing, I sent them by post afterwards, which brings me neatly to a short detour about the French postal service.
La Poste
For many French people, La Poste is a disaster. I sent my letter using a Sticker Suivi (tracked mail label) so that I could be sure it would actually arrive. Instead, it spent three weeks travelling around the country before finally reaching the correct destination. By then, we had once again made the 40-minute journey ourselves and handed in the missing documents directly at the office. Parcel deliveries via Colissimo, on the other hand, work very well—now that our postwoman actually knows where we live 🙂 Which brings us nicely to the next topic.
Deliveries by UPS, DPD, GLS and Other Couriers
As we live in a very remote location, the couriers struggled to find us at first. We received countless phone calls from drivers trying to locate our house, while we attempted to explain the route over the phone. Nowadays, we provide our GPS coordinates with every order. More often than not, however, this information never reaches the driver, or they simply do not make use of it. If they have a sat nav, it frequently sends them down impassable tracks instead, which understandably does little to improve their mood. We have even put up three wooden arrows pointing the way to our house. By now, most of the drivers know where we live, and things are gradually improving.
Back to the Health Insurance
After many follow-up phone calls—some of them rather emotional—asking about the status of my application, I finally received a phone call on 28 November 2024 confirming that I had been accepted into the CPAM with immediate effect. Our travel insurance was due to expire at the end of November, and we had already started arranging an extension, which we were fortunately able to cancel again. I was told that I still needed to submit my birth certificate and that I would receive a letter within the next few days. The letter did indeed arrive and contained my temporary health insurance certificate. Our case was somewhat unusual. Had we been employed, we would have been admitted to the CPAM immediately, as the application is submitted through the employer. However, we were classified as “personnes sans activité”—people without professional activity—which does not mean unemployed, receiving social benefits or (yet) retired. As a result, our application was forwarded to the CREIC (Centre des Ressortissants Européens Inactifs CMUistes), which deals with economically inactive European residents under the French health insurance system. This added yet another layer to the process and delayed everything considerably. We may not even be EU citizens—but apparently that did not matter. I assumed that Christof’s confirmation letter would arrive shortly afterwards. It never did. Which brings us to the next topic.
Communicating in French – Especially on the Phone
My French really isn’t that bad, but making phone calls in France is a genuine challenge. People often speak far too quickly, so you have to ask them politely to slow down. Sometimes they do… and sometimes they don’t. On top of that, these conversations are conducted in an official administrative language that was completely unfamiliar to us, full of elaborate expressions and wonderfully inflated bureaucratic terminology—a field in which the French truly excel. And in general, for every French word we learn in Switzerland, the French seem to know at least another five different ones.
Fortunately, there’s DeepL 🙂
In any case, I never fully understood every detail of those conversations, and it never occurred to me that they were talking exclusively about my application.
There Was No Application for Christof 🙁
After several more phone calls, it eventually became clear that no application for Christof had ever been submitted. His name had occasionally been mentioned during previous conversations, but only in connection with my own application. The misunderstanding arose because the CPAM application form is laid out in two columns. My personal details were entered on the left-hand side, while Christof’s appeared on the right. Every conceivable piece of information about both of us was included. On the following page, we also had to declare both of our savings. Naturally, this gave the impression that the application covered both of us, even though only I had signed it. Well… I know better now!
That misunderstanding eventually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. But more on that in a moment. Christof therefore had to extend his travel insurance. On 8 January 2025, I submitted a new application to the CPAM, together with a polite covering letter, by registered post. I explained, as courteously as possible, that the form had been somewhat misleading and that we would very much appreciate it if the application could be processed a little more smoothly. The letter was never collected and was returned to us. So, once again, we made the journey ourselves and handed the documents in at the counter. That was on 16 January 2025. On 16 February 2025, Christof received his first letter from the CPAM, and by the end of February he already had his Carte Vitale in his hands.
Well, that was quick! So it can happen that way too. My own card, however, took considerably longer to arrive. After following up once again, I finally received it on 1 April 2025—no April Fool’s joke! I have actually come across a very interesting article about this in the meantime.
Things Started Moving…
Taxes and a “Blessing in Disguise”
In France, your first tax return may be submitted in paper form. We asked some Swiss neighbours to help us complete it and submitted our tax return—naturally incomplete—within the deadline. A few days later (as I said, things can sometimes move surprisingly quickly!) we received a phone call asking us to come to the local tax office for a meeting. There, we were given an explanation of how the Swiss second and third pillars are taxed in France. So far, so good. Naturally, our tax situation was also rather unusual. The tax officer openly admitted that ours was the first case of its kind he had ever dealt with. According to his interpretation, not only would we have to pay income tax, but also social security contributions, which increased the overall amount payable quite considerably. Altogether, the deductions came to somewhere between 20% and 25%. We were completely taken aback. We explained to the tax officer that we might seek legal advice and obtain further information before accepting this interpretation. He was very understanding. This information came as a complete shock.
Before moving to France, we had never looked into this issue in any great detail because it had simply never occurred to us that withdrawals from the second and third pillars could be treated as income and therefore become subject to French social security contributions. Following a recommendation from Soliswiss, we instructed a lawyer.
This is the outcome achieved thanks to his legal arguments:
- No tax was levied on Christof’s second pillar, as his last employment had been in the public sector.
- Consequently, no social security contributions were payable either. This is most likely linked to the double taxation agreement.
- The third pillar (Pillar 3a) was taxed at 7.5%. Under normal circumstances, social security contributions would also have been due. However—and this is where things become interesting—because Christof was not yet a member of the CPAM during the 2024 tax year, no social security contributions were charged. My mistake turned out to be his good fortune!
- In my own case, Pillar 3a was likewise taxed at 7.5%, but without any social security contributions. The argument here was that, on the date my Pillar 3a was paid out—the very day we moved house—I was not yet affiliated with the CPAM. Our lawyer told us that this line of argument is highly controversial, but in our case it worked. Our local tax office had very little experience with this type of situation. Since they were unsure themselves, they accepted the argument—at least, that is exactly what the tax officer told us.
Of course, we are not simply pleased about not having to pay social security contributions in a country carrying a high level of public debt. We had assumed that, as in Switzerland, we would simply pay a monthly contribution to the healthcare system. However, deductions of this magnitude from pension fund assets and Pillar 3a savings strike us as excessive.
Carte Grise and Driving Licence
Obtaining the Carte Grise—the French vehicle registration certificate—was comparatively quick and straightforward. After just two months, our car was officially registered in France and fitted with French number plates. An application to exchange your driving licence can be submitted six months after moving to France. The process is conveniently completed online. The waiting time between submitting the application and receiving the French driving licence has now grown to almost a year. We have only just received ours.
A Tip for the Older Generation
If you use an email address provided by your internet service provider (such as Bluewin, Hispeed, etc.), you cannot keep it after emigrating—it will be deleted. It is therefore essential to update the email address linked to all your customer accounts, banks, insurance companies and other online services before leaving Switzerland. Otherwise, regaining access to certain accounts can become difficult, if not impossible, and reaching customer support can be equally challenging (Amazon, for example).
We believe we have now overcome the biggest bureaucratic hurdles. In reality, all these administrative procedures take a considerable amount of time. Fortunately, we still found enough time to focus on other things as well. During the second half of 2025, we managed to complete most of the major renovation work on our house. Our experiences with local tradespeople have been almost entirely positive. They are all hopelessly overworked, yet they genuinely do their best. Here, too, patience is something you simply have to learn. If you want to find happiness in France, you will certainly need patience, composure, humility and, above all, an acceptance that the French simply do things differently. Our house, the surrounding countryside—we live on what is virtually a forest clearing with no immediate neighbours—the breathtaking views and the peace and quiet are simply priceless. That was exactly what we were looking for, and it is exactly what we have found here.
Warm greetings from the Vosges
Kind regards
Sylvie & Christof
Disclaimer: This report does not claim to be exhaustive. All the information contained in it is based solely on our own personal experience. Nothing should be regarded as definitive, and the information has not been verified for ongoing accuracy. It merely reflects our experience at a particular point in time. No responsibility is accepted for any actions taken—or not taken—on the basis of the information contained in this report.