2024, Family, home, Travel, Uncategorized

Moving to France

46 Comments

One of my high school friends is a rather successful composer and music teacher who studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. I wasn’t too surprised to hear that my friend has decided to move permanently to France.

I can’t imagine what is involved in such a move. It is complicated enough planning a 500 mile move to Luverne in the next year or so. I don’t imagine it is at all financially possible to move one’s entire household to another continent. I marvel at how my ancestors left Europe, leaving what they had and starting over in a new place thousands of miles from home. There were a few precious items that were packed and transported, but everything else was left behind.

The last time we made a long distance move was when we moved to ND from Indiana in 1987. We didn’t have much then, and the move wasn’t too hard. We have a lot more stuff now. Husband has agreed that he has way too many books and is bravely starting to cull them. They will go to the local library’s used book store. He has agreed that his old college philosophy books will go to the landfill. He insists that we are moving the piano to Minnesota.

Every time I go in the basement or garage, I cast a critical eye on our possessions there. Do we move dozens of empty canning jars? What about the book cases if we are getting rid of the books? Do we move the bean poles, soaker hoses, and tomato cages, or buy new after we move? How about the snow shovels and rakes? In some respects, getting rid of it all and just starting over from scratch seems more simple, but I know it isn’t possible.

What is the longest distance you have moved households? What did your ancestors bring with them to the US when they immigrated? What country would you move to if you decided to immigrate?

46 thoughts on “Moving to France”

  1. We moved to Michigan from Taiwan 6 years ago, today.
    No furniture came with us, only clothes, a few shelves of books, and the kind of junk that made our home there into our HOME. Plus, our cat.
    We received the surplus furniture from down-sizing in-laws, so didn’t start with an empty house. The past 6 years have involved acquisition and disposal. The house (4 bedrooms) is now full enough, and we’re ready to offload some of the un-necessary sentimental junk from Taiwan.
    The cat, by the way, died 4 months after arriving here. Apparently what killed him came across the Pacific inside him.

    If I were to move to another country, I’d return to Taiwan, though I know that I’d just be in the way there. Still, I love that life.

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  2. The furthest we moved together was our move to Isanti but that was shortly after our marriage and we didn’t have much in the way of possessions. Robin, of course, had moved to Minnesota from Japan only a couple of years before to start college so she really started with a bare minimum.

    I have ancestors who came here from Sweden, from Norway, from the Czech Republic and from Switzerland. The only one of whom I have any idea regarding what he brought with him is my paternal grandfather from Sweden. He was 18 years old and it was 1916, so the passage by ship during WWI must have been tense. So he was a teenager and what he was able and allowed to bring must have been minimal, which makes the two items I know about especially enigmatic. One was a large rug woven entirely from rags. It was never used as a rug in my memory but remained rolled up and stored in closets and in basements until it eventually moldered and was discarded. The other was what is known as a hearth kettle. It’s a round-bottom kettle on legs meant to sit among the ashes in a fireplace. It would have been something of an antique even in 1916 and not of practical use. Given the limitations of his baggage allowance I wonder why my grandfather chose that. I still have it.

    At this point in our lives, I expect if we moved it would be to some sort of rental where the maintenance was in someone else’s hands. That would entail a radical downsizing of our stuff.

    I’ve been in Scotland and Wales, Italy and, briefly, Switzerland. I don’t know any of those places except as a tourist and no matter how comfortable any of them felt, I don’t know enough about daily life there to imagine moving there. Probably Canada is the place we would go if we were to emigrate.

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  3. i havnt moved from sw suburbs since 1957 and likely wont
    i like it here
    it took me a while. as a teen i traveled the us looking at west coast, rocky mounrain, east coast, canada, se and sw usa and realized i like minneapolis for a reason. its not perfect but has stuff i have grown to appreciate and while politics has allowed me to see why i wondered about the other folks i share the town with i like it better than most other spots ive visited. i suspect ill be moving to either downtown minneapolis or a quiet semi rural space within cities reach
    ancestors from ireland (north on moms side south on dads) mil lacs area indian rez and polish war refugee with a sad story. no stuff that made it.
    bucket list sabatical would take me to new zealand but my family keeps me here and it will likely be a stop on a world tour if it happens
    i guess i should polish up the contingency plans for that trip but i have a few more pressing issues

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    1. My grandfather from Sweden died when I was four, but I regret never quizzing my Dad about what he knew and remembered about his father. I guess because he never volunteered anything about his dad, it just never occurred to me to ask when I could.

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  5. Longest move was from the Twin Cities to Chicago. Had the luxury of the new employer hiring movers for us, so packing, loading, and then unloading in Chitown was easy. Unpacking our stuff and decorating, finding places for everything, etc. was time-consuming.

    I don’t know what my ancestors brought with them (English, Swedish, Scots-Irish) when they immigrated, but I can’t imagine it was much. No history of great wealth or privilege with any branch of my ancestry. I think all were farmers to start (maybe a local merchant on one side).

    Moving to a new country sounds romantic (and crosses my mind more often since 2016). I doubt starting a new life in another country is all that glamorous once the original excitement fades. I think many people view moving permanently as an extended vacation vs. the hard reality of dealing with the same or similar issues/problems in the new country as were found in the old. Warts and all, it’s still hard to beat the USA for overall opportunity, freedoms, safety, economy, prosperity, convenience, etc.

    Plus, one must start from square one earning trust of new community, making friends, feeling like one belongs. Not sure I’d want to feel isolated and like an outsider for the rest of my life.

    All that said, I’d be quite comfortable moving to Canada because of the similarities between us and them. Probably an easier transition that moving across an ocean. But I’ve always remembered Switzerland with fondness. If forced to move out of the USA, I’d insist on an English speaking country because I’m too old to learn a new language. And my wife would be hopeless trying to learn another language. Then she’d drive me crazy with her frustration at not being in control, and, well, I might do something I’d regret that made the international news. (kidding!)

    Chris in Owatonna

    **BSP** Two gigs in the next three days. Tonight–Central Park and North Cedar Ave., Downtown Thursday in Owatonna, 5-8 pm. Music, food, beverage, 100 vendors of all sorts, activities for the kids, and a wonderful street fair atmosphere.

    Saturday, Riverwalk Market Fair, Bridge Square in Northfield. 9 am to 1 pm. Music, dozens of vendors, farmers market produce, baked goods, etc. **END BSP**

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    1. Yes, to earning trust of a new community. But then, even worse, is learning a new grocery store–where is the stuff I want? Not to mention, finding a Dr. and a hairstylist or barber. It makes me tired to just think of it.

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  6. Our son would move to Canada if given the opportunity. Since he was born there he is a citizen, but getting a work permit for his wife would be a challenge.

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  7. My ancestors on my dad’s side came from Prussia Germany. The area they came from is in Poland now. My mom’s ancestors came from Ireland and Germany. I don’t really know anything about any of them.

    I haven’t moved very far, I guess. I’ve lived in Steele, Rice and Le Sueur counties all of my life. I have some furniture that my dad made, but nothing that has any interesting history regarding my ancestors. I used to have a brown, cloth-bound book that contained German script about my dad’s family’s emigration. My cousin Mark, the oncologist, wanted it, so I gave it to him. His sister Linda was looking into our ancestry and possibly using that book. I used to be able to read the German script. That book is very old and useful.

    If I was going to move, (like others, I have thought about it since 2016, but it’s a scary thought), it would have to be someplace northern and near a large body of water. I prefer cooler temperatures. Grand Marais’ climate is good for me. Maybe Northern Ireland or Scotland? I’m not sure.

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  8. Rise and Schlep a box, Baboons,

    My longest move was from central Iowa, Boone, Iowa, to Grand Rapids, MN. It was a day’s drive and a significant cultural shift. We moved from farm culture to the Up North Iron Range. At the time it was exciting, as well as very good for my growth as a young adult. For the first time I lived far away from family. What took us there, was my ex-husband’s job as a Church Camp manager. If I was that age, I would recommend such a move.

    I have written here before about owning fragments of my ancestors trek from the Philadelphia Penn Colony (including Western New Jersey) to Iowa, with long stops in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, then Iowa. We have the wagon box, a fragment of an ox yoke, and oral stories that were mostly incorrect. From another branch on the family tree I have a wooden food storage container in the style of a Shaker Box, in which they kept sugar and flour long before the plastic bag revolution. I cannot imagine keeping that dry during persistent rain. These people came from Europe before the formation of the USA, so anything that came from England with them now resides in Medford, New Jersey where the Strattons settled in 1710. There is a family Bible there shown at this website documenting American Strattons. I have never seen this Bible, but I find it all very interesting.

    http://www.markstratton.org/

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  9. I have gone through the downsizing process over a dozen years or so, which means I have learned to let go. Offloaded a rather large library first. When Sandra moved out, I cleaned the apartment of many of her accessories. I have several of her dress clothes in what was her closet. Cannot bring myself to donate them. She will never wear them. I can feel myself aging more lately. Assessing what to do next. Some large things I guess.
    I know nothing about any ancestors move to america

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  10. My longest move was from El Granada (near Half Moon Bay), CA to Brooklyn, NY. I was with Wasband (then boyfriend), and it was accomplished in my first VW microbus. I had sold almost all my furnishings and was traveling pretty light at that point.

    We took a month and stopped along the way to visit various friends. Most of mine kind of asked me “What the hell are you doing – are you sure??” But one stop was to see a friend of his in Minneapolis, and it actually laid some groundwork for my later move there.

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  11. OT:
    I was just out on an errand and on my way to my destination I followed a pickup truck with a big directional indicator—arrows pointing to the right and left with lights that move in either direction or both, though unlit now—mounted on the cab.
    When I completed my errand and headed home, I followed another truck with the same sort of rig.

    My first response was, “Well, that’s a coincidence!”
    But then it occurred to me that maybe I was being thick and the universe was trying to tell me something.

    What do you suppose it could be? Change direction? Shift around some impediment?

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  12. My maternal grandmother’s parents immigrated to the States in 1914 from Hamburg. They brought very little with them, but felt it was important to bring an intricately carved jade Chinese Scholar’s ink stand that my Great Grandfather won in a poker game from an Italian sea captain when he had a dray service on the Hamburg wharfs. I have it now.

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    1. My maternal grandfather’s mother brought her five youngest children to the States in 1912. They just had their clothes and not much else. One older son remained in Germany. Two adult sons had already immigrated to Minnesota.

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  15. Northfield to St Louis before marriage to wasband #1 (just clothes and books – I offloaded everything else)

    St. Louis to Milwaukee after said wedding (clothes, books and wedding gifts – including piano)

    Milwaukee to Minneapolis after wasband graduated from his master’s program

    36th & Colfax to 50th & Lyndale

    Next move will be the big downsizing one…

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  16. I spent most of my career in travel fantasizing about other places where I could live. Almost any place I went to, I thought I might be able to live there and many of those places I even imagined what kind of job I would have. These days it would need to be a place where English was the language. While I could probably survive in in places where they spoke Spanish French or Italian, I’m not sure I want to have to work that hard at this stage of my life. I don’t want to do Australia/New Zealand because there’s too many poisonous things there. That pretty much leaves Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England or Canada.

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  17. Oh boy, I wonder if I can list them, starting after college…

    Marshalltown IA –> San Francisco (plane, June 1970)
    (three different apartments in SF, ’70-’72)
    SF –> El Granada, spring ’72
    El Granada –> Brooklyn, June ’74 *
    Brooklyn –> Marshalltown IA (fall ’76 – regroup with folks)
    Marshalltown –> 40th & Bryant, Minneapolis, Jan. ’77
    Bryant –> 27th & Dupont, Sept. ’78
    Dupont –> 5th Ave S. & 34th St. Jan ’80
    5th Ave –> Lewiston MN (friends’ goat farm) April ’81
    Lewiston –> 2nd & Vine, Winona, Sept. ’81 **
    Winona –> 52nd & York, S. Mpls, June ’85
    York Av. –> Robbinsdale, March 4, ’89
    Robbinsdale –> 5th & Vine, Winona, June 2016

    I did leave out the
    * 3 months (’74) with Wasband’s parents in Great Neck, NY, and
    ** the 15 months in Muncie, IN for grad school, ’82-’83.

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  19. The furthest I have moved was St. Paul to Alexandria and back again. Most of my moves have been pretty easy. but now I have the accumulation of more than thirty years, so that’s going to be the hard one.

    My people have mostly moved to the United States with nothing, or almost nothing. It can’t have been easy. But they didn’t own a lot, so perhaps it wasn’t as hard to leave it all behind as it would seem to us today.

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  20. My parents moved from England to Denmark when I was three-and-a-half years old. When I was twelve we moved from Stubbekøbing to Lyngby, a suburb north-west of Copenhagen. From 1961 to 1965 I worked in Switzerland, the Soviet Union, and Greenland, each move supported only by a suitcase worth of clothes. When I set out for the US in November of 1965 I had a suitcase full of clothes, and shipped a large antique hope chest filled with my earthly belongings. A few books, records, some dishes, a Rya rug, the skin of an Icelandic horse, and miscellaneous odds and ends that meant something to me at the time.

    After two and a half years in Cheyenne we made our first move that necessitated a U-Haul truck due to the furniture and household miscellany we had acquired in Cheyenne. I drove the U-Haul, towing our VW which held our two dogs and a cat, most of the way to Carbondale in Southern Illinois.

    After four years in Carbondale, we sold most of our furniture, but still had enough stuff that we needed to rent a U-Haul truck, albeit a smaller one. At that point we were down to one dog, one cat, and a chinchilla in a cage, large enough that it didn’t fit in the VW and had to be in the truck. That’s how we arrived in Minneapolis.

    Our first apartment was in New Brighton, but we soon found a small house to rent across the street from Minnehaha Park. That’s where we lived when I split from wasband, and moved into a small apartment on Grand Ave. in St. Paul.

    I bought the house we currently live in 1979, and six months later married current husband.

    I’m too old and crotchety to seriously entertain the idea of living somewhere else.

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    2. I don’t think so, Barb. I think Robin, David, and John all have me beat distance wise. Than again, I don’t think this is a competition. I’d love to hear more about David’s and John’s experiences living in Asia. Robin’s too, if she’d stick her head in and tell us about growing up in Japan.

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  21. Well, we’ve been talking about a physical distance move; you could also think of psychological distance. One of Husband’s moves was from being a Christian Brother teaching in a high school in Manitowac, WI, to a hippie farm outside of Winona.

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  23. If PJ wins the distance award, I would win the least distance award. With the exception of 2 years of college in Duluth, the furthest move was from my hometown to the Twin Cities (about 40 miles). I lived on the U main campus for one year, just off campus one year, near the St. Paul campus one year, apartment in New Brighton for 6 years, and my current locale in Vadnais Heights for 42 years. And it was only the last move that required moving more than what would fit into my car.

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    1. I thought I sent a reply this morning, but maybe I got distracted. It happens.
      K-Two, I’m afraid you’ll be in second place. I moved from the basement bedroom to the upstairs bedroom.
      And Kelly moved from Ceylon, over by Fairmont, to Rochester for college, then moved to the farm when we got married. And here we still are.

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