I think your biggest hurdle, though, is going to be the immigration part. You may have trouble getting approved for citizenship over there unless you or your wife have a job offer from somewhere in France. I don't know exactly how their immigration works, but I do remember, when I was there, people telling me that getting citizenship is very difficult. Good luck, though! Let us know how it turns out. Ce sera une bonne idee aussi d'apprendre le francais (if I were on my Mac I would have put in the proper accents, but I don't know how to do it on this PC at work)
We wouldn't go over without good job offers
My wife's already been looking into it, since the places she's interesting in working at hire all their candidates through specific hiring firms. She's put her résumé on file at the major firms, so at this point we've done about all we can in that area. We're just working on getting the Visas now so that if she gets an offer, we can actually get into the country
EDIT: In the event that the France thing doesn't work out, you should consider Quebec (since you mentioned Canada as well). Montreal and Quebec City are quite European compared to most North American cities. In fact, if you go to Vieux Quebec (old town Quebec City) you feel like you're in 18th century France.
I liked Montreal when I visited a few years back, but since it was February all I did was shiver and drink too much. If we moved to Canada, we'd have our sights set on British Columbia, since it seems to have the weather and cultural climate that suits us the most. And relatively inexpensive land, suitability for our house ideas, etc. Quebec, I've heard, is harder to get into than France :-/
You do need to speak the language though… what work would you be doing? Your wife seems to be in a good position if she can get the language skills.
I'd be writing full-time or teaching at an American/International school, depending on how our finances looked (and if I could get a job). I should have the first draft done of a novel I've been working on for a while, so I'd likely be revising it, getting an agent, working on getting it published, and so forth.
Je peux deviner que nous ne serions pas riches par quelque norme, mais nous sommes plus intéressés en explorant le monde et nous développer -- en années à venir, au moins.
I think you need to consider the reality of France rather than the romantic ideal. It's a prosperous country, most people are well educated, housing is good and the place is very arty and people-centric. However, it is incredibly bureaucratic, you need a permit for just about everything, and taxes are high even by European standards. The French language is an absolute necessity as the government actively campaigns to prevent the incursion of English into the culture, and the strikes and people power sound great until you're constantly having your life disrupted by them.
I'm aware of all that. We'll adapt, and if we don't adapt, we'll leave. Taxes don't really worry me so long as I agree with the reasons (in the immortal words of Bill Hicks, "I'll pay those extra few dollars a year to ensure that little brown kids aren't being clubbed to death like baby seals..."). Personally, I see American taxes as exorbitant because something like 28.5% of my taxes are currently going to the military. Being taxed more for education, healthcare, and so forth doesn't bother me. My wife and I are rather frugal and have inexpensive tastes, if you ignore my overwhelming Mac obsession
Of course, if it's financially untenable -- if, after taxes, my wife's income is not enough to live on -- then it's just out of the question anyway. I haven't been able to find any cut-and-dry information on how much in taxes a person of moderate income could expect to pay each year. We're not so interested in France that we're willing to starve to go there, and we don't have any illusions about prosperity -- we just admire Europe in general, France in particular, and if offered a decent-paying position, we'd pursue it with enthusiasm.
Thanks for the thoughts, folks
