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Clare Marsland moves to Marseille
27 Plays3 months ago
Meet Clare, whose decision to make Marseille her home began with a simple longing — to speak another language.
Living in a London house share with multilingual flatmates, she felt the frustration of being limited to English, sparking a determination to conquer another language. A sabbatical in a small town outside Marseille gave her a taste of life immersed in another culture. And when Brexit and Covid combined to close the window on EU residency, she made the giant leap and moved to France.
But as Clare discovered, learning the language is just one part of the adventure. There’s also the challenge of navigating French bureaucracy, healthcare systems, job hunting, housing, and the all-important task of finding your kind of people.
Five years on, she shares the highs and lows of building a life abroad, and why working as a waitress in a busy food hall last summer finally made her feel anchored in her adopted city.
Marseille is having a moment, and Clare paints a vivid picture of the energy, grit, and beauty that make it so special — and why it will always hold her heart.
Music: Morning Span provided by Mobygratis #mobygratis
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Transcript
Claire's Decision to Move to Marseille
00:00:00
Speaker
Meet Claire, whose decision to make Marseille her home began with a simple longing to speak another language. Living in a London house share with multilingual flatmates, she felt the frustration of being limited to English sparking a determination to conquer another language.
Adapting to Life in France
00:00:18
Speaker
And when Brexit and Covid combined to close the window on EU residency, she made the giant leap and moved to France. But as Claire discovered, learning the language is just one part of the adventure.
00:00:30
Speaker
There's also the challenge of navigating French bureaucracy, healthcare care systems, job hunting, housing, and finding your kind of people. Five years on, she shares the highs and lows of building a life abroad and why working as a waitress in a busy food hall last summer finally made her feel anchored in her adopted city.
00:00:49
Speaker
Marseille is having a moment and Claire paints a vivid picture of the energy, grit and beauty that makes it so special and um why it will always hold a piece of her heart.
Language Challenges and Growth
00:01:00
Speaker
Welcome Claire to the podcast. I'm really excited to talk to you today about relocating your life to France, which is something i would be terrified to do Can you share a little bit about your drive to immerse yourself in another language?
00:01:15
Speaker
Where did it start? Thanks so much for asking me on. This has prompted me into thinking about, well, when did this start? I used to live in a house share in Clapham.
00:01:26
Speaker
There were six of us. It's one of the like the best times of my life. I just noticed one day that everybody was able to speak a second language but me. And I really didn't like how that made me feel.
00:01:37
Speaker
and then secondly, I'd gone on holiday with ex-boyfriend and we were in think in Yorker and there was a Senegalese guy that was selling handbags and I was was really keen to talk to him and I couldn't and I remember Mark spoke French so we had a chat and well he had a chat I didn't.
00:01:55
Speaker
I then had this opportunity to take a career break. I worked for Marks & Spence at the time and I used that in career break to go to France to start that language journey I also lived in a house share in North London where my flatmate spoke five languages and felt quite stupid most of the time.
00:02:15
Speaker
And he ended up being a foreign correspondent for the newspaper
Journey to Permanent Residency
00:02:19
Speaker
we were at. So that made sense. What was the language education like in school? and I'm definitely not a natural linguist.
00:02:27
Speaker
It's so funny, actually, because my interest wasn't sparked at school. We had a really strict French teacher and I can remember I hadn't done my homework one day and I'd I'd got into a lot of trouble for it.
00:02:38
Speaker
And that had kind of put me off French. I think a lot of people have those terrible experiences of French teachers. I had a lovely teacher in Mr North for German. So I gravitated more towards German, but never really enjoyed the language. Yeah, i mean, all I can remember of French is...
00:02:55
Speaker
the tricolore textbook, singing really bad songs in French, um asking for directions to the bakery and going to the doctors and telling them I had a headache. I mean, obviously, the bakery directions is great. yeah Only if I need to go left or right, otherwise I'm lost.
00:03:10
Speaker
You know, same experience as you. Exactly that. There's very particular circumstances that those books prescribed for you. Going back to Marseille in your sabbatical, what did you do there on the sabbatical? How long was it? and I didn't necessarily choose Marseille right at the beginning. So back in 2013, I was using this site called Workaway, where you can work somewhere and they give you board and lodgings as part of the exchange. So I ended up in a hostel in a place called Cassie, which is Dean Minnitz from Marseille.
00:03:44
Speaker
There are certain times in your life when you go to places and you instantly feel at home. And I instantly felt at home. The people that run the hostel are like extended family for me.
00:03:55
Speaker
Having said that, it's not me for the long term. I love going there. I love going on holiday. I love going to see the family, but I'm a city person. So when I made the decision to move to France, I would never have ended up in Cassie, but it's too small.
00:04:08
Speaker
But it's that lovely, cosy safety net. So what was the moment you decided you were going to take the plunge and you were going to leave England and head
Pandemic Reflections and Decisions
00:04:18
Speaker
to France?
00:04:18
Speaker
I'd just taken redundancy. i worked for Fox and Disney had bought Fox. So my last working day was like February the 28th, 2020, which is now obviously quite a key date for people.
00:04:31
Speaker
Just a bit. Yeah. Yeah. I went back to see my mum and dad in South Manchester and i was like, oh, I'll be here for a couple of weeks. Nah. And obviously for the next few months, I was locked down in Manchester.
00:04:44
Speaker
And when I came back to my flat in London, things had been percolating in my mind about what do I do next? And I'd always had ah thought of I wanted to do some travelling after the role had finished.
00:04:57
Speaker
I still wasn't really clear in my mind what my next steps were until I went back to my London flat. And I thought, i have to leave. Brexit was happening. Obviously, we'd had the vote in 2016. And there was still kind of chewings and f throwings around what that would look like. But I knew that I had a certain time and window of opportunity if I wanted to make this move.
00:05:17
Speaker
Do you think the pandemic played a role in that? Being locked down and having that time to really think about what you really want to do in life. And it was really scary at the time. We had no idea where it was going, what was going to happen.
00:05:30
Speaker
It made everything feel much more relative that this really major thing had happened. And I think because I'd already had an established relationship with that area and family been there and at the time it didn't feel like a big deal.
00:05:44
Speaker
What felt like a bigger deal was if I didn't do it. Wow, I just find that so surprising that it's the reverse of how I would feel moving. Yeah, it was the fear of not doing it far outweighed the fear of doing it infinitely.
00:05:59
Speaker
Talk me through how you then go from, right, I'm definitely doing it to it actually being a thing.
Navigating Life and Work as an Expat
00:06:05
Speaker
What were the steps you had to take? How does it work? Again, we forget during lockdown that there those little windows of opportunity.
00:06:12
Speaker
And in September of 2020, went work i when two see I then had to go to the town hall. um I went with a a friend at the time who spoke both English and French. And so she helped me kind of navigate that that situation.
00:06:30
Speaker
Sophie, who runs the hostel, did what was called a nette station, which means she wrote a letter saying that I was living at her house, set up a bank, mobile phone and So it was just really about putting down those basic administration to prove that France was where I was residing.
00:06:48
Speaker
I needed to be able to demonstrate that before December of that year that I had moved to France. I thought it would be more complicated than that for some reason.
00:07:01
Speaker
I mean, I am really hinging back on my memory now. like Don't get me wrong. There is a lot of administration and bureaucracy that follows. ah But that was just to be able to demonstrate that you had arrived in France.
00:07:14
Speaker
And I've since heard stories from expats that were doing all sorts of crazy things, like literally moving places. moving you know, on the 30th of December and just right really trying to get in at the last minute.
00:07:26
Speaker
You were there in that last part of 2020 and you were living with your friend and then what happened after that? How long did you stay there? So that was in a hostel. It was a great time because it was just, if you can imagine, a ah full hostel of working professionals. Everybody was working from home.
00:07:44
Speaker
Some people weren't working. was a bit like a commune. Some people were were knitting there's a lot of fun I'm like I'm super family orientated I and so it was really important to me to get back for Christmas um and then I got locked down at Christmas back in Cheshire so I then ended up staying in the UK until September of the following year wow that's a long time yeah I think we forget with COVID, there was little moments where but you could move and you could travel and then it was lockdown again.
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah, wrong place, wrong time. Absolutely. That caught me out. Fortunately, I get on with my mum and dad because otherwise that could have been quite testing. But yeah, I stayed with them and I went back to working for a business called Booth's. Shout out to Booth's, Northern Supermarket.
00:08:37
Speaker
I was working in HR and then I came back out in September of that year, September 2021. Did that cause any problems on your re-entry into France?
00:08:49
Speaker
No, it didn't cause me any problems. And I i'd got by that point my process for what's called a carte de saison, which is your residence permit. What does that entitle you to? and this was why it was important that I'd shown that I was a resident before that particular date, because that entitles you to both work and reside in France.
00:09:09
Speaker
So I've got my carte de sojour, which allows you to travel and be employed in the traditional sense and also to to live. So residence permit allows me to stay kind of indefinitely.
00:09:20
Speaker
And have my micro-entreprise, which allows me to act as a freelancer. And I've used both actually since I've been here. I also didn't know what I was going to do when I arrived back.
00:09:32
Speaker
So when I arrived back in the September 2021, the job that I was working in and had given me few months additional work. So I was able to work remotely. But at that time, when I first landed, i wasn't really sure what I was going to do. I had every thought that I might be coming back.
00:09:50
Speaker
in 12 months, having just had a great year. Like that absolutely could have but been a possibility. Oh, so you have an open mind that you might just immerse yourself in the culture for 12 months without establishing yourself for longer?
00:10:04
Speaker
Absolutely. i knew that I just wanted longer than 90 days. And I thought, well, okay, let's just do this now and see what happens. And then you started working at Vera Health when? that was So that would have been october November, 2021.
00:10:20
Speaker
I started doing a little bit of freelancing then. was brought on in the January. And that gave you the finance to live there longer than your 12 months? Exactly.
Cultural Insights and Community in Marseille
00:10:31
Speaker
How did you find somewhere to live in Marseille? I wasn't at the hostel anymore. That was just during COVID. When I moved back in ah September, i moved into ah friend's flat. Can you just paint a picture of what Marseille is like for people who haven't been there?
00:10:49
Speaker
Marseille is very, very south. You get this lovely Mediterranean climate. ah So if you can imagine the Haussmann flats that you get in Paris, there is that architecture, but there's also wonderful seascape and the light that hits the buildings.
00:11:05
Speaker
Marseille is such an open, diverse city. Got a lot ah of people from Italy, from Tunisia, from Algeria, and that is really reflected in the food.
00:11:17
Speaker
The food scene is extraordinary. It is exciting. there's a lot of young chefs that are moving here. Produce is relatively cheap. I can't imagine a city with a better food scene right now. When I was working last year, when I was waitressing, there was a group of London hipsters that I waited on.
00:11:35
Speaker
And one of them turned to me and and I asked him how he was enjoying it. And he said, oh my goodness, it's the new Berlin. It's a really wonderful place to be. You know, you have to want to love Marseille like the Marseillies love Marseille. You know, see I spoke to somebody last year and i was working at the restaurant and i said, are you French? And he's like, no, Marseille is like people are ah fiercely proud of this city. but They're fiercely proud of their football team.
00:11:58
Speaker
I think very lucky to have got to know it so intimately will always be part of my life. Did you work from the flat or did you find an office or how did that work? Yeah, at the beginning I worked from the flat, but I need to be around people.
00:12:10
Speaker
I like everything that remote working can bring, but I still need that connection with other people. I was having really bad internet one day and it was getting to the point where it was becoming problematic at work.
00:12:24
Speaker
So I found a co-working space and Benedict, who met me and gave me the tour, is one of my best friends in Marseille.
00:12:36
Speaker
With Benedict, when I came to the co-working space, was like, OK, I feel like everything's going to be all right. I don't know loads of people. But suddenly i was faced with this really warm person that was super open and explained to me how things work. She could also speak English, which at that moment in time was really important. what was your French level like at that point?
00:12:57
Speaker
I would say it was a beginner. It's difficult because... You might be navigating a conversation where you're already trying to process a lot of information or you have a lot of questions. It was much easier for me in that moment in time to be able to talk in my mother tongue.
00:13:15
Speaker
I would have been able to get by. but not really maybe ask the questions that I'd wanted to. How were you upgrading your French at that point? Were you doing any lessons? or So I was carrying on doing my online lessons and was living with French people. the beginning, quite hard to come out of my shell because how you learn versus how people speak in real life.
00:13:39
Speaker
actually is worlds apart. and Well, there's loads of cultural references and colloquialisms. Yeah, pace and um argo, which is slang.
00:13:49
Speaker
French people say to me, how can you understand the Marseilles? But for me, it's all I've known. and I guess it's like an English person going to Newcastle, ah understanding the Geordie accent. So you translating it in English in your head and then rethinking of it in French? I was at the time. The goal always should be that you don't do that.
00:14:09
Speaker
The way that you should learn a language should be that if you hear a word, you visualise the picture as opposed to translating into English. Really? That takes time. This is my understanding of it anyway, that when the teacher that I've had.
00:14:22
Speaker
Honestly, I'm so rubbish that language is. I worked for a French company from 2017 2022 and the communications were in English, but it was a French company. And often I would be attached to email chains that all French.
00:14:39
Speaker
Coming towards the end of the five years, I could read an email and know whether the shit had hit the fan. ah Everybody's annoyed. i could just tell even just by the tone of the words being used.
00:14:52
Speaker
whether it was good or bad. And in the end, I could read it and work out roughly what the gist was without, I mean, had Google Translate up constantly while working there. But I couldn't write it back.
00:15:04
Speaker
And I remember going out with the founder of the company and we had a lovely meal and they were just like, we just don't understand the English, why they can't speak other languages.
00:15:15
Speaker
And I just said, you just don't understand the educational system in our schools. and how difficult it can be to learn language in a normal state school. agree. And he said, why don't you just learn now? And it is feels like you have to be immersed in the culture to really understand it.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah, and I also think that there's something about language learning when you're older that you have to be vulnerable when you learn a language. You have to be.
00:15:44
Speaker
You're going to make mistakes. You're going to fall flat on your face. You're going to say something inappropriate. People are going to laugh. That is just a given. And how accepting were people in Marseille while you're learning? i mean, my experience of Paris trying to speak French in Paris, it's just not accepted, even if you're doing your very best accent.
00:16:03
Speaker
Marseilles, they're very encouraging because it is such a diverse city. So I think what comes with that is people that are more patient, It's slower than Paris.
00:16:13
Speaker
People have got time for you. worked at and a restaurant last year and people would say to me, was I Spanish? Was I German? Was I Polish? That's pretty good going for someone from Manchester. yeah i did get english I did get English from time to time, but it wasn't they didn't always get it.
00:16:31
Speaker
But what about all the cultural stuff that you have to learn alongside like the history of the city to understand what people are saying, like popular figures, popular culture... Marseille is having a bit of a moment.
00:16:45
Speaker
It's young, it's diverse, it's exciting. There is an obsession with football. It reminds me of Manchester in that way. There's a lot of similarities to Manchester in that it's a second city.
00:16:57
Speaker
um It's relatively small, so you can get to know it quite quickly. You have a few things that kind of hinge you to the city that I had with my co-working space. I went to a cinema club, suddenly kind feel really at home. What would you say the steepest learning curve has been while you've been there?
00:17:14
Speaker
The language is always going to be the steepest learning curve. But I think because of that, you have to be really resourceful. You do need to think about, well, who can help me? I'll never forget, I realised I was running out my medication and it was a Wednesday night.
00:17:29
Speaker
And I wasn't in the French um healthcare system at that point. And I really just didn't know what I was
Overcoming Challenges and Building Resilience
00:17:35
Speaker
going to be able to do. and then I suddenly realized this was about two weeks of me being into my co-working space.
00:17:40
Speaker
Ah, Benedict can help me. And the next day ah came in and I spoke to her and she was like, yes, this is what we do. We can book an appointment online. Find your people that can help you.
00:17:51
Speaker
People that will show up for you. Because it is really hard when you are starting out. In answer to the question, Things get thrown at you in life all the time, don't they? Like you lose your keys or you you have a problem with your phone.
00:18:04
Speaker
And in a country where you speak the language, that's tough. But when you're in a situation where it's not your first language. Did you have any moments where you were like, oh, crap, what have I done?
00:18:16
Speaker
Why am I here? This is a nightmare. When it was 37 degrees and I'm buying a fan in the middle of Le Cannebier, which is like this big street in Marseille and getting it home and it not working and thinking, oh God, I've got to go back to shop and explain why it's not working. And I lug this piece of equipment back. And yeah, the things that we don't think about are bigger.
00:18:41
Speaker
And sometimes defend yourself as well, like you would in the UK. Give me my money back. Yeah, exactly. It's really interesting how people that haven't done this are quick to give you advice.
00:18:54
Speaker
And it's all very well intentioned. But we'll say things like, oh, you really should just have French friends or you should really just like be speaking French. I think there's a real naivety there. It's like, have you actually ever done this?
00:19:07
Speaker
This is really hard. Who's telling you that? You just get random advice from random people. How has it affected how you feel about yourself and what you're capable of You've relocated. You've established yourself somewhere. You've learnt a language.
00:19:24
Speaker
You... Did a really hard job last summer, waitressing in the toughest food hall, probably in France. You know, does it leave you feeling, wow, I've got the strength of 10 tigers, bring it on? It's a really great question.
00:19:38
Speaker
Sometimes, yes. feel that I am where I should be. It doesn't necessarily, ah the moment, make me feel like I've done this, I can do anything. I think maybe retrospectively,
00:19:50
Speaker
It might do, but... Not in the minute. You're still in it. It's funny because that's how I perceive it. You've done something that I would just be too frightened to do. was too frightened not to do it.
Identity and Aspirations Post-Brexit
00:20:03
Speaker
I was too scared just to go back to London, stay in the same flat, go back into the dating scene. in fact, that's one thing that has eluded me here. I haven't had the bravery to date.
00:20:15
Speaker
It's something that I'm working on because I think that would really help me with my language. Yeah, I think you have to learn a whole new raft of French acronyms. I think that's its own language from what I understand from my friends on dating apps these days. Exactly, yeah.
00:20:33
Speaker
How's your relationship with the UK while you're in France? Is it weird? I think I just feel European. I'm British and I feel European. I feel quite jealous about that because obviously since Brexit, it just it feels really different now.
00:20:48
Speaker
I don't think that... The referendum result should change how you feel. I totally understand what you're saying. Well, my husband's got an Irish passport, so he's sailing past his little exit lane and I'm just waiting in the sad queue.
00:21:08
Speaker
The Irish passport is the golden ticket that's come out of all this. I think that's the only good thing that's come out of Brexit for me personally, is that it forced my hand to go. You have to dig deep.
00:21:19
Speaker
You have to be resourceful and you keep on trying. And that goes with learning the language. You know, like language learning isn't linear. The other day I was trying to remember how you say corn it.
00:21:32
Speaker
Like wanted to get an ice cream because I've been out of the country for a few weeks. And it was iconic. And I just couldn't get my words out in time. And then she thought I was English. Obviously, I am. She started speaking to me in English.
00:21:42
Speaker
But then afterwards, I was having quite an in-depth conversation with somebody about something else. Like language learning just isn't linear. But it's really cool. And it's really great to be able to talk to people and converse with people through another language. There's been something just ignited in me. It's a real passion.
00:21:59
Speaker
And I think... following this it'd probably be another romance language well once you've got one of them my understanding is it's easier it's easier yeah i'm at a b2 level of french oh and that's the level that you need if you were going to apply for citizenship it goes through different layers from a1 which is beginner through to c2 where you'd be discussing philosophy so um it goes a1 a2 b1
00:22:27
Speaker
C1, C2. So I'm at B2 level. But then there are also times when I've been in in the UK too long and I come back and I'm like, oh, lost it. But then it does come back. It's a bit like riding a bike, but you have to try and do 15 minutes every day. Just keep it ticking over.
00:22:44
Speaker
That's why being in the country helps because you're inevitably going to be doing 15 minutes a day just by being there. But for brain health, following menopause, they're saying along with learning an instrument, learning a language is one of the best things you can do to keep your brain firing.
00:23:00
Speaker
Absolutely. And dementia. You're doing it. so what are you going to learn, Em? Uh, podcasting? yeah I've just started going to life drawing classes.
00:23:12
Speaker
wow. And it's pretty terrifying. Yeah. Same thing with the vulnerability. It's 30 years since I've been in a life drawing class and everyone's walking around looking and you're looking everyone else who's going, oh my God, like Rodan's over there. But I think it's been really interesting of letting go of the perfection and just accepting the experience of if I can just sit for two hours, not looking at my phone, but observing something and letting my hand do the work of what I'm seeing, that's just the main goal, which sounds similar to you. Like you're just trying to absorb yourself for that period of time.
00:23:51
Speaker
And then you learn each time you're exposing yourself in a way. Totally. And don't let excellent be the enemy of good. ah good You know, if you can get yourself understood, does it really matter that your grammar wasn't totally on point?
00:24:10
Speaker
Oh, it doesn't. My vocab's really good. the grammatical structure is not there. Floors, doors, windows, tables, pencils, stationery, all of that is there from school. You just, like there's no architecture to put it all together. That's the bit that we don't even really get taught properly in English lessons at school. So,
00:24:30
Speaker
adding another language is very hard. I'll never forget a French person asking me, if you don't get taught grammar, how do you know how to speak? Have you been to England and actually listened how we talk to each other?
00:24:43
Speaker
Look, their language is particularly complicated and there's 30 odd tenses or you only use six or seven of those on dayto day to day. I see French people having conversations about about tenses, about is this the right word?
00:25:01
Speaker
You know, like it's an everyday, con not an everyday conversation. But it's a pastime. It's part of the culture is to go, let's discuss our own language. I mean, we kind of do that here, even if it's regionally. We discuss it. It's a joy for us as well.
00:25:17
Speaker
Yes, true. It's so fascinating and it underpins so much, doesn't it? Well, it's the national identity,
Balancing Life Between Two Cities
00:25:24
Speaker
isn't it? It's funny because Marseille as well, like I said to you it's really having this moment.
00:25:28
Speaker
All the London hipsters have discovered it. feel very lucky that I'm in this great city with amazing vibrancy.
00:25:40
Speaker
I'm learning this language that I've always wanted to learn. And it's a great experience. For work at the moment, You're commuting, I understand, from Marseille to London. you know, how's that working out?
00:25:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's relatively early days at the moment, but I'm commuting between Marseille and London, trying to get to a point where I kind of keep the vibrancy going, the life that I've got in Marseille. So making sure that I have plans with friends, whilst also having that opportunity to have a London life. I feel feel very lucky at the moment.
00:26:14
Speaker
That's great. So if you look back, what do you think this whole experience from 2020 to now has taught you relocating to France about yourself?
00:26:27
Speaker
It's taught me to continue to try things, that the worst that can happen is you don't enjoy something, doesn't work. When I go back to the UK, that when I see people that are navigating life where English is not their first language. It's hopefully made me a better person. It's also taught me that Europe is far enough. I wouldn't well i definitely wouldn't want to relocate to Australia.
00:26:56
Speaker
Why is that? Being close to the home? Yeah, I am somebody that needs to be able to access home. so do you have a radius in mind, two hour flight max or?
00:27:06
Speaker
Exactly that, two, two and a half hours. and need to be able to get home that same day. i that's fair enough. I mean, Australia, that's definitely out. That's definitely out. Plus, deadly creatures also. Well, quite.
00:27:20
Speaker
um Although Marseille has historically had a dangerous reputation, is shedding itself that reputation. got more dangerous breed now, hasn't it? Hipsters, i mean.
00:27:31
Speaker
Well, quite. It's made me realise how resourceful I am and that I can do hard things. I think I always knew that, but it's really firmed that up. You know, last year when I said, right, i'm going to immerse myself in a French-speaking job and I'm going to go and work as a waitress.
00:27:51
Speaker
And I was handing my CVs in at bars and, you know, kind of presenting myself and had a little elevator pitch. I think it's just made me realise that I can do hard things and that there are a lot of people out there that are really willing to help you. Yeah. Would that be the top tip that you would give to somebody who wanted to do the leap is it's not just the language to survive. You
Finding Home and Looking Forward
00:28:17
Speaker
need a tribe of people and you need to work out how you're going to get them, whether that's local clubs or hobbies or ah co-working space.
00:28:27
Speaker
Exactly. There have been ah like a couple of key people I've met in Sophie, in Benedito, What's been really lovely in Marseille is I've made female friends, three of them were from London, that you're just, these wonderful people. This thing has made me learn a lot about myself.
00:28:46
Speaker
At the beginning, I did feel really lonely. was only really last year when I worked at the restaurant, there was a moment where I really felt like, oh, I feel at home here.
00:28:59
Speaker
It really clicked. I'd made really great friends with a whole family host of people that worked there that I would never have met with normally. And felt a sense of belonging in this town.
00:29:11
Speaker
And I think that that was the first time, despite having friends in Marseille, that was really when I felt cemented. mean, that's relatively quick because, you know, having lived in London for a large part of my life can take ages to feel like that in London. I think part of that was having a job that was...
00:29:31
Speaker
grounded in the city you know that was like you say a really busy food hall that was a destination for i think that that helped really kind shift that feeling if you were talking to claire back in 2019 who was thinking about this move would she be surprised that you've actually done it and you've made a success of it I think she would think it doesn't surprise me because I can make seismic decisions with relative ease. And I think it's that real kind of trusting your gut.
00:30:05
Speaker
The thing that was keeping me up at night was when I was questioning it. When I was just going with it, I was fine. I don't think I was ever scared of the move. And maybe that was because of COVID.
00:30:17
Speaker
In answer to your question, I think in some ways, though, she would have pushed me more. should have done more dating whilst I've been here, or I should have not cared about making that language mistake. So avoided that particular situation because I would have felt uncomfortable. Because there has definitely been a lot of that along the way. It's not been linear. it's I've had moments where it's been tough.
00:30:36
Speaker
It takes a lot of effort and investment in time, energy in time. resource to get your life set up in another country you have to give it a certain amount of time when I was having few bigger wobbles when I didn't know so many people or I didn't maybe feel as at home that kept me going I wanted more I think I've got certain goals like I think I'm at a b2 French level but I need to do an exam to prove that to myself thanks so much Claire for joining me I really appreciate you joining us on the podcast today thanks so much thank you
00:31:24
Speaker
you