Julie's motto is "I feel home where I am," and for several years now Argenteuil, France, is the place she calls home. Julie describes how she came to move to France, what it's like to live there, her expat experiences in other places, and the things that keep her occupied nowadays.	Julie Kertesz

-Where were you born?
In Cluj, Roumanie (Transylvanie)

-In which country and city are you living now?
Argenteuil (near Paris) France

-Are you living alone or with your family?
Alone, but my son is not far, my daughter lives in the USA.

-How long have you been living in France?
I arrived in France in fall 1963.

-What is your age?
I was 30 years old, now I am 73.

-When did you come up with the idea of living in France?
My husband wanted to come live here, if possible, after we had to leave Romania.

-Was it hard to get a visa or a working permit?
It was not difficult to obtain permits then after we got work offers. And the visa came immediately after.

-Was it difficult for you to get medical insurance before you went there or when you first arrived?
Not at all, but at first, we did not even ask, then it came with the work.

-How do you make your living in France? Do you have any type of income generated?
My husband found a job in 1963 in a month through the newspaper.

I found a job later, six months after my arrival by someone knowing someone, first. Then when we moved from the South of France to the north, I found a job at the chemical factory in the city where my husband worked.

Then I went to the USA and when I came back founded a microcomputer company, in the times of Apple II and the first Macintosh.

I am now retired and get a (small) pension. I did move a lot… (even spending three years in the USA, where my daughter got a job as soon as she finished her college education).

-Do you speak French and do you think it's important to speak the local language?
I believed I knew French when I arrived, but it took me three months to understand it fully, and even now, I speak with an accent.

There are customs and customs, of course we have to understand them first and then, observe those that we can. I am still not very used to the French “vous” instead of the “toi” for example. I smile more than most other people smile, but in general it pays. There would be a whole book to write about what and how I learned the customs and usages here! In the beginning, I tried to learn about food; in small villages and other places, one eats separately the salad, then meat, then vegetables, then cheese, and fruit. It was difficult for me to eat the vegetables and salad separately, and even now, at home, I do not.

But there are so many different customs in different parts of the country! And between all the different people that there are here!

-Do you miss home and family sometimes?
There’s no more family “home” (the old one): home is where I live, home is where my children are. I had not gone back to my birth town for almost 35 years, and I was very afraid of what I’d find there. But I found it as I left it, not so much has changed.

Here and there, my favorite recreational activities were reading and swimming; of course I did more swimming when I was younger. I do more photographing and traveling now. I wrote, from age ten and write still: it doesn’t make a difference where I am. The problem of course, is the language you write in, and even the language you think in. I do not think any more in Hungarian now, I never did think in Romanian.

I think my motto would be "I feel home where I am," and I make it "homely" fast. Home for me is Rockville, Maryland; still after so many years it remains a wonderful souvenir. Home again is Cluj (Kolozsvàr in Hungarian), a little; home is still Butte Montmartre in Paris were I did live for 23 years (until recently when I moved) and I go there still very often as you may see from the photos, and love it in all kinds of weather. Home is more and more also Argenteuil and my little garden with a cherry tree, and it's more savage than just one with cultivated flowers, (it is the first time in my life I have had a garden) - after that of my grandmother, lost in 1943 with the family and the war.

Very strangely, some towns never become really "home": Bucarest for example, were I did live for 12 years and married and worked and studied, and where I had problems but also joys. Ham, where I worked for six years and had my son, and become a French citizen - neither really became "home." Perhaps it was because for longer times I was also unhappy there. Outside motifs in one, family motifs in the other. But at the time, even there it was home.

Perhaps the only place I felt really "expat" was when I went from then mostly Hungarian Kolozsvàr (but already Romania) to Bucarest, the capital of Romania, a big and noisy town. It took years to get used to and every possibility I had I went back for a vacation to my town. After that, all new places were easier to get used to.

-Do you have other plans for the future?
Travel, yes! Soon we go to Ireland, but just for a few days. I was just in Morocco.

I went back two years ago to Transylvania and stayed a month, touring with my car, making photos, feeling home but not wanting at all to stay or return.

-What about housing, have you bought, or are you renting a home? How much do you pay for it?
My ex bought a house near Paris, where he worked. My son inherited it and I live in it now. Before, it was always renting, wherever I went: it permits me to move. But each one for me was again “home” very soon after I arrived.

-What is the cost of living in France?
The cost of living in Paris’s suburbs? Less than in Paris, more than in small cities. I live from minimum wage, but I do not have to pay rent, which is the more expensive item. I spend on books, on travel, not on clothes, etc.

-What do you think about the French?
The French do not like foreigners a lot. But the French themselves are so very different -- one from the other -- one may not generalize.

My first “society” was formed from people who also arrived in the small city from another place: be that the Parisian region, Belgium, Germany, Czechoslovakia, etc. All having arrived and not having been born there. So what?

In Paris everyone is more alone than in small places, and yes, people are not as open as in North America. Near Washington, DC, I was soon invited to different clubs and became a member; and soon I invited lots of people to my house. In Romania we were almost as open as in the USA; in Hungary the people are a little more like those in France.

-What are the positive and negative aspects of living in France?
Oh, relative to what? Good food, beautiful Paris and countryside. My son is living here (my daughter, alas, is not). The liberty we never had while living in Romania (that was at first during the Nazi times, then Communist times). But I really loved living in the USA too.

-Do you have any tips for our readers about living in France?
You have to learn to speak French, even with an accent, but speak it. Do not only expect people to know other languages: they are not very strong in that.

Enjoy what you find; do not regret what you can’t have. Each country has its strength and its less nice sides. But there are nice people everywhere.

-Do you have any favorite Web sites or blogs about France?
I have my image site on Flickr, were I show everyday life in my city and even more in Paris, lately, arrondissement by arrondissement. I go like a traveler and try to show people living, mostly things you may see from outside, around noon (but not only).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyoflife/collections/

I also have a blog “Revisiting Romania” in French. And my journals from age ten on the net published in French too (now arriving to age 65 and continuing).

me : it is me home, and not me posing for flickr perhaps a bit of "home": home or: in argenteuil