The outpouring of generosity in the various Facebook groups on making France your new home (aka “expat groups”) is what inspired us to create this site. It got us thinking.   If people who have already found their homes are willing to help those of us still looking, just what else could we do with this wellspring of helpfulness?   Could it continue in new ways  — that the constraints of  Facebook groups don’t always allow?  We aim to supercharge that already generous spirit so evident in many FB groups,  using  additional tools for conversations:

• • Curated by topics: We’ve used the themes that reoccur in FB groups as tags…so if you’re researching something specific, you’ll be able to see all the remarks on that topic.  Hopefully, that will make for less of that merry-go-round feeling you can get when the same question gets asked and answered many times.
  • Text and face-to-face: We have forums (in text, of course), but we also sponsor a community Zoom call every two weeks. People!  Faces!  When you sign up for a call, we ask you which subjects are the most important to you, and we can guide the flow of conversation in useful ways for you.  We also plan to offer asynchronous video conversations, a new medium that has the convenience of text and the face-to-face feeling of Zoom.  And they’re perfect if your conversation partners live in different time zones because you never have to schedule!  Asynch video is still new and we will only be offering it to members once they’ve had a chance to get to know community members and providers on Zoom.
  • The community costs (a little) We’ve decided to alter the FB model a bit in that we offer the community access at a cost – a kind of crazy low cost  – but still.    It has taken a few decades but the research is clear:

• • People value what they pay for: The research is clear;  communities that cost something are valued more by members than those that don’t. Members engage more, and show more consideration to fellow members, are willing to have longer exchanges on topics

• • Bye-bye bullies: The least helpful participants in online conversation — the bullies, trolls, and know-it-alls –   are, unfortunately,  everywhere Luckily, they tend to never show up in a group with a fee.  In addition to ensuring the conversation is welcoming, we

• • • Offer clear ground rules for the conversation
    • Commit to rigorous facilitation (Every comment needs to be approved. This means that the good conversations on FB which occasionally go off the rails thanks to less-than-helpful types, go smoothly here.)

Vetted providers, we discovered via their customers:  remember all the great recommendations you see on FB?  And then lose track of? We’ve collected them, contacted the service provider (real estate, accountants, notaires, language teachers, etc.), vetted them ourselves, and, only then,  invited them to Find Your French Town as a service provider.  You can have a brief free conversation with any of our providers, and if that goes well, continue to converse with them  (via text or Zoom) on an ongoing basis, at a very modest fee.  No need to worry; if they are on here,  we found them via a delighted customer, and we’ve interviewed them ourselves.