Dollars & Euro

This is another installment in a series of answers to FAQ. Unfortunately, many of the questions I'm asked via social media have somewhat complicated answers, and this is my attempt at answering them completely yet simply.

The question: How much is a Euro in USD?

Well, right now, the simple answer is about $1.30. However, our situation is a bit more complicated in that we are paid in USD via a monthly direct deposit to our US checking account and have to transfer that money to our Euro account here in France.




How do we do that? Well, we've been here a month, and we're just starting to get it all straight. We brought about $2,000 USD in cash with us to help get us started. We changed this money to Euro at the airport in Lyon, lost it, found it, spent it quickly on rent and other things we needed. It went fast!

Since then, we've been setting up an account with XE Trade, which I found out about through Design Mom, a fabulous blogger who lived in Normandy for a while. Since they are meticulous about verifying your identity and credit worthiness, it takes quite some time. We really should have started this before we moved, honestly. Ah well...too late now. The good news is that we finally have it all set up, and now we are able to directly transfer money from our checking account to XE, who converts it to Euro and transfers it into our French bank account. Clear as mud?

In addition to having to wait for the verification process, it takes about a week to receive the funds in our French account once we initiate a transfer. We requested our first transfer last week, and we are expecting our funds any day. Unfortunately, we've been here one month today (yay!), and our rent is due, so we've been pulling money out of the ATM using our US debit cards each day for a few days to make sure we have enough. It does cost a bit more to use the ATM, but it's not outrageous, so it's great in a pinch. It saved our rear ends just after we arrived and lost our money. We are also able to use our US credit cards at many places (IKEA, Carrefour) for major purchases, though there is a 3% foreign transaction fee. Not ideal, but until we are able to access our money more easily, it helps to have the option.

Fortunately, Ben's grant pays us enough to actually live here quite comfortably. That being said, Europe is expensive, and we are trying to be very conservative until we can gauge just how much we need to live here. Obviously, it costs more at the start because we're eating out a good bit and having to buy supplies to get set up. We're hoping to have a budget set soon that will allow us to travel during school breaks and see Europe while we're here. We may never get this chance again, so we're going to make the most of it.

Where in France?

One of the questions I am asked most often, "Where are you in France?" Most people assume we are in Paris, since that is what most Americans think of when someone mentions France.

Actually, we aren't anywhere near Paris. We're in Grenoble. No, not Chernobyl, site of the nuclear disaster. Grenoble. Site of the 1968 Winter Olympics. Heart of the French Alps.

See...

We're the little red "A" south of Switzerland, nearly in Italy. Geneva (Switzerland) is about an hour and a half away by car. Turin, Italy (also a Winter Olympic site) is farther but only because of the mountains you must drive around to get there.

If you've kept up with me via social media, you've likely seen pictures of snow capped mountains. That's because we're literally surrounded by them.

Pretty, ain't it? Truly, it is. I will never, ever tire of seeing those beautiful peaks as I make my way around the city.

One of the coolest things (IMHO) about this city, is "the bubbles".

These fantastic cable cars are located just a 5 minute walk from our apartment, and they rise from the Isere River to the bastille, a series of ancient fortifications on a nearby mountain. We hope to go up in them if we can ever get a clear day. The weather has been very dreary lately with many days of rain. We are told that this is very unusual, as the weather is usually colder and much more clear. Given the kind of winter they're having in Illinois, I'll gladly take the rain and mild temperatures.

Hopefully that clears things up for everyone. I apologize for neglecting my blog lately. It's extremely hard to find motivation to write when there's so much else to be done, but things are finally starting to settle down a bit. I have a whole host of topics I'd like to write about (eventually), but I'm happy to answer any specific questions you have in the meantime.