Today I learned a little more about preparing for my journey to France. To stay in France, I need a visa, a document saying I can stay for up to a year in France. To get a visa, I need to provide proof of accommodation. To provide proof of accommodation, I need to figure out where I’ll be and who I’ll be staying with and provide their contact information.
I searched the internet for Airbnbs, hotel listings, checked couchsurfing, and considered my house-sitting idea once more. In doing so I came to a few more realizations about what I need before I can begin this journey.
- Wherever I stay, I won’t be staying for long. Ideally, I’ll be in a new location every two weeks, taking day trips to various locations (I have to in order to write a successful blog). If I rent a bed & breakfast for $500 a month, that’s not a very efficient use of money as I won’t even be staying there most of the time.
- To efficiently decide on places to stay that are cheaper than the long term $500/month situation, have access to train or bus, and have quick access to a supermarket, I need to plan where I’ll be and when – which means I need to plan at least a year of travel in France. It’s better I do it now anyway.
So, since I’ll begin this journey in the summer of next year in 2019, I’ll start there. France in a year.
Below are the regions I’ll be writing about and the corresponding months I’ll be staying in them.
Mai
Haut-de-France
Juin
Normandy
Juillet
Brittany
Aôut
Pays de la Loire
Septembre
Centre Val de Loire
Octobre
Grand Est
Novembre
Bourgogne-Franche Comté
Décembre
Auvergne-Rhône Alpes
Janvier 1, 2020
Île-de-France, Paris
Février
Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Mars
Occitanie
Avril
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur
Mai
Une surprise!
