As she sips on espresso at a restaurant in southern France, Chiara Adorno’s ears prick up on the sound of the native accents round her and a smile spreads throughout her face.
Regardless of residing within the area for almost a yr, she generally appears like she’s “walking into a fairy tale” when listening to a few of the on a regular basis French phrases and phrases she’d beforehand solely actually seen in books or films.
“When I came here, I was crying tears of joy,” Adorno tells CNN Journey. “I am so thankful to be here.”
Adorno, initially from Connecticut, left the US for France final October, and admits that this determination had been a very long time coming.
After going by “a number of careers,” together with as a lawyer, a filmmaker and an artisan breadmaker, Adorno had turn out to be bored with the “work, work, work” tradition within the US and was searching for an escape.
She says she was able to “to explore a life without work” and felt that it was the correct time to depart.
“I knew I wanted to be out of the country before the (2024 US presidential) election…” she explains. “I’m somebody who’s learned to be very proactive.”
In search of inspiration
Chiara’s cat Puccini, pictured at an Airbnb in Teyran in October, stays at her facet.
Adorno, who was based mostly in Californian metropolis Vallejo on the time, goes on to clarify that she felt as if she’d carried out the whole lot that she wished to do within the US and was prepared to maneuver on.
“I need to be looking forward,” she says. “I need to have goals. I need to have stuff that inspires me. I just was no longer inspired by anything in the US, and I don’t see that changing.”
Though she’d solely visited France as soon as — a short journey to Paris again in 1994 — Adorno had realized French in highschool and school, so had some familiarity with the language, and was a giant fan of the nation’s panorama and structure.
She was additionally eager to discover extra of Europe and felt that France can be a very good base from which to take action.
“I want to travel around and explore many European countries and beyond,” she says, stating that she has Italian heritage.
“I’ve not carried out almost as a lot journey as I’d hope exterior the US and now I’ve the chance to do this.“
Adorno found that she may qualify for the France long-stay visa, which allows non-EU nationals to stay in France for over 90 days, and will be renewed yearly.
“I retired a little bit early because I knew I could live on and qualify for the visa on the amount that I would get monthly from social security,” she explains.
As soon as she’d made the choice to depart, Adorno “gave away, donated, or sold” most of her possessions, together with objects she’d been holding onto for many years.
“It was so freeing,” she says. “Say I had a bureau that I loved, but it was from the 1990s. I was like, I’m no longer that person. Now somebody else is enjoying it.”
In October 2024, on the age of 66, Adorno set off for France, bringing her two beloved cats Willy and Puccini alongside along with her.
“I bought an extra seat for them,” she says. “It was quite the experience but the airline staff enjoyed the novelty, I think, and made sure we were comfortable.”
The trio flew from San Francisco to Paris, the place they continued on to town of Montpellier within the south of France.
Uncertain of the place to settle, Adorno determined to rent a automobile and “slow travel” round France, staying in Airbnbs with Willy and Puccini, till she discovered a vacation spot that suited her greatest.
Adorno fondly remembers the primary time somebody stated “Bonsoir,” or “Good night,” to her, including that “It felt like something out of a book.”
Tragic flip
Chiara traveled to France along with her two cats Willy, pictured, and Puccini. Sadly, Willy handed away just a few months after she arrived.
They traveled to varied completely different spots throughout southern France, together with the picturesque village Teyran, the place she stayed for a month, seaside resort city La Grande-Motte and Avignon, a medieval village on the Rhône.
“Each time I am falling in love with my new destination,” she says.
Sadly issues took an sudden flip in April, once they traveled from Avignon to Marseilles.
Willy “had asthma and she had a bad attack…” Adorno says, explaining that she didn’t understand something was mistaken till she took her pet out of her provider once they arrived. “I couldn’t save her.”
After leaving the US with two of her cats in tow, Adorno was confronted with the belief that she must proceed on with only one.
“It was horrible,” she says, including that she discovered a form vet who helped her prepare for Willy to be cremated.
“I can get really attached to my pets… I still grieve over it.”
Regardless of her unhappiness, Adorno continued on along with her journey and relished being immersed in French tradition.
Puccini, who Adorno describes as “a little tank,” remained at her facet, and the pair went on to journey to the historic city of Pézenas, within the Languedoc-Roussillon area, the place they’re presently based mostly.
Large journey
Chiara says she “cried tears of joy” when she arrived in France and loves residing within the nation.
“I do the Airbnbs in two-month increments,” she explains. “Because I want to just really take in where I’m at.”
Adorno factors out that, as pets aren’t welcome at some properties, she tends to remain in “rudimentary-type places,” which “don’t have a lot of cushiony stuff that cats can destroy.”
Of all of the locations she’s visited in France, one particularly has stood out to her — the port metropolis of Marseille, which occurs to be the nation’s oldest metropolis.
“Marseille was a revelation…” she says, explaining that the “fun” and “vibrant” vacation spot, recognized for its well-known landmarks just like the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica, reminds her of Manhattan within the Eighties.
“I will probably end up living there permanently.”
Adorno tailored to life in France shortly, and says she learnt early on that “the French weren’t as “aloof” or “nearly as romantic as Americans think they are.”
She notably admires the truth that folks really speak to one another whereas socializing exterior eating places and cafes and are “not on their phones.”
“The French actually love to talk,” she says, explaining that she makes use of Google Translate to speak as her French is “terrible,” however plans to “buckle down” and “become a French speaker” within the close to future.
“I have found them most engaging.”
In terms of cultural variations, Adorno says she’s discovered that individuals are inclined to have much less spatial consciousness in France.
“People will bump into you, where you’ve seen them 20 or 30 feet away,” she notes.
Adorno has additionally seen that there’s seemingly much less give attention to work, stating that “nobody asks you, ‘What do you do for a living?’”
“I’m not wealthy at all. I’m living on social security” funds, she says.
“But I wish everybody in the US, or even everywhere in the world, had the chance to understand and to experience what it’s like to be in a society where you are valued as a human first.”
‘Perfect fit’
Chiara Adorno, proper, relocated from California to the south of France final yr.
Now that she has extra free time, Adorno has been in a position to bask in numerous new hobbies, comparable to portray watercolors.
She additionally enjoys happening hikes to the Calanques, the well-known community of historical coves with limestone cliffs situated alongside the coast between Marseille and Cassis, and visiting the seashores alongside the Corniche, three roads alongside the French Riviera.
“That is all the product of not being in the rat race,” she says.
Adorno, who suffers from a power sickness which causes ache and bleeding, is filled with reward for the French healthcare system, and says that she’s handled like a “Fabergé egg” there.
She factors out that it is a welcome change from her experiences within the US, the place she was always worrying about “falling into medical debt”.
Nonetheless, Adorno admits that navigating the infamous French administrative system has been troublesome, recounting how she dedicates herself to “getting something done with the bureaucracy” every week, and constantly encounters points.
Whereas she discovered socializing within the US to be “very expensive,” Adorno says that it’s fairly the alternative in France, the place she will take pleasure in free entry to landmarks such because the Cantini artwork museum and the historic Abbey of Saint-Victor.
“I felt a little bit of trepidation about how my days would be without work to ground me and keep me on a schedule,” she admits.
“But my days are filled, although that is still a work in progress. No one has things all figured out when you make such a huge change.”
Whereas she has no intention of returning to the US, Adorno makes some extent of maintaining with what’s occurring in her house nation, conceding that she’s typically alarmed by what she sees.
“I do doom scroll a little bit too much,” she says, referencing the decline within the US greenback, which just lately skilled its worst decline within the first six months of a yr since 1973. “Solely as a result of I’m so freaked out…
“Wouldn’t you know, at this time in my life where it should have been wine, watercolors and stuff. It’s like, ‘Well the US is crashing and burning and that’s where your money comes from. So good luck with that.’”
Adorno explains that she was “waiting for the dollar to stop slumping” earlier than leasing a property in France, however has in the end determined to chunk the bullet.
She’s presently searching for a one-bedroom rental in Marseille for her and Puccini, who’s “quite content” in France.
“I want to be near the Calanques so it will perhaps be a more modern structure,” Adorno says, including that she’d should be nearer to town heart if she “wanted to have the old-world charm.”
Adorno is massively grateful to nonetheless have certainly one of her furry companions along with her, admitting that the reminiscence of shedding Willy “still causes heartbreak.”
As she nears the tip of her first yr in France, Adorno couldn’t be happier, and says she’s thrilled to be in a spot the place she’s feels as if she’s valued for who she is relatively than her productiveness.
“As a retired person, as somebody who wants to just enjoy life, I couldn’t have picked (better),” she says.
“Maybe there’s other countries in Europe too. But overall, France, for me, is the perfect fit.”
Reflecting on her life within the US, Adorno remembers always listening to the response, “busy,” when asking others, “How are you?”
“If you’re free, people are almost like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’” she says.
“Busy is code for, ‘Everything’s great.’ You’re a success. You’re doing well. And I’m so happy I’m not busy.”
