2021
The Good Life (An Expat Trap)
The Good Life (an expat trap) by Val Wake is an honest and open account of the experience of moving to France as an expat, from Australia. In their eighties, Val and his wife, Lil, decided to move to France as one last adventure. They took their daughter and her family with them and bought a property at Lodeve in the south of the country.
While Lil spoke French, Val didn't. However, Lil had been recently diagnosed with Parkinson's and her speech was impaired. Nonetheless the Wakes soldiered on and in the process quickly came to terms with the trials and tribulations of establishing themselves in their new lifestyle.
The Good Life is mostly a story about expats from various backgrounds and how they settle, successfully or otherwise, in France. It also takes a look at modern France and deals with some of the misunderstandings that arise between the Francophone and Anglophone worlds.
