Return to France for the summer holidays, is it still obvious when you live abroad? In this special issue of the French Expat podcast, we wanted to explore a question both intimate and universal for the French established outside France: is the return to the country ≫ It is still synonymous with rest and pleasure … or is it a race against the clock, responsible for family obligations, meetings to be cocked, and guilt to digest?
Over the course of sincere and touching testimonies, a dozen French people established around the world tell how, with the years, this expected return sometimes turns into a fighter’s journey. Pressure to please ≫, schedule worthy of a minister, emotional fatigue, cost of travel … For many, holidays in France are not at all synonymous with relaxation.
But beyond fatigue and logistics, it is also the question of belonging that is played out. Where is ≪ at home ≫ When life is elsewhere? Can we still savor France without leaving to go around friends and family in 15 days?
An episode to listen to absolutely, whether one is expatriate or not, because it puts words on a reality often killed: that of the return ≪ forced ≫, which sometimes has nothing more vacation.
