Profiles in Franceformation

Welcome to Episode #26 of Profiles in Franceformation. This is your host, Allison Grant Lounes, and this week, our guest is Sumner Hargrove, a native Texan who left the financial sector on Wall Street to work in Paris at age 30, raised multi-lingual twins in Paris, and finally went back to school for a diplôme d'état to pursue her childhood dream of becoming an interior decorator. She created...

Welcome to Episode #25 of Profiles in Franceformation. I’m your host, Allison Grant Lounes and this week, one year after our initial interview, I speak again with Richard Nahem, Paris tour guide and creator of Eye Prefer Paris. This week, we talk about how Paris has changed since Covid, how tourism has been bouncing back and the new project he has created while tours were not possible. In this epi...

Welcome to Episode #24 of the Profiles in Franceformation Podcast. I’m your host Allison Grant Lounes.  In this episode I interviewed Francie Plough Seder who was born in the US and has lived half her life in the States and the other half in France. As a result, her development of cross-cultural awareness has been both empirical and professional. Francie has spent all of her career in education-re...

In this episode, I interview Suzanne Grosso Vidal, who first moved to France in 1992 with her French husband. After having two children in France and living in 5 other countries, she returned to France to be with her daughter, and had to start the immigration process over from the beginning. In this episode, she shares with us what it was like to live in France as a young mom, and how much things...

I n this episode, I spoke with Geneva based therapist, Kristin Duncombe. Kristin followed her husband, an Italian Argentinian doctor with Médecins Sans Frontières to East Africa and then to Paris, where she began a thriving therapy practice, counseling other trailing spouses living in France for their partner's career. After 10 years in Paris she relocated again to Lyon and now lives just ove...

In this episode, I talk with my longtime friend, Lisa Czarina Michaud about how she moved to France after leaving a career in fashion, by doing everything backwards. Now she lives in a village near Fontainebleau, and just released her first novel, Slanted and Disenchanted. We talk about how she went from making ends meet in a tiny studio in the Marais in Paris to her current career in freelance wr...

Welcome to Episode 20 of Profiles in Franceformation. In this episode, I speak to Jen Lesaigle, who has lived all over the world and settled in France with her French husband, many years after they originally met and lost touch. We jumped right in talking about her adventures, navigating OFII during COVID and she'll share how she started a pet concierge business helping people navigate bringi...

In this episode, I spoke with Zachary Miller, who moved to France with his French wife for a year in 1990 to write the Great American Novel - and never left. When they decided to stay in Paris and he discovered he couldn’t continue to practice psychology, Zachary pitched a television series to the French television channel, Arte, about American Jazz musicians in Europe, and launched his career as...

In this special bonus episode of Profiles in Franceformation, our online business manager Chelley Wild interviews Your Franceformation's creator, Allison Grant Lounes, to talk about how she first moved to France, the challenges she faced when she first arrived, and what inspired her to start helping others make the move. Allison Grant Lounes is a consultant helping clients move to France, and...

In today’s episode, I speak with Ricky Glass, co-founder of Colorado Craft Beverage based out of Paris. Their craft hard seltzer, Snowmelt, was the first to launch in France in late 2020. Prior to founding a successful business in France, Ricky fell in love with France during a high school trip, before attending business school at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Pau, and starting his bicultura...

T oday my guest is Nicola Rose, an actor, film producer and director whose films include Creative Block; Gabrielle; and Goodbye; Petrushka. While currently living in the US, Nicola has previously lived in Paris twice and she hopes to move back to France one day. Today, we’ll hear about Nicola’s experiences in France including: How a spur of the moment decision about visiting France changed her lif...

In today's episode, we’ll be speaking to Summer Jauneaud, an American expat from Los Angeles living in the town of Amboise , located in the Loire Valley of France. Summer is the Loire Valley Concierge.  She and her friend, Christy, also have a YouTube Channel called FrenchDish , in which they share their love for the country and the “ joie de vivre '' of France with their viewers. W...

T oday we are talking to Shannon Pratuch, an American expat in France who splits her time between Paris and Brittany. Shannon runs the successful instagram account and blog, This French Life. You can hear how much joy she has for France just by listening to this episode!  We’ll learn: About her first trip to Paris and how she fell in love with the city, staying for a bit longer each time she came...

Today, David Sargent is going to tell us about his experience moving to France from the US over 15 years ago as the spouse of a French citizen, and his experiences adapting to living and working in France.  We’re going to learn about: How his job at a technology company was able to transfer David to France and what type of work contract was needed. He registered his marriage in France, obtained a...

Our conversation with Annie Sargent is actually broken into two episodes, so be sure to continue listening along to Episode #13 with Annie to hear more about her podcast including: Her recommendations of places to visit within France. How she created a cookbook and tested recipes with the help of her podcast listeners. What types of foods she misses most from the US. Her love for audio mediums lik...

Today, Annie Sargent she tells us about her journey from France, to Utah, and back to France again. We’ll learn about her experiences in the US and in France including: Why she moved to Utah and her experience living in the US as a technical translator. What prompted her move back to France and the impact the move had on her family, including her young daughter in school. The inspiration behind st...

In today’s episode, we chat about the details of that life-changing move to France, as well as how Richard created his business Eye Prefer Paris and integrated into French culture. We also learn: What sort of challenges Richard faced when moving to France and integrating into the culture. How Richard started his business in France and how he has marketed his website and guided tours to clients. We...

Welcome to Episode 10 of Profiles in Franceformation. I’m your host, Allison Grant Lounes, and today, my guest is Mundey Young, founder of Mundey Young Coaching. She is a US Air Force veteran, mother, wife and entrepreneur who has been coaching people from around the world for 9 years. While she’s originally from the States, she has been living in Europe for 18 years, and in France, working for he...

In Episode 8 of Profiles in Franceformation, I interviewed Sandy Anderson, a retired English teacher who is a fellow graduate of the Middlebury College French School, which I also attended. Sandy, an American, was born in Ontario, Canada, went to school in Jamaica, and considers herself a “third culture kid,” as she grew up without the same cultural references as her American peers. We talk about...

Welcome to Episode 7 of Profiles in Franceformation! I’m your host, Allison Grant Lounes. In this episode, I interview Suzanne White, an American woman who came to Paris from Buffalo, New York, at age 22, in 1961. Suzanne is the author of a book called The New Chinese Astrology and a memoir about her life in France entitled Unmitigated Gaul, both of which are available on Amazon. We talk about her...

Welcome to Episode 6 of Profiles in Franceformation. I’m your host, Allison Grant Lounes, and this week, my guest is Brian Jones. Brian is originally from Michigan and moved to a village near Rennes in Brittany, France, in 2019 with his French wife. Initially, he worked as a technical mechanic at nuclear plants, and now, he restores artisanal furniture with Phénix Meubles. You can find him on his...

This week's episode is with guest Almenia Garvey, an American woman from North Carolina and Chicago, who asked her job to transfer her and moved to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France with her husband and two children in 2017. The best part of her story is that at all started long ago because she took a wrong turn one day and ended up standing in front of the study abroad office, which led to getti...

Today I'm here with Karen Kriebl, an American entrepreneur from Hawaii who moved to France in 2017. Her business living a French life as an e commerce site selling vintage French treasures. And her mission is to share the beauty of France through her online shop of vintage treasures and French lifestyle essentials. She's located in the countryside near Cahors, not far from Toulouse in so...

5 years in the future, you’re in France, living your dream life. What are 3 things that you’re doing in your life and career? Now, the reality is that creating these dreams IS possible, and it’s possible in France. And if you haven’t figured out how, yet, it’s not your fault. It’s that French bureaucracy is notoriously difficult to navigate, and when you’re trying to create your dream, you need to...

Michael Olenick is an attorney and financial researcher who was living near Parkland, Florida, with his wife and 6-year-old daughter when the mass shooting in Newtown, CT claimed the lives of 20 first grade children and 6 adults. He and his wife decided shortly after that shooting to relocate to France, so Michael took a job with INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau, France, about 45 minutes fr...