HOW WE CHOOSE A TOWN
BEFORE WE COMMIT TO STAYING IN IT
The decision starts with the region — everything else follows from there.
We don't pick a town first. We pick a region, then work our way down from there — to a town, then a neighborhood, then what daily life actually needs to look like to make a long stay work. How long to stay comes last, and it's usually answered by everything that came before it.
We have a one-year visa to stay in France, so France is the anchor right now. Within that, the goal is to see as much of it as possible while using the location to get into surrounding countries — Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and more. That shapes everything. A three-month stay in any part of France puts a different set of countries and cities within reach, and that radius is the first thing we map out before a town even gets on the list.
That part is straightforward. The next part takes more work.
Once the region is set, the town needs to work as a base. That means looking at what's reachable from it by train — day trips to nearby cities, overnight trips to places that deserve more than a few hours, and occasional longer trips into a neighboring country. A market, grocery stores, cafés, streets that hold up on repeat walks — those are what make a town livable for weeks rather than days.
If a normal Tuesday is easy to picture there, it stays on the list.
We also take cruises specifically because every port is a new place — one day in each is enough to get a read on whether it's somewhere worth coming back to for a longer stay. Several towns on our list came from a port stop that felt right. It's an efficient way to test places before committing months to them.
Where within the town to land is a separate question. Outside the center works well as long as a reliable bus connects to wherever the activity is, and walkable access to a grocery store, a laundry, and a boulangerie covers the daily practical needs. For the apartment itself — a real kitchen, natural light, a layout that functions as a home for weeks.
That last part matters more than it sounds.
The daily structure takes a week or two to settle in wherever we are, and once it does the stay starts to feel less like travel and more like living somewhere. Length of stay comes down to what the visa allows, what the accommodation costs over time, and how much is left to see in the region. Longer stays in one place cost less per month than moving frequently, and three months is usually enough time to cover the town, the day trips, and a few nights somewhere further out. One month somewhere else in between keeps the overall cost in check and adds another region to the list.
By the time we've worked through all of that, the town has chosen itself.
One thing that makes all of it easier — the more you understand what's being said around you, the more the place opens up.
Scott & Liza
