[the8thstar]

Hello,

My wife and I live in Richmond, VA with our two childen. We are both students at the moment. I am French and my wife is American. I will become a Radiologic Technologist by August 2008 and she will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Human Sciences in September the same year.

Richmond doesn't quite qualify as the place of choice to raise a bicultural family and I was wondering if Vermont, more specifically Burlington, would be a good place to relocate to. We are looking for a culturally open environment, where French could be accessible to our children. At the same time, we need four seasons (like we had in France) and lots of green around us! We don't want to die in summer like we are here and we'd like some snow to enjoy the coziness of winter...

What is the employment like? Any sizeable companies? Any international ones? How do Vermonters consider outsiders/foreigners? What's the price of housing like? What do you recommend? How do you meet Vermonters?

Lots of questions, I know! This would be a major, serious move for us and we intend to live there permanently if we like the place (and if the place likes us too!) Vermont has many attractive qualities!

Thank you for your help!

[vter]

Sure!
I hear french on a daily basis from folks from Quebec who come down to do shopping. Our cable system carries a Montreal french speaking channel and we can pick up radio stations from Quebec as well.
Fletcher Allen is the large hospital in town. I'd look there for work. Other large companies/employers in the area are IBM, GE Healthcare, General Dynamics, Burton, the State of Vermont, The University of Vermont, plus many small businesses. Good paying jobs are fairly hard to come by and when they become available, the competition is pretty stiff. For an idea as to what is out there, read the Seven Days classifieds (Seven Days: 7D Home), The Burlington Free Press (BurlingtonFreePress.com | Vermont News), or JobsInVT.com - Local Vermont jobs, careers and employment (Home) (broken link).
We definately have four seasons, thats for sure. As for raising a bicultural child, no issue here. There are quite a few Europeans in the area.

[harry chickpea]

Just be aware that Quebec French, as spoken, may be different enough than Parisian French that you might find it to be an issue. I think you might find Burlington a good fit, though. An alternative might be Montreal itself (if you aren't scared off by the winters).

[intravino]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Just be aware that Quebec French, as spoken, may be different enough than Parisian French that you might find it to be an issue. I think you might find Burlington a good fit, though. An alternative might be Montreal itself (if you aren't scared off by the winters).

[SIZE=2]I live in Montreal but go to Vermont almost every other weekend. I lived also in Vermont (Burlington) at one time.

There is not much of a difference between the Winters of Vermont and Montreal. Some of the time, the Champlain Valley get more snow them Montreal. The big difference is when we get a snow storm, it looks bad because we are city of about 2 millions and streets are full of snow. Parking is hard during that time. But in a week maximum, the city removes the snow on all of the 2000 streets. If you want more snow, you go one hour north of Montreal but even there, the snow is less bad or good depending on your outlook on snow then 30 years ago or even 15 years ago.

Costs about 2 M per snow storm. It is one of 20 cities in the world that removes all of the snow from the streets. I think they have the biggest fleet of snow removal equipment in the world. They don't put the snow in your front yard like other places nor lets in melts (sometime in April they do that).

So if you live in the Plateau or Villeray like me, parking is hard for 2 to 3 days after a major snow storm. But, the snow is less and less almost every year.

When I was young, we had snow staying on the ground in November. This last winter, 2006-2007, we had a first snow at January 15th.

Times are changing.

BTW, I love Vermont,

Intravino
[/SIZE]

[chaz longue]

Originally Posted by the8thstar

Hello,

My wife and I live in Richmond, VA with our two childen. We are both students at the moment. I am French and my wife is American. I will become a Radiologic Technologist by August 2008 and she will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Human Sciences in September the same year.

Richmond doesn't quite qualify as the place of choice to raise a bicultural family and I was wondering if Vermont, more specifically Burlington, would be a good place to relocate to. We are looking for a culturally open environment, where French could be accessible to our children. At the same time, we need four seasons (like we had in France) and lots of green around us! We don't want to die in summer like we are here and we'd like some snow to enjoy the coziness of winter...

What is the employment like? Any sizeable companies? Any international ones? How do Vermonters consider outsiders/foreigners? What's the price of housing like? What do you recommend? How do you meet Vermonters?

Lots of questions, I know! This would be a major, serious move for us and we intend to live there permanently if we like the place (and if the place likes us too!) Vermont has many attractive qualities!

Thank you for your help!

Lots of wisdom and information in the posts above...and actually, you'll see your questions (how to meet people, how do Vermonters like people from elsewhere addressed - at length - here in these VT threads.

You'll be likely to enjoy Burlington for many reasons, including it's location, availability of cultural offerings, and so on. Also Fletcher Allen Health Care, UVM etc may offer employment...

VT single family home prices are actually up (not a typo ) a little from last year, and more residential properties have sold via MLS in Chittenden County this year to date than last. The median price in Chittenden County (Burlington area) is somewhere in the upper 260 range...There's excess inventory so buyers have a lot to look at, and market times are a bit long.

Do you have specific questions?
Let us know how else we can help!

David Beckett

[chaz longue]

...I moved the "what's so great..." thread up for you, the8thstar. I though you might enjoy it and find some helpful info there.

David Beckett

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by intravino

[SIZE=2]Costs about 2 M per snow storm. It is one of 20 cities in the world that removes all of the snow from the streets. I think they have the biggest fleet of snow removal equipment in the world. They don't put the snow in your front yard like other places nor lets in melts (sometime in April they do that).[/SIZE]

How do they remove ALL the snow, with vacuums?

[Huckleberry3911948]

Originally Posted by the8thstar

Hello,

My wife and I live in Richmond, VA with our two childen. We are both students at the moment. I am French and my wife is American. I will become a Radiologic Technologist by August 2008 and she will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Human Sciences in September the same year.

Richmond doesn't quite qualify as the place of choice to raise a bicultural family and I was wondering if Vermont, more specifically Burlington, would be a good place to relocate to. We are looking for a culturally open environment, where French could be accessible to our children. At the same time, we need four seasons (like we had in France) and lots of green around us! We don't want to die in summer like we are here and we'd like some snow to enjoy the coziness of winter...

What is the employment like? Any sizeable companies? Any international ones? How do Vermonters consider outsiders/foreigners? What's the price of housing like? What do you recommend? How do you meet Vermonters?

Lots of questions, I know! This would be a major, serious move for us and we intend to live there permanently if we like the place (and if the place likes us too!) Vermont has many attractive qualities!

Thank you for your help!

east coast is better. they got more class.
and not that far from quebec.
i speak french
stephen s
san diego ca

[Ultra Cas]

I think there are definitely some opportunities here for a French/American family. My wife is from France, and she has met other people from France as well. There's some good French restaurants in the area - Shelburne, Stowe, Vergennes. I think once you meet one or two other French people, they will lead you to other French native people - that's how my wife met all the French people she knows. One drawback is if you travel frequently to France, you won't find direct flights out of Burlington. It's always a hop from Burlington to somewhere, and from there to France. Although often times we fly out of Montreal - Air France flys from there, as does Air Transat during the summer which provides some direct flights, although limited number, to France, among other major airlines. There's also an alliance francaise in Burlington, the contact for that is: monmartin@together.net.

If your children are young, I don't think you'll find French taught at the public schools, but it is at the private schools. If the kids are older, I don't know as we have a 4 year old and I only know about the earlier grades in the public schools.

As noted above, the Quebec french is different than what you are used to! But it is French, and Montreal has some real nice areas that have a European feel to them.

As far as food - there are some markets here where you'll find some good food. You'll be able to find your duck so you can make Duck Confit! You'll find some pate, but good luck find your foie gras! Other items that the French like you might have to look deeper for: my wife likes to cook rabbit on occasion, here in the states rabbit is primarily a pet, but we have found a rabbitery where we can go and purchase fresh and/or frozen rabbit, as well.

Feel free to ask questions. I don't think to check this email often, but if you have specific questions I might be able to help with, email me at mshellito@casaespana.biz.

Mike

[goatwoodward]

I think you'll find that Burlington is quite open to other cultures and family models. As others have mentioned, Montreal is nearby so hearing French on Church St Marketplace is quite common, especially in the summer (and tourism will only increase if our dollar stays lower than the Canadian dollar). I like it because it has the charm of a small town, but the arts scene of a much bigger city. It's also near enough Montreal (2 hr) and Boston (3 hr), that if you want to explore a bigger city, it's easy enough to get there.

A word of caution though - I moved from Virginia and there is no real way to prepare yourself for the lack of natural life/vegetation, cloudy days, and searing cold that Vermont winters have other than buying hand warmers, planting evergreens, and investing heavily in cold-weather gear. Plan a vacation to see the sun in Feb. or so because the snow here starts flurrying in late October, gets going by late Nov, & doesn't all melt until March. (Cabin fever can set in if you don't plan some things like snowshoeing, dining out, skiing, etc to get out of the house.) That said, you do get used to it. I never thought I'd think that 20'F was a warm day, but I adapt and in the middle of winter, I look forward to the days it's above 10'F.