Swapping Military Life for "La Vie en Rose" in Charente, France

There are a few lucky people who’ve been fortunate enough to dip their toes into multiple countries until they’ve found the perfect fit for retirement, a tried-and-true place to call home for the rest of their days.

Arianna Briscoe is one such person.

Admittedly, she’s had quite an extraordinary life. Born and raised in Tuscany, Italy, Arianna traveled to France for the first time for a high school exchange and fell in love with the country. Since she excelled in her studies, she asked her father if she could attend college in France and subsequently finished her first degree in Paris. While in France, she won a scholarship to go to the United States and attended school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor—a completely new and untested environment.

A bit bearish on the climate, which she admits was terribly cold for her liking, Arianna moved again—making her way to New York City, where she attended NYU. After receiving a second scholarship at the school, she extended her studies for another two years, although her dreams of “la vie en rose” never left her heart.

She still felt like France was the country where she was meant to live.

As they say, sometimes life has other plans, and when she met her husband, Dale, an American, she found herself settling permanently in the United States. She began a career as a civil worker in the US Army as a logistics technician.

Here, Arianna’s travels continued, both in the US and abroad.

“With the army, you’re just like a soldier,” she says, “and you move along where the soldiers are going. So pretty much all of our lives were spent moving from US Army base to US Army base, in the United States and overseas.”

The couple lived for a period in Italy, but France was still constantly in the back of Arianna’s mind. Some 32 years after leaving the country, she had her heart set on retiring there and living “la vie en rose”—as she calls it—a reference to Edith Piaf’s famous song of romance and longing.

In the end, Dale needed little convincing. Arianna says that as long as her husband had the creature comforts of the US—a large garage space for his collection of cars, access to American TV, and a comfortable house—he was up for the adventure.

When they started searching for their perfect home in France, weather was a big factor for the couple. Arianna didn’t want to go too far north, to either Brittany or Normandy, where the rainy climate was a turn-off.

On the opposite end, they ruled out Provence—fearing hot summers along the Mediterranean. In the end, southwest France seemed like the best fit, with an oceanic, dry climate, and summers that are quite manageable.

Saint-Martial is a small village in the Charente department in southwestern France.|©Arianna Briscoe

The duo settled in the Charente region, finding a home around 100 km (62 miles) from Bordeaux—another must for Arianna.

“We wanted to have quiet but be close to a metro area like Bordeaux,” says Arianna, “with the colorful people you find in a big city, with a variety of food, traffic, and noise. I need to go to the city and see these things at least once a month—walk downtown, get a coffee, and see the different people.”

Although their home, on a large parcel of land with 6,450 square feet of usable barn space, took some effort to find, Arianna and Dale toured 177 different properties before finding their treasure.

Admittedly a huge endeavor, the large number of visits can be attributed to the couple's unique needs, including having enough space for Arianna’s passion: breeding and raising golden retriever dogs.

©Arianna Briscoe

Having competed internationally in various dog shows, including the prestigious honor of showing the first owner-guided golden retriever at the Westminster Dog Show, Arianna says she didn’t find traveling with dogs to France difficult. The challenge was more about finding a space where she could care for them properly—on a secluded property with no neighbors around who might be disturbed by the barking.

In the end, Arianna felt it was best to use a local realtor.

“It is very different buying a house in the United States from buying a house in France,” she says, “Even if you speak French, which I do, I think that it is always better to put yourself in the hands of a professional.”

She describes their realtor as being very nice and extremely professional, explaining in great detail each step of the process and any relevant paperwork. After a long search, the couple arrived at a stone farmhouse in the Charente and knew almost immediately it would be their new home.

Dale got the space for his cars, and Arianna had plenty of room for her golden retrievers. She tends to have no more than 10 dogs on the property—both retired and current show dogs—to ensure each dog gets the individual treatment they deserve.

Arianna and Luther.|©Arianna Briscoe

The goldens have their own Facebook and Instagram pages, 1st Class Golden Retrievers, and a French-language website is forthcoming.

Having lived in a number of different places, and for a stint in Arianna’s native Italy, Arianna says that the transition to France was not a difficult one for Dale. They’ve managed to find some products in the local supermarket, with Dale just missing two of his favorite staples from the US—A1 steak sauce and a hot sauce known as Texas Pete.

The couple enjoys spending a lot of time at home, where Arianna prefers cooking traditional Italian meals to French ones. They also love digging into a platter of fresh oysters, a specialty of the region.

Since the climate is mild, they spend a lot of time outdoors and are great enthusiasts of the French “apéro,” which Arianna describes as the best “happy hour” in the world. In the summer, the days are very long and can stay light out until 11 in the evening. “We have Champagne, and we just enjoy our life.”

Along with her beloved goldens, Arianna has picked up an impressive side pursuit. After four months of training, she started a side career as a real estate agent for a local firm. As she loves people, she thought it would be a great way to make new friends and practice her languages—Italian, French, and English.

©Arianna Briscoe

Apart from the attractive “vie en rose” lifestyle, Arianna feels that France provides a lot of extra benefits for expats.

“It’s not an urban legend about the healthcare in France,” she says, “70% of it is actually footed by the government. You can get a mutuelle [top-up insurance] to cover the rest.”

If she and Dale decide to add top-up insurance, which they don’t currently have, Arianna says the cost for both would be about €50 ($54) a month.

“In the United States, we were paying over $500 a month for the two of us,” she says, “because we were in the Army. I’m hearing that it’s cheap compared to what people are paying in the private sector.”

She feels that the cost of living is also less in France than in the United States. “You can go to any restaurant around here and have a three-course meal for less than €20 ($22), for around €18 ($19.50). €20 is the most I’ve ever paid.”

Another big factor for the couple was safety. Arianna admits feeling much safer in France than in the United States.

“In the place where I lived in the US,” she says, “I always felt like I had to look over my shoulders, and I was always afraid to go out after dark. I had to have an alarm system at my house to feel more secure. And when you drive through certain neighborhoods in the city, you better close your windows and lock your car because you never know who might try to jump in.”

In her village, Arianna marvels at the fact that people leave their doors unlocked. She describes walking into her bank like walking into a supermarket. There is no private security, no guards, or other protections. It’s a very different life.

“You can go to the ATM at midnight,” she says, “or at any time you like. There’s no problem.”

Arianna, a self-proclaimed leftist, has strong emotions about the political situation in the United States. She doesn’t feel any connection with the values of the Republican party and never imagined that the country would experience such division. She sees failings by both right and left parties and believes Democrats failed to learn from prior elections and adapt accordingly.

Another considerable issue that propelled her to leave the US was racism. Her husband, Dale, is a Black American, and Arianna has always sensed the racial tensions in the United States. While she feels it was quite “hidden” in the 90s, she sees recent elections as having given legitimacy to bring those attitudes into the open. Consequently, opinions in Europe toward the United States slowly began to change.

“A lot of people started to open their eyes,” says Arianna, “That the American dream is not a dream, and that this is what is really going on over there.”

The couple are still proud to say that they are American and continue to vote from abroad.

Arianna is absolutely over the moon with her life in France, and proports to often shutting off the TV, closing the gates to their property, and escaping from the world.

“I’m living the dream,” she says. I always wanted to be here in France—for the quiet, the quality of life, and the very welcoming people. They just want to make you feel like you are a part of the little village we live in—La vie en rose. You have a quality of life that I don’t think you can find anywhere else.”