Hello! You can set up a Wise account before you leave to France. You don’t need a French bank account to apply for the visa. With a Wise account you have a European routing number so you can secure a short term or long-term rental, set up utilities, and mobile phone service, etc. Then when you arrive in France, you can walk into an establishment to set up a brick and mortar French account.

I hope that is helpful, please let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

Tuula Rampont, IL France Correspondent

Hi Cheri,

That is very cool! And actually great timing... I wrote a comprehensive guide to the Olympics that is going to be published in the June edition of IL. Keep an eye out for it in the coming weeks. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to post them, or email me directly: france@internationalliving.com.

IL France Correspondent, Tuula Rampont

Hi Raymond,

France has a modern and sophisticated dental system. You will find dentists in practically every town of any size, all of whom are well trained. Basic dental care is efficient and by world standards very affordable, and you will find most dentists speak some English.

A basic check-up will cost €25 ($26), the same as a visit to the GP. If you need a basic filling, it will be an additional €18 ($19), but can be much more depending on the complexity of the procedure. An extraction will start from €35 ($37).

When it comes to more sophisticated dental work, prices start to go up significantly, with a crown costing from €400 ($427).

As with all healthcare in France, you will be given a precise quote for the work before you proceed, which is a legal requirement.

You can be reimbursed by the government for dental work, but this only applies to basic procedures and not cosmetic dentistry. As with the doctor, you pay the dentist directly after the consultation, so make sure you have enough cash.

Many people get top-up insurance to cover the 20-30% of dental costs not reimbursed by the French government—and to cover procedures like dental implants which don’t have the standard price ceiling that most healthcare services have. Top-up insurance plans start at €38 ($40) a month.

Charges can be dramatically different from dentist to dentist. There are additional charges if you require treatment on a public holiday or on a weekend, as well as extra charges for emergency dental treatment. Nonetheless, the prices are generally low compared to those in the U.S.

Read more about dental care and healthcare in France in Chapter 8 of Escape to France.

Bonjour from France, Dalila, and thank you for your question.

Sanary-sur-Mer is very popular with the French, and other Europeans alike, so consequently has a higher cost of living than other places in Provence.

Although that doesn’t mean that it’s out-of-reach, especially considering that housing costs in France tend to be around 34% less than those in the United States.

The starting budget for Sanary will be around $2,800 a month for a couple. This will depend largely whether you plan to rent or buy. I would recommend renting, even short-term, before planning to purchase a property.

You can find a small, furnished, one-bedroom apartment in the center of town for €890 ($944) per month, and the rates go up from there. I know an American expat couple who moved from Arizona and have decided to rent long-term in Sanary for their retirement.

Depending on your budget, this could be a good strategy and also the most cost effective. Apartments and houses to purchase are more expensive than surrounding cities like Toulon, La Seyne-sûr-Mer, and Six-Fours-Les-Plages.

A 679-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath apartment near the port starts at €350,000 ($372,000). Prices go down if you look a bit further away from the center. The nearby beach town of Six-Fours-Les-Plages is only about a 10-minute walk away, and a lot of retirees choose to purchase there, and take the pedestrian pathway to Sanary.

If you’d like to buy a home in Sanary-sûr-Mer, a two-bedroom, one-bath will start at around €490,000 ($519,474).

For retirees, the town is a very safe bet as far as real estate is concerned, as properties continue to go up in value. Also, you’ll find that you save in other areas.

Sanary is very walkable, and you can navigate almost everything on foot—so having a car is optional. You’ll also benefit from France’s low-cost and excellent healthcare system.

Lastly, the town has a wealth of activities for retirees right in the city center. Language classes (French, Italian, and Spanish), dance and aerobics lessons, tennis, music, local folklore, and food and wine immersions are all possible at the local community center.

You can read another article I wrote about Sanary-sur-Mer on the IL website here.