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Any expats in Toulouse ? Need advice

Annalise Batista

Hello, My name is Annalise Batista, and I am a US and Swiss Citizen. I have been in France for 6 1/2 months and am having a bit of a hard time. I spent my first 6 months in Aix-en-Provence, but it was hard to find an apartment. I had a friend who lives in Toulouse who was going to help me. I had never met her in person but knew her since 2021 from both of us having shops on Etsy. There was confusion with our emails, and she was angry with me. I had already made my reservations and came to Toulouse. Since she was so upset with me, I decided to do everything on my own. So now I am in Toulouse, not sure if I want to be here. I did find an apartment at Nohee Quai St Pierre; however, I have had a few snags here. I still have an American bank account, and it is very tricky to get international wire transfers. I also have a WISE account, so I went ahead and made the rent payment, a small amount with it. THE IBAN account of mine for the WISE is BE, and the payment was a FR IBAN account. The payment went through, but gave me a warning because of the different country codes in the IBAN account. I asked the advisor to see if the payment went through, and she said she will let me know by Friday. (I did the payment on Monday). She never responded, and I wrote to her again. Her English is not that good, and my French, isn't either, even though I know a lot of words in French and can follow pretty well when spoken to. I really stressed that it was important to see if the payment went through because it would take at least a week to set up the wire transfers from the US bank account. My move in date is April 29th. I think she is angry at me too now for sending too many emails, and also she just sent a cc copy of her asking the director if the payment went through. I am a 69-year-old and need a residence here to go ahead and apply for residence in France as a Swiss citizen. I am so lost and confused. I got the Nohee apartment within a week of being here, and I thought it would be the easiest way to get an apartment, as I am a senior, also lived in senior communities in the USA, and I would not have to get a guarantee and just pay a deposit. They also made an appointment for a bank account to be opened with Credit Mutuel. I have been a nervous wreck all week, thinking maybe I am not supposed to be here in Toulouse. I came to Toulouse because they had groups like yours for expats. I know I should have contacted you straight away when I arrived here in Toulouse 2 weeks ago, but when I got this apartment so quickly, I thought it was meant to be. I understand that the French handle business transactions differently, and I really need some advice. Where can I go for advice, trying to navigate this system here? Thank you for your time♥  Sincerely,

Annalise Batista

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