Welcome to Seeking Tranquillity in France! I’m delighted you’re here.
Seeking Tranquillity is a way of saying seeking a better life. A life without worries about costs, availability and quality of healthcare, public safety, or the stress of an unforgiving and heartless work culture. A life where one’s values are shared with the community in which one resides.
My family and I made the decision in 2008 to leave the United States on a quest for a better life in Europe. We found work as well as peace of mind in Ireland, and ultimately retired happily to France in 2022.
About me
I identify as a musician and enthusiast of diverse musical cultures; as a person who strives to be better than who I ever once was; as a fortunate and loving husband; and as a someone willing to take risks in order to better my family’s circumstances. I regard myself an an émigré, as an adoptive European with Irish and French heritage, but I cannot deny my American character (though I’d never refer to myself as a “dude”).
Professionally I became an academic, a librarian, a professor and a scholarly jack-of-all-trades. I’ve worked at major universities in the U.S. and Ireland, pursuing an unusual career that has allowed me to collaborate in data-intensive research across many disciplines—music and other domains of the humanities, medicine and biosciences, archaeology, anthropology, and computer science. Now retired and living in France, I continue to hold a research appointment at Arizona State University.
Further professional details here: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4433-7209.
What to Expect
In my Substack essays I reflect on the issues and experiences that have changed the trajectory of my life and that of my family: finding work outside the United States and moving abroad; negotiating immigration bureaucracies and being naturalised as a citizen of a second country; and integrating socially into European society. Some of my essays reflect my academic research habits and reliance on data to support my arguments, but I try hard to avoid academic jargon.
Subscribe if you’re interested in topics like
Leaving your homeland - I offer perspectives that are grounded in the reality of experience and understanding of what it means to start a new life in a new culture (I have lived in Germany, Ireland and France);
Working (and retiring) in a new culture - and understanding that, no matter your job, in a new country it will be very different from what you’ve known before;
Language learning - For me it’s a lifelong passion, but it’s also the most practical change to master if you move to a non-anglophone country (or even if you are!);
Social policy - If the topics above interest you, you’re probably also interested in social policy issues, and I comment from regularly on issues that are important to me and my family, and possibly to you as well.
Stories from a lifetime of work and play - because there’s no tranquillity to be found if you can’t laugh, dance, and occasionally shout for joy!
I post weekly or fortnightly, generally on Fridays or Saturdays, with the occasional “Note” at other times.
Thanks for joining me!
Subscription details
For now, access to Seeking Tranquillity in France is free to subscribers, though paid subscriptions are appreciated. And the tip jar is available for occasional inspirations. Notifications are sent for new long-form Posts, short-form Notes, and the occasional podcast. All earlier material is accessible in the publication archives.
Feedback is appreciated
You can let me know you enjoyed a piece by clicking the heart-shaped “Like” button. But comments that contribute your own thoughts are especially welcome, and you can always share a link to Seeking Tranquillity in France with friends and those who follow you on Substack.
Legal Notices (France) - Mentions Légales
Activité: Entrepreneur individuel (artiste-auteur)
SIREN: 991659996 – Ville: Nice, France
Contact: SeekingTranquillity@proton.me
For further details, visit the Mentions Légales page.
