Help with moving to France and going freelance

Sometimes one's life suddenly seems to find its course back again, even if issues remain. So it was for me that in the course of doing another batch of job interviews I got asked by one company whether I might be okay with working as a contractor for them. At the mentioning of this it was as if something clicked inside my head.

It's not as if I haven't worked as a contractor or freelancer before. For most of my professional career I have worked either for customers as freelancer, or on my own projects and products. The part that really appeals to me about freelancing is the freedom and responsibility towards oneself instead of towards a collection of bosses and other management types.

Thus I found myself at the tax accountant's office last week to get things sorted with the tax office with regards to my registration as freelancer. As of March 1st I will officially work as a freelancer. This of course means getting a lot of things in order, beyond just the business side of things. This of course also means getting my housing situation sorted.


Thanks to my new lawyer I fortunately managed to avoid getting forcefully evicted earlier this month. The court ruled decidedly in my favor. Now I have at least until the end of next month to find an alternate place.  This is both positive and negative, as finding anything short-term that is even remotely decent is not easy in a city like Karlsruhe.

A few weeks ago I thus decided that I would be moving just across the border from here, in the region of France known as the Alsace. Finding a place to rent there is decidedly easier and comes with a host of other benefits for freelancers with a home office, such as a much more quiet environment to work in.

This is however the point where things get a bit too exciting, as I only have about two weeks left to find something. If not a house in the Alsace, then an emergency solution somewhere else until said house can be found. The more help I can get with this, the better.

If you live in or have any contacts in or near the Alsace who might be able to help, then that would be wonderful. The current regions and ZIP codes I'm looking in at the moment are:

• 67630 Scheibenhard
• 67630 Lauterbourg
• 67470 Munchhausen
• 67470 Schaffhouse-près-Seltz
• 67470 Seltz
• 67630 Neewiller-près-Lauterbourg
• 67470 Wintzenbach
• 67470 Mothern
• 67630 Niederlauterbach

Naturally the more quiet and more roomy the better. This means that a house would be ideal. Having proper internet access has to be a requirement due to my work, of course, so that slightly limits the options again. I'm planning on buying a car so that I'm not limited to public transport availability.

Feel free to contact me via the contact form on my personal website or Twitter if you have any questions or information.


Maya