Trevor Talbert moved his family and workshop to France for a time. He chronicled his experience there in a blog that now seems to be offline. In it, he told of his many hardships with the French government and their various laws and taxes. This, coupled with what he perceived as a worldwide recession force him to move back to the USA. Here is a small excerpt from his current website; you can read between the lines:
Our Time in France
In 2002, we purchased a workshop, tools, material stock, and attached house from a French pipemaker and relocated from NC to a small village in Brittany, France. We lived there for seven very difficult years, immersed in the lifestyle of the Breton coast and mastering our pipemaking craft. During that time, we met many of the European pipemakers and collectors, and "internationalized" our business to a great extent. By 2009, however, the stress of expat living, the difficulties of operating a self-employed business in France, and the global economic recession all combined to spur us into leaving our French home and moving back to the USA. It was an enriching, if somewhat traumatic experience, and we will always be grateful for the many friends we met along the way, both in France and in the States.
