American, 41, moved to France, lives $ 3,633 per month

When Adriel Sanders visited Paris for the first time in 2017, she immediately felt at home, she said.

“He instantly clicked. I said to myself:” It’s your home. This is where you are supposed to be in the world and that’s where you will always be. I knew I had to move to Paris, “said CNBC.

Sanders returned to Paris several times while continuing to work as a general councilor for a listed company in Washington, DC at the time, she won $ 286,656 per year and lived in a studio where she paid about $ 3,000 per month, according to documents examined by CNBC Make IT.

“I did not appreciate the work and the expectation of working all the time and I will probably be one of the only lawyers who say it, but I do not think that it is so intellectually stimulating,” says Sanders. “I was deeply and really miserable to the depths of my little heart and my little soul. I knew it was not durable.”

Three years after this first trip to Paris, Sanders left his job, broke his lease and started the process of obtaining a French visa. She landed in the city the day before France’s closure due to the COVVI-19 pandemic.

“The slowness of the world meant that France accelerates. We all operate from the same level of confusion, so the good thing is that I was confused by what was going on, but everyone too,” says Sanders. “I arrived the day before locking, so there was no one and it was a complete dystopia.”

When Sanders moved for the first time, she lived in a few short -term rentals before signing a lease for an apartment in a room. She paid 1,550 euros or 1,815 USD and lived there for two years. Since he left this apartment, Sanders has lived in a two -bedroom apartment in a bathroom where she has paid 2,540 USD per month of rent.

Since Sanders signed a lease for what is called an “un well-furnished apartment”, this meant that she had to spend money by buying her own kitchen, stove and washing machine. She estimates that she spent about $ 5,000 on the kitchen and almost an additional $ 10,000 for the place to really feel at home.

In addition to the rent, Sanders spends on average around 933 euros or 1,093 USD on expenses, including cleaning bills such as cable, internet, tenant’s insurance, dry cleaning, electricity and gas, private health insurance, grocery store and a navigo transport card.

It also has an annual subscription to the Louvre, which costs 95 euros per year and a second museum card which can add 50 to an additional 100 euros per year to its expenses. Sanders also pays 1,069.20 euros, or about $ 1,252, each year at a guarantor service, which allows him to continue to rent in France.

Now that Sanders has lived in her apartment for over three years, she plans to see her search for a house to buy. She started looking for two years ago, but stopped after turning many places which, she said, were too expensive.

“With the advice of friends who recently bought in Paris, I am determined again. Finding the right place will be a version, but I am tired of renting in Paris,” said Sanders. I desperately need more space and I want to have a dog. “”

While Sanders wants to settle in Paris, she also hopes to buy a house in the countryside too.

“I don’t think it would be good to put a dog like a Golden Retriever in the center of Paris, where he has no backyard, so it’s my dream,” she said.

Living in France also inspired Sanders to finally continue his real dreams of creating her own fashion brand, Adriel Felise. Sanders says that she takes $ 200,000 on her business account and $ 70,000 from her personal savings and puts this on her new business. This money and his income from content creation helps finance his dreams.

“I love fashion and I am so happy that I can now say that and be frank about it because for so long, it was treated as something that made me less serious,” she said.

Sanders is self -financing the production of its initial samples and prototypes, but hopes to collect at least $ 2 million and its 10 -room collection for launch in 2026.

When Sanders worked as a lawyer, she was walking in her office building and dreamed of starting a fashion line, and now seeing her come to life still does not feel real.

“There is still a part of me that strives and pushes more, so I don’t know if I am fully ready to say that I am proud, but I have the impression of being really happy, which I was not so long and it’s huge for me,” she said.

“My goal and my desire is to inspire women – especially black and brown women – to simply pursue their dreams and their goals. When they do it, it does not matter. The most important thing is that they are daring, move judiciously and go for it.”

Since Sanders has been in France for about five years now, she says she doesn’t think she will come back to live in the United States.

“I can’t live there. I can’t work like that. I can’t go back to American companies and keep my tongue every five seconds every day,” she said. “I would like to have had the courage to move earlier. I would like to have the courage to do it after my first legal semester to abandon or register for business school and do something different that would have given me more options.”

The USD euros conversions were made using the OANDA conversion rate from 1 euro to USD 1.17 on July 23, 2025. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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