Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
Can't get rid of me now 🌟 It's taken over a decade to get here. This week was my long-awaited French citizenship ceremony. I saved my best goal bottle for the occasion and invited some of my closest friends to crack it open & celebrate the end of a very long journey. 🥂
For some reason, ever since I was a kid, I wanted to "live in France."
I didn't know what that meant. Especially as evidenced by the fact that when I made it to Nice in 2007, I thought maybe I'd made a mistake 😅
It wasn't until I spent a week in Paris in 2008 that I realized where my heart had always been.
It took me until 2012 to make it back. I had neither a renewable visa, nor the resources to set that straight. I was forced to leave in 2013.
I made it my goal then not only to come back, but to make it stick this time. I wouldn't let anyone push me out of the city I loved. Not again.
It took my life falling completely apart in 2016 to take a chance on a visa I wasn't remotely qualified for. I got a completely different visa no one knew existed - the border agents looked at my passport like I was committing fraud. "Mais c'est quoi un 'passeport talent?'"
The préfecture looked at me in even crueler ways.
I had less than nothing to my name when I moved here in 2017. I went bankrupt in the US on the heels of making my escape. I was forced to start over. Completely.
I hadn't started the work yet, facing the realities of my childhood or the need to cut my mom completely out of my life. I hadn't found the friends that would teach me what it means to feel safe and accepted among peers. All I had was a tiny room to sleep in and an even smaller audience following my every move here on YouTube.
Thankfully, those two things proved to be enough.
To everyone who believed in me back then, when I ate demi-baguettes for breakfast to save money (travel tip, you can buy them in halves), and to everyone who ever supported me on Patreon or bought my guide or simply let me know how much my work meant to you, thank you. You saved my life. Thousands of times over.
I might have officially become French, but we all know I'm really a Parisian. Thanks for helping me stay, and for making the stay so worth it.
------Get access to my guide to Paris at go.parisinmypocket.com/aKAAqi and help me make better videos at patreon.com/jayswanson 🥳
Subscribe to my bi-monthly newsletter here: jayswanson.substack.com
Get a copy of my book on how I got to Paris here: amzn.to/3LoYuDi
My gear list jayswanson.me/gear
Follow me here:
instagram.com/jayswanson
tiktok.com/@jay.swanson
twitter.com/jayonaboat
https://bio.site/jayswanson
My name is Jay Swanson - I'm an American writer living in Paris on an artist visa. Paris (yes the one in France) has been my home for years now and I have every intention of staying here for as long as they'll have me. I write science-fiction and fantasy, vlogged daily for 3+ years, and love pizza a little too much. Now I make videos about visiting Paris, traveling in Europe, and try to share what I've learned along the way. I hope you enjoyed what you found.
Links are affiliate links where they can be - meaning if you click through them and buy something, I'll get some pennies. Thanks! (The FTC wants me to tell you that up front)
Can't get rid of me now 🌟 It's taken over a decade to get here. This week was my long-awaited French citizenship ceremony. I saved my best goal bottle for the occasion and invited some of my closest friends to crack it open & celebrate the end of a very long journey. 🥂
For some reason, ever since I was a kid, I wanted to "live in France."
I didn't know what that meant. Especially as evidenced by the fact that when I made it to Nice in 2007, I thought maybe I'd made a mistake 😅
It wasn't until I spent a week in Paris in 2008 that I realized where my heart had always been.
It took me until 2012 to make it back. I had neither a renewable visa, nor the resources to set that straight. I was forced to leave in 2013.
I made it my goal then not only to come back, but to make it stick this time. I wouldn't let anyone push me out of the city I loved. Not again.
It took my life falling completely apart in 2016 to take a chance on a visa I wasn't remotely qualified for. I got a completely different visa no one knew existed - the border agents looked at my passport like I was committing fraud. "Mais c'est quoi un 'passeport talent?'"
The préfecture looked at me in even crueler ways.
I had less than nothing to my name when I moved here in 2017. I went bankrupt in the US on the heels of making my escape. I was forced to start over. Completely.
I hadn't started the work yet, facing the realities of my childhood or the need to cut my mom completely out of my life. I hadn't found the friends that would teach me what it means to feel safe and accepted among peers. All I had was a tiny room to sleep in and an even smaller audience following my every move here on YouTube.
Thankfully, those two things proved to be enough.
To everyone who believed in me back then, when I ate demi-baguettes for breakfast to save money (travel tip, you can buy them in halves), and to everyone who ever supported me on Patreon or bought my guide or simply let me know how much my work meant to you, thank you. You saved my life. Thousands of times over.
I might have officially become French, but we all know I'm really a Parisian. Thanks for helping me stay, and for making the stay so worth it.
------Get access to my guide to Paris at go.parisinmypocket.com/aKAAqi and help me make better videos at patreon.com/jayswanson 🥳
Subscribe to my bi-monthly newsletter here: jayswanson.substack.com
Get a copy of my book on how I got to Paris here: amzn.to/3LoYuDi
My gear list jayswanson.me/gear
Follow me here:
instagram.com/jayswanson
tiktok.com/@jay.swanson
twitter.com/jayonaboat
https://bio.site/jayswanson
My name is Jay Swanson - I'm an American writer living in Paris on an artist visa. Paris (yes the one in France) has been my home for years now and I have every intention of staying here for as long as they'll have me. I write science-fiction and fantasy, vlogged daily for 3+ years, and love pizza a little too much. Now I make videos about visiting Paris, traveling in Europe, and try to share what I've learned along the way. I hope you enjoyed what you found.
Links are affiliate links where they can be - meaning if you click through them and buy something, I'll get some pennies. Thanks! (The FTC wants me to tell you that up front)
