I lived almost forty years in France but I probably violated over half of your rules. My reasons for going to France (and Italy for a few years) changed with my age. In my twenties it was based on reading ex-Pat lit and trying to become an artist. Later it was because I’d been living and thinking in French for ten years and couldn’t readjust to American culture. I went back and forth for twenty years before I moved there. I made all the mistakes and was sometimes angry and confused as I tried to navigate the transition from small town America to experienced ex-Pat. The mutation was arduous, frankly.