If you're lucky enough to have European Union citizenship you can travel freely within EEA and have the right to reside and work almost anywhere in Europe. I'm British which means Europe is my oyster, at least for the moment because some ridiculous people would like to leave the EU...
I could have a bit of a rant about immigration and why the UK policy is so disgustingly racist but i'll refrain for the time being.
According to EU law, there are no legal restrictions on stays of up to 3 months in another member state and very few formalities to make your stay permanent. For example, I don't need a carte de sejour but I can have one if I want and after 5 years of residency I'm eligible for French citizenship which is snazzy.
France is the first proper EU country that I have lived in apart from the UK (3 years in Switzerland doesn't count, because it's technically not in the EU). I don't even have to apply for a residency card or register with anyone in order to be able to work- that would be the responsibility of my employer.
Sadly, just because I have the right to be in France, doesn't mean it's easy. Getting an apartment, opening a bank account and familiarising myself with the social security/tax system is an ongoing project. The fact that my Non-EU citizen husband is coming with me to France massively complicates things too- he's allowed to live in France by virtue of my UK citizenship but has to register and apply for a residency card, which he can only do once I prove my status (employed). It's been a massively stressful endeavour to get this far and it has taken nearly 5 months to organise. I will try and write about our experiences getting this sorted in France.
(Stupidly) It's lucky that he is "allowed" to live in France too, because its a hell of a lot harder for him to live in the UK. I say stupidly, because I have a massive problem with the notion that I deserve to be able to travel somewhere and live somewhere else just because I was born in Britain. It's incredibly unfair that just because of where you are born you are not allowed the same opportunities as others born in the same continent. In order to even be able to travel to France, he had to obtain a visa- which, by law, should have been very easy. Instead, it took 3 applications, 1 appeal, 4 complaints and a petition to the EU parliament.
We don't actually want to settle in France permanently, I'd like to be able to finish my degree in England and get on with real life. Since the new restrictions for UK Spouse Visas came into force last year, i'm required to have an annual salary of nearly £19,000 which is impossible as a full time undergrad. The only way around this rule is to live & work elsewhere in the EU for a while, which will allow me to be considered as an EU citizen by the UK instead of just British- meaning we can move to the UK using the same EU rights of free movement that are allowing us to move to Paris. It's a bit complicated and i'll eventually explain it in more detail in another post...
We are going to be spending the first month in the 18th Arrondissement of Paris- it's a culturally rich and diverse area which i'm really looking forward to exploring properly. Paris is such a teeny city in comparison to London and everything is really easily accessible by Velib or Metro so I'm not too fussed about being far away from the centre-centre. We'll have a view of Sacre Coeur from our bedroom window which hopefully will help my transition to Parisian. The last time I was in paris was a few years ago and i'm really excited about going back and really experiencing it as more than just a tourist.
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