IN TODAY'S ISSUE

📍HIDDEN GEM: Épinal — a riverside Vosges capital with medieval character, colorful art history, and enough canal greenway to make your legs happy and your inbox irrelevant.

🏡 AFFORDABLE FINDS: Two properties in the heart of Épinal — one move-in ready with character, one a blank canvas with serious upside.

📜 TAX, VISA, HEALTHCARE: There's a common treaty trap with dividends — and knowing which article actually applies could save you from a very unpleasant surprise.

📺 FRANCE MUST-WATCH: A travel documentary on Épinal from one of France's most beloved regional channels — the one you'll forward to your skeptical friends and family.

👋 PERSONAL UPDATE

Last weekend, I was in Atlanta for the NCAA Swimming Championships.

My daughter swims for the University of Georgia — Go Dawgs! — and this weekend she earned Second Team All-American honors. As a dad watching her touch that wall, I was somewhere between proud and completely undone.

What makes it even more meaningful: she spent last summer recovering from hip surgery.

The kind of setback that makes you question everything. She didn't question anything — she just put her head down, did the work, and showed up in Atlanta ready to compete at the highest level of college swimming.

That's the kind of thing that reminds you what's actually possible when you commit to a plan and trust the process.

Here's what struck me beyond the obvious pride: we stayed close enough to the venue to walk back and forth every single day.

Just two people on foot between the hotel and the pool. It's amazing the details you miss traveling by car. And how good your body feels after a nice stroll.

It felt effortless. It felt right.

And it felt — a lot — like the daily life I write about every week in France.

That's the thing about walkability.

It's not a feature on a real estate listing. It's a feeling. And once you've lived it for a few days, you start wondering why you ever designed your life around a car.

More on that feeling below — starting with a city in the Vosges where walking is basically the local sport.

🎯 BEFORE WE DIVE IN

A quick note before we get to this week's hidden gem.

I'm building my new program, France Fast Track™, because the questions this community asks deserve more than a 45-minute webinar.

They deserve a full week — with real experts, real expats, and a real plan at the end.

I'll be honest: this is the first time I'm running it.

Which means the inaugural cohort gets the lowest price I'll ever offer, the smallest group, and a host who is deeply invested in making sure this week delivers.

Five live days. Everything you need to stop researching and start moving.

It's capped at 40 participants. 175 are already on the waitlist. Waitlist members get first access and the founding member rate.

If retiring to France is on your radar for the next 1–5 years, France Fast Track™ is where serious planning begins.

You'll be first to know when registration opens — and first in line for the lowest rate I'll ever offer.

📍HIDDEN GEM - Épinal, Vosges

​Épinal sits on the Moselle River in the Vosges department — northeast France, about an hour south of Nancy and closer to Alsace than most people expect.

It's the prefecture of the Vosges, which means it functions like a real city: hospital, services, train connections, and infrastructure. But the pace? Much calmer than any of that sounds.

​The Moselle runs right through the center, separating the train station and shops on the west bank from the old town, the castle, and the parks on the east.

Walk across the bridge and you're in medieval France. Arcaded streets, stone buildings, and the kind of history that shows up on walls rather than only in museums.

What makes Épinal quietly remarkable:

Épinal holds the distinction of being ranked the most wooded city in France.

That's not a tourism tagline — the city has an extraordinary urban forest, with marked trails beginning right at the city limits.

You don't need a car to find nature here. You just walk out the door.

​The Marché Couvert (covered market) has been anchoring daily life in Épinal since 1895 — and on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, it spills out onto the surrounding squares with local producers, seasonal Vosges specialties, and the kind of unhurried energy that makes you forget you had a to-do list.

Fromageries, fishmongers, organic farmers, bakers — all within a few minutes' walk of the old town. Saturday morning here is basically the French retirement dream in real time.

​The Parc du Château is the centerpiece: castle ruins, terraced gardens, panoramic views of the Moselle valley, and — sitting at the top — a pagoda-shaped Chinese Tower built in 1804.

It was commissioned by a local politician-turned-banker, abandoned when he went broke, restored over a century later, and is now one of the city's most lovably bizarre photo opportunities.

Climb the 80 stairs and you'll see why people don't leave.

Get outside:

The Canal des Vosges greenway — La Voie Bleue — runs 73 kilometers through Épinal and into the surrounding countryside.

Flat, car-free, and designed for exactly the kind of riding, walking or strolling that leaves you smiling rather than gasping.

From Épinal's port, the bike route follows the canal south past Bouzey Lake — a reservoir set in bucolic countryside — and continues toward the thermal town of Bains-les-Bains.

It's one of the better half-day rides in northeastern France: easy enough on a hybrid bike, beautiful enough that you'll stop far more than you planned.

For hikers, the forests around Épinal are laced with marked trails, many of them starting minutes from the city center. The Saint-Mont viewpoint and the Fossard Forest are worth putting on the list.

Accessibility + day-to-day vibe:

​The TGV connects Épinal to Paris in about 2 hours 15 minutes — no change required. Nancy is roughly 55 minutes away with hourly regional service. From Nancy, you've got easy connections to Strasbourg, Metz, and beyond.

Daily errands are very much on foot if you settle near the center, the markets, and the riverfront — which, not coincidentally, is exactly where you'd want to live.

Affordability:

Épinal doesn't carry the name recognition of Strasbourg or Nancy — which is largely why it's still affordable.

You're getting a complete city (hospital, culture, outdoor access, real train connections) without paying the premium for a famous postcode.

That's the sweet spot this newsletter exists to find.

Anything underlined is clickable 🔗

📋 FAST FACTS - ÉPINAL

👫 Population: 32,296 (commune, 2022) and ~118,915 (agglomération)
​🚉 Train Station: Gare d'Épinal — ~55 min to Nancy; ~2h15 to Paris by TGV
​✈️ Nearest Int'l Airport: EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (BSL) — ~1h 45m by car
​🏥 Hospital: Centre Hospitalier Émile Durkheim — 2 avenue Robert Schuman, 88000 Épinal
​👣 Walkability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (Compact center; old town, riverfront, and markets very walkable — car useful for countryside)
​🧺 Weekly Markets: Yes — Marché Couvert (Tue–Sat mornings); outdoor market Wed & Sat mornings; organic producers' market Friday evenings (biweekly at the port)
​🌦️ Climate: Continental with oceanic influence — warm summers, cold winters with some snow. One of the greener, more forested climates in France.
​

AFFORDABLE FINDS 🏠

€145,000 (~$167,300) — Late 18th-Century Stone Townhouse in the Heart of Épinal

Two steps from the Place des Vosges and the morning market, this 107m² stone townhouse was built in the late 1700s — and it shows in the best possible way. Exposed beams, stone walls, a wood-burning stove, and a cozy living space that opens straight onto a private terrace.

Three bedrooms spread across three levels, with a generous top-floor primary suite (nearly 34m²) that includes a dressing area, home office nook, and private bath. Needs some refreshing — which means there's real upside here if you want to put your stamp on it.

For under $170k in a walkable city center, this is the kind of find that disappears quietly.

​🏠 Property Details​

€100,000 (~$115,500) — A Blank Canvas in the Hypercentre

This one is for the dreamer with a contractor's phone number.

Three buildings plus a garden, right in the heart of Épinal — 350m² of potential habitable space at €286 per square meter. Full rehabilitation needed, which the listing is refreshingly upfront about.

The math is what makes it interesting. At this price, even a substantial renovation budget leaves you well under what comparable finished properties would cost. Right buyer, right vision — this could be something special.

​🏠 Property Details​

TAX, VISA, OR HEALTHCARE TIP 💡

Here's one that trips up even well-researched Americans: the Article 10 dividend trap.

If you search the U.S.–France tax treaty online, you'll quickly find Article 10 — titled "Dividends." It sounds like exactly what you're looking for.

But Article 10 was written for a different situation entirely — think a French company paying dividends to a U.S. corporate shareholder. It was not written for you as an American retiree living in France with a brokerage account full of U.S. stocks.

So where do your investment dividends actually live in the treaty?

Article 24 — the Double Taxation provisions, along with the Technical Explanation that accompanies it.

Here's what it says in plain terms: France agrees to exempt certain U.S.-source income from French taxation for Americans who are French residents.

That list includes U.S.-source dividends, interest, royalties, and capital gains from U.S. investments — provided you've stayed current with your U.S. tax obligations.

Translation: your U.S. stock dividends may be exempt from French income tax. But only if you've filed properly in the U.S. and can demonstrate that to French tax authorities if they ever ask.

The practical takeaway:

Don't rely on a surface-level read of the treaty, or the well-meaning-but-wrong advice that circulates in expat forums.

Article 24 is where the good stuff lives. The exemptions are real, they're significant, and they're yours to claim — with the right advisor helping you read the fine print.

Important note (as always): I'm not a tax professional, and the rules vary significantly based on your residency status, income types, and filing history. This is meant to help you ask better questions — not replace a qualified advisor who knows both systems.

FRANCE MUST-WATCH 📺

ÉPINAL: A Journey to the Heart of the Vosges
​Le Pays Préféré des Français

Most Americans draw a blank when you say "Épinal." This travel documentary — from one of France's best-loved regional channels — is about to fix that.

Forests, the Moselle, medieval streets, the canal path, the famous Images. It's a full picture of daily life in the Vosges, and it's exactly the kind of video you send to a skeptical spouse who hasn't heard of the place yet.

​📺 Watch Now​

That's it for this week's issue.

À bientôt,

Tommy

PS - Don't forget to join the France Fast Track™ waitlist. Five days could change the next 30 years for you.