It's expensive. $20 for a chicken expensive. $50-70 for a mid-week not-so-fancy dinner for two w/o wine expensive. Basically, you go grocery shopping and you'l

It's expensive. $20 for a chicken expensive. $50-70 for a mid-week not-so-fancy dinner for two w/o wine expensive. Basically, you go grocery shopping and you'll pay about 40-60% more than you'd pay for the same across the border in France. English is not commonly spoken at all, not in the French part at least. In fact, if you ask if they speak English, you'd get a surprised Non. Just as if you asked if they spoke Mongolian. In retail there'll be always someone who speaks English though, but he'll be there because people like you exist between customers and not because he is a natural occurence. Residence permits are a bitch if you are not a EU citizen. It's twice the pain if you are trying to run your own company there as you'd be expected to hire locals in droves, who (as you have just read) tend to cost an arm and a leg and come with very high expectations. Otherwise it's a superb country. High quality food, excellent roads, tons of places to visit and very close to everything in Europe (3 hours by TGV train to Paris).