Comment<\/p>\n
Novelist and former professional skateboarder Scott Bourne, 53, from North Carolina, fell in love with Europe \u2013 and Paris in particular<\/p>\n
\n Scott Bourne: ‘We don’t ever want to be in a situation where we go into a school building and have to ask: “Do you guys have bulletproof wallpaper?”‘
\n Pierre Prospero\n <\/p>\n
US actor George Clooney recently hit the headlines when he and his family were granted French citizenship<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an interview with Esquire magazine last year, he explained that a big part of the country\u2019s appeal was that his children enjoy a \u201cmuch better life\u201d there.<\/p>\n Clooney is not the only American who has decided that France provides a better upbringing.<\/p>\n Former professional skateboarder Scott Bourne, 53, from North Carolina, fell in love with Europe, and Paris in particular, when he was travelling on the international skateboarding circuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n He eventually swapped San Francisco for Paris in 2004, where he met his wife Caroline who had grown up in San Francisco with French parents. <\/p>\n Now a novelist, he has remained in France, and the couple have a 13-year-old son and a nine-year-old daughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, it has not always been an easy decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2012, when my son Tennessee was born, we were stranded here with no family, no one to help us, and we really thought about moving back to the States,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was trips home which paradoxically helped cement their commitment to stay in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n Big differences<\/p>\n The number one reason was guns. \u201cIt was a deal-breaker for us,\u201d he said. \u201cGoing to North Carolina and seeing everybody driving around with a gun in their car\u2026 You don\u2019t see that here.<\/p>\n \u201cMy wife showed me an article many years ago about bulletproof wallpaper that was being put up in schools, and I said we don’t ever want to be in a situation where we go into a school building and have to ask: \u2018Do you guys have bulletproof wallpaper?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Another deciding point was the cost of healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe had absolutely no insurance in the US. I\u2019d just had knee surgery that costs about $100,000 in America \u2013 I got it done here for \u20ac1,000 at a private clinic and most of that was reimbursed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Many French people do not realise how privileged they are when it comes to healthcare, added Mr Bourne.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey think this is normal and that everybody gets this, but they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Raising children<\/p>\n Choosing to bring up his children in Paris means they are having a very different childhood to Mr Bourne\u2019s own.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up on a farm, the only house at the end of a dirt road. I\u2019m a country boy at heart and I love the true wilderness,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cBut I feel like they have these incredible opportunities that I didn\u2019t have \u2013 I\u2019m living the dream, I\u2019m still mystified and captivated by it.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple\u2019s children attend a private school in Paris with international British and German sections. The focus is more on academic achievement<\/a> than extra-curricular activities \u2013 a sharp contrast to US schools.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s mind-blowing to me that there are no sports, no football team or baseball team or school dances, but the academia is just fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n One major advantage of raising children in France is that they will inevitably be bilingual, but because of their international school, they have picked up other languages, too.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth my kids speak a bit of German, a bit of Italian, and my son is a little shy about speaking Spanish but he\u2019s fluent.\u201d<\/p>\n