34-year-old quit her 6-figure tech job and now lives on $30,000 a year in France: ‘I’m happier here than in the U.S.’

This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

Valerie Valcourt spent the early part of her career working for some of the most powerful tech companies in the world, including Google and Amazon. But it wasn’t until she quit her job in her 30s that she made her career dreams come true.

In late 2022, Valcourt left the U.S. to move to France and go to pastry school.

She’s now a pastry assistant at a restaurant called Maison Chabran and lives in Tournon-sur-Rhone, a village in eastern France.

Becoming a pastry worker in France came with a big pay cut. Valcourt previously earned upwards of $100,000 a year as an administrative business partner in Seattle, but says “the paycheck wasn’t worth the detriment to my mental health.”

Switching careers and moving to France has changed her life for the better. Valcourt made about $22,000 in her first year as a pastry intern, and she now earns $30,000 per year working full-time and living in the French countryside.

Valcourt dreamed of working in pastry ever since she tested her culinary skills during home economics classes in high school. Those dreams resurfaced in the fall of 2020 when she was burning out at her corporate tech job. After some online research, she applied to a pastry school in Paris, got accepted and quit her job.

But instead of feeling excited for the 2021 start date, she worried about saving enough money to pay for the move and tuition. She also realized she wasn’t in the best mental state to make such a big life change.

“I had no energy to hustle,” she says. “There was nothing left in me to try and raise more funds. I was just depleted.”

Valcourt felt like she hit “rock bottom” and left Seattle to stay with family in Connecticut. She took another executive assistant job and stashed money in her savings.

By January 2022, she wanted to give pastry school another shot.

She found a program called Gastronomicon and, not only was it more affordable, but the intensive three-month program included housing, language classes and was followed by a four-month internship placement at a Michelin-level restaurant.

Valcourt was accepted into the program by the spring. She had $10,000 in savings at that point and made a goal to stash a total of $25,000 for the move. She officially left for France in December 2022 and paid about 10,000 euros ($10,716) for tuition and another 1,800 euros ($1,929) for three months of housing during pastry school.

Valcourt loved her pastry classes — “It was some of the most fun I’ve ever had” — and quickly made friends from around the world.

She originally planned to be in France for seven months total. But her internship got extended, and she landed a full-time job in November 2023. Roughly 18 months after making the move, Valcourt plans to call France home for the foreseeable future.

Here’s how Valcourt spent her money in April 2024.

• Housing: $672
• Debt repayment: $449 toward credit cards and a personal loan
• Discretionary: $430 on home decor, a new bike and entertainment
• Transportation: $284 for gas, tolls and train tickets
• Food: $219
• Subscriptions and membership: $103 on Apple and Google cloud storage, a storage unit and Spotify
• Insurance: $77 for car and renters insurance
• Phone: $33

Valcourt says she can “absolutely live comfortably” on her salary while covering rent, bills and other expenses.

Until recently, Valcourt’s housing and most food costs were covered by her employer during her internship and for the first few months of her job. She began renting her first apartment, a one-bedroom unit, in April for roughly $567 per month. With utilities, her housing costs are around $672 a month.

Her second-largest monthly expense is paying off two credit cards with a balance of around $6,050 and a personal loan with a remaining balance under $1,200. Her discretionary expenses for the month included some home decor, a new bike and entertainment, like going to laser tag with her colleagues.

She spent under $300 on gas, tolls and train tickets. Valcourt’s new apartment isn’t near public transit, so she recently bought a car, a 2001 Peugeot 206, for about 1,400 euros. She paid an additional $1,756 for registration and a few repairs.

One of Valcourt’s favorite things about living in France is her access to fresh and affordable food. When she’s not getting free lunch and dinner from the restaurant during her workdays, her weekly grocery runs are usually around 20 euros ($21.43). Meals out range between 5 euros ($5.36) for a coffee and pastry to 15 euros ($16.08) for a bigger meal.

Her French paycheck takes out contributions to fund public health care, the state pension system, unemployment, family allowances and other social security buckets.

Valcourt emptied her savings to move abroad and attend pastry school, so she’s currently rebuilding her savings and getting started on her retirement and investment goals.

Valcourt works around 40 hours per week and gets five weeks of paid vacation every year.

She starts every day by checking how many clients the restaurant will have that day, then seeing what ingredients they’ll need for service. Then, she and her colleagues spend the rest of the day baking.

Valcourt’s favorite pastries to make are entremets, or a multi-layered mousse-based cake.

“There’s so much flexibility in terms of flavors,” she says. “Once you get the base of the pastry down, you can kind of go wild with it.”

She loves learning on the job, whether it’s a new dessert or technical skill. “The thing with pastry is, the tiniest shifts can make a world of a difference,” Valcourt says.

French kitchens have a reputation for being challenging environments, but Valcourt says her colleagues are friendly and helpful through what can be very busy days. And unlike in the U.S., Valcourt says her colleagues actively advise against working overtime.

“The French culture is like, when it’s time to rest, it’s time to rest, and also have a glass of wine every now and then,” she says.

Outside of work, Valcourt loves to teach herself new skills and hobbies like playing the ukulele, meditating, doing yoga, learning about astrology and tarot, crocheting and skateboarding. Since living in Tournon, she loves being out in nature, hiking and driving to new villages across France.

Valcourt says her journey to France has been worth it: “I’m happier here than in the U.S. It’s been lovely.”

“I love being able to travel, the accessibility to nature, discovering new parts of the country,” she adds. “It’s been so much fun. And of course, all of the pastries.”

She hopes to continue working in the field and learning as much as she can. “While being a pastry chef is not necessarily the goal itself, I do still want to work in the industry for as long as I can,” she says.

Valcourt likes the simplicity of her small town for now, but could also see herself moving to the south of France or other parts of Europe. She also sees herself moving back to the U.S. further down the line.

“My family and friends are there, and I miss them more than I can say,” she says. “And it feels important to one day go back to my roots and bring what I’ve learned from France to the U.S.”

Conversions from euros to USD were done using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 euro to 1.07 USD on April 30, 2024. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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