Franco-American integration, Château-Thierry
Navigate French residency with confidence and a supportive community by your side.
For Americans settling in France, The Friendship House is a community first — people who have already been through the paperwork, the half-understood conversations, and the year their career had to wait for their French to catch up.
Residency is only half of it. The other half is learning to speak, to work, and to feel like a neighbour rather than a visitor — and that part is almost impossible to do alone. So we'll show you what to expect, sit with you through the slow parts, and keep a room in Château-Thierry where you're already expected.
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Our community in Château-Thierry and across France grows a little every week — usually because one member told another there was a friendlier way to do this. We measure ourselves not in filings, but in people who stayed, and who are glad they did.
450+
People walking this road right now — most of them remember exactly how the first year feels.
12.4 Days
Average time members save preparing a prefecture dossier, because someone at the table has already filled in that box.
100%
Of members who finished our 2026 civic exam simulations passed — most of them practising out loud, in company.
Nobody should do this alone
The paperwork isn't the hardest part. The quiet is.
Most Americans who leave France don't leave because they stopped loving it. They leave because of the quieter things: a year of conversations you only half follow, a CV that suddenly opens no doors, market mornings where everyone else seems to know how this works. Then a letter arrives that you can't decode, and there's nobody in the room to say "that happened to me too."
Those three things — the language, the work, and the not knowing anyone — are what actually wear people down. The Friendship House exists for that part. French gets easier when you speak it badly to patient people every week. Work comes back when someone who has rewritten their own CV for a French employer sits beside you while you do it. And belonging arrives the ordinary way: by turning up somewhere often enough that people notice when you don't.
The house itself
It's a real address, and the door is always answered.
Everything we do starts in this building: a stone house on a quiet street in Château-Thierry, with a garden, a kettle that never quite gets a rest, and a table long enough that nobody has to sit at the edge of it.
You don't need a membership to walk in. Come with the letter you don't understand, or just come to meet people who remember exactly how the first year feels. The paperwork gets easier here because the person next to you has already done it — and because, for an afternoon, you're not doing any of it alone.
Saturday mock interviews
Practise the prefecture interview in a room with someone who has already sat through theirs.
Coffee mornings
No agenda, no membership check at the door. Members and Château-Thierry neighbours, together.
The long table
Bring the form you can't decode. Someone beside you has filled in that exact box.
In their own words
Voices from the House.
“I felt like I was shouting into a void with my prefecture. Joining The Friendship House gave me a dashboard that actually predicted my wait times. I didn't just get my card; I found my people.”
Sarah J. — Lyon
“The gamified civic exam prep was the only thing that made the 2026 requirements feel manageable. It turned a terrifying legal hurdle into a fun Saturday morning session at the house.”
Michael R. — Paris
“Having a physical destination in Château-Thierry changed everything. It's not just a service; it's a home base for my new life in France.”
Elena L. — Château-Thierry
How it works
From arrival to belonging.
Step 1
Know what to expect
Your dashboard shows you realistic timelines drawn from what other members have actually lived through, so the waiting stops feeling like a void. It takes about 15 minutes to set up, and if anything looks confusing, someone here will walk through it with you.
Step 2
Practise out loud, together
Work through the 2026 civic exam simulations at your own pace, or alongside others doing the same. It's also the safest French practice you'll get: nobody is graded, everybody stumbles, and every question you're embarrassed to ask has already been asked in this room.
Step 3
Come sit down with us
Join us in Château-Thierry — for a mock interview, a coffee morning, or a Saturday where someone helps you rewrite your CV the way a French employer expects to read it. This is the part that turns a process you're getting through into a place you're staying.
Upcoming sessions
Join us in the room.
Founder spotlight
A personal commitment to your success.
The Friendship House began with our founder, Adam T. Anderson, and a very ordinary realisation: after moving his family to France, he found that the forms were only half of it. The other half was the quiet — not knowing anyone who had done this, and not having anywhere to bring the questions. He built this house so nobody else would have to sit with that alone. Everything we do still starts there: people first, paperwork second.
There's a seat for you.
Come as you are — mid-application, still deciding, embarrassed by your French, or between jobs and wondering if this was a mistake. You'll find people who remember exactly how that feels, and who'll stay with you until France stops feeling foreign.