The 41-year-old American moved to France, lives at $ 3,633 a month

When Adriel Sanders She first visited Paris in 2017, she immediately felt at home, she says.

“He immediately clicked. I was like,” This is your home. This is where you should be in the world and you will always be here. I knew I had to move to Paris, “Sanders says to CNBC.

Sanders returned to Paris several times while continuing to work as a General Council for a publicly traded company in Washington, Columbia County, she won $ 286,656 a year and lived in a studio apartment, where she paid approximately $ 3,000 a month, according to documents reviewed by CNBC, do so.

“I did not enjoy the job and the expectation of working all the time and I will probably be the only lawyers who say it, but I don’t think it’s so stimulating intellectual,” Sanders says. “I was deeply and really unhappy with the very depths of my little heart and little soul. I knew it was not sustainable.”

Three years later, an initial trip to Paris, Sanders left his job, violated his lease and began the process of receiving a French visa. She landed in the city the day before France closed its borders because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The slowness of the world meant that France accelerated. We all worked from the same level of confusion, so the good thing is that I was confused by what was happening, but so everyone else,” Sanders says. “I arrived the day before the blocking, so there was no one and it was a complete dystopia.”

When Sanders first moved, she lived in several short -term rentals before signing a one -bedroom apartment leasing. She paid $ 1,550 or $ 1815 and has lived in it for two years. Ever since he got out of this apartment, Sanders has lived in an apartment with two bedrooms, a bathroom where he pays $ 2.540 a month rent.

Since Sanders signed a lease agreement for what was called an “unfurnished apartment”, it meant she had to spend money by buying her own kitchen cabinets, stove and washing machine. She estimates that she has spent about $ 5,000 on the kitchen and close to another $ 10,000 to make the place really feel at home.

In addition to the rent, Sanders spends an average of about 933 euros or USD $ 1.093 for costs that include household accounts such as cable, internet, tenant insurance, dry cleaning, electricity and gas, private health insurance, grocery and NAVIGO transport card.

It also has an annual Louvre subscription, which costs 95 euros a year and a second museum card, which can add an additional 50-100 euros a year for its expenses. Sanders also pays EUR 1,069.20, or approximately $ 1252, annually a guarantor service that allows her to continue hiring in France.

Now that Sanders has been living in her apartment for more than three years, she plans to review her demand for a home to buy. She started watching two years ago, but stopped after walking around many places that she thought they were elevated.

“With the advice of friends who have recently purchased in Paris, I am resolved again. Finding the right place will be grinding, but I was tired of hiring in Paris,” Sanders says. I desperately need more space and I want to take a dog. “

While Sanders wants to determine the roots in Paris, she also hopes to eventually buy a home in the countryside.

“I don’t think it would be nice to put a dog like a golden retriever in Central Paris, where he has no backyard, so it’s my dream,” she says.

Life in France also inspired Sanders to finally pursue his real dreams of starting his own fashion brand, Adriel Felis. Sanders says she has taken $ 200,000 from her business account and $ 70,000 from her personal savings and puts this on her new business venture. This money and her content revenue helps to finance her dreams.

“I love fashion and I am so happy that I can say it and be ahead of this now, because it is treated for so long as something that has made me less serious,” she says.

Sanders self -financing the production of its initial samples and prototypes, but hopes to raise at least $ 2 million and prepare its 10 -part collection in 2026.

When Sanders worked as a lawyer, she walked around her office building and dreamed of starting a fashion line, and now she could see that she was still not feeling real.

“There is still a part of me who strives and insists on more, so I don’t know if I’m completely ready to say I’m proud, but I feel like I’m actually happy, which I wasn’t so long and it’s huge for me,” she says.

“My goal and desire is to inspire women – especially black -brown women – just to pursue their dreams and goals. When they do it, it doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that they are brave, move wisely and just go on.”

Since Sanders has been in France for about five years, she says she does not think she will ever return to live in the United States.

“I can’t live there. I can’t function like that. I can’t go back to Corporate America and keep my tongue every five seconds every day,” she says. “I wish I had the courage to move earlier. I wish I had the courage to do it after my first semester at the law school to give up or enroll in a business school and do something different to give me more opportunities.”

The Euro US conversions were made using the Oanda $ 1 to $ 1.17 conversion rate on July 23, 2025. All amounts are rounded to the closer dollar.

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