Защото избрах България

My name is Marie, I am 33 years old French but by blood, 50% Polish because my dad was born in France from Polish immigrants.

I grew up in the north of France until age 10 and then, my father has been moving a lot in France for his work. After I graduated High School,I started to study law with the aim to become a lawyer, a job I was dreaming of since age 12. I wanted to be either a lawyer or a policewoman but I value life too much to take such a risk so I went for the first option :-) I think I would have been a good detective though... ;-) Once I graduated from law school and after several experiences in different law firms, I felt that it was not for me because I did not really like the atmosphere. This is the time when I met Alexandre, my husband, in March 2012, and at that point we decided to change life and start our own enterprise. In March 2014, we quit France and we went to the U.S. Everything started from there.

I came to Bulgaria for the first time in December 2012. Despite the early winter and its bad weather I immediately loved Sofia. Then, we often traveled go and back between France and Bulgaria before to decide to settle temporarily here in July 2014. Last January, we decided to stay here for good. Why? Because we love it!

My opinion about Bulgaria did not change since December 2012. This is a country where I feel good. I am a naturally stressed person so I need to evolve in an environment where people are not too stressed and where people get the things done without creating an unnecessary stress. So, my opinion about Bulgaria is very positive. I have an easy contact with people even if I do not speak Bulgarian (yet!). Most of people that I meet are very welcoming and a lot of them still have values. The food and the wine is great. It is a great chance to be able to eat sane and tasty food. This not the case everywhere.

In addition, Bulgaria offers fantastic landscape, mountain, sea, rivers, forests, some gorgeous cities, monasteries at a very accessible distance. The proximity with other countries is also a great asset. It is very easy to get to the Greek coast, Belgrade, Bucharest or Istanbul in just a few hours drive. Last, Sofia is very well connected to other Europeans cities thanks to many low cost and "normal" airlines. All of this is making Bulgaria very attractive. Bulgaria is very beautiful in all its aspects and this is the reason why I decided to name the blog "Madame Bulgaria" because one can consider Bulgaria as a beautiful and styled lady.

My life in Bulgaria is the one of an entrepreneur. With my husband, Alexandre, we never stop working.We meet a lot of partners for our business in the recruitment field. When we get out, we always enjoy discovering new places in Sofia and in Bulgaria. By the way, when I moved to Sofia, at the beginning, I was walking every day 2-3 hours in the streets without a specific purpose, just to "feel" the city. I noticed that many cafés, restaurants, and shops were appearing and disappearing very fast. Sometimes, I was walking in a specific street one month later and many places changed. It was a little bit like Sofia was in perpetual movement and presenting a new face on a regular basis. Very often, we go to visit new places for the week-end. We already went to Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse, Melnik, Borovets, Rila, Bansko, Petrich, Sozopole, Nessebar, Montana, Belogradchik, Belchin, Kovadchevicha, Belista. And this is just the beginning because it will take me years to discover everything. By the way, I succeeded to get my parents to visit new places with me when they come to visit us.

I had an idea to create a blog about Bulgaria for more than a year but never found the time to start it. I knew is was not an easy thing and that I needed to be regular in the frequency of my articles. But, I still wanted to share my discoveries, week-ends and more than anything else, I wanted to show to the people abroad who have a bad image of Bulgaria that this country is gorgeous and deserve to be well known. I was sick to hear people who were even not able to place it on a map to ask me why I wanted to live there. Many people told me that I was constraining myself with that choice and that it was a poor, undeveloped country without any perspective and that moreover I did not speak the language. True, I do not speak Bulgarian but most not to say all the people I met so far speak at least English, very often French or another language. This is not the case in France. People speak French, sometimes they can say a few words in English and that's about it...

So, I installed all the softwares I needed and I started my blog.

For the future? I would like to continue publishing about places I like and which are not very well known and try to give a true and nice mage of Bulgaria. Bulgaria is beautiful and it deserves to be told. I also think about a French version of my articles because they are read a lot in France and most French people do not speak English.

Rakia. For sure. I love it ;-) I drink it with a lot of pleasure, with moderation of course but mainly because since I started to drink a little bit of it every day, I have not been sick. If I stop, I don't know what kind of cold or bad flu I could get ;-) I also enjoy a lot the Bulgarian cuisine! Guvetche, pastries, grilled trouts and vegetables... The wine is also very good and deserve to be well know abroad.

Bulgaria has a lot of potential, great resources and a clever people. Bulgarians are very often stunned by our positive thoughts about their country because we chose to settle here and many of them don't understand our choice because their dream is to emigrate. But, the grass is not greener on the other side. There are many things to be done in Bulgaria and it is important to keep seeing the glass half full. If Bulgarians do not believe in their own country, it will not work out. I wish Bulgaria will, in the next decades, occupy the place it deserves in Europe and in the world. I did not study  he history of the country in details but I understood that Bulgaria has been a powerful country in the past. I saw pictures of Sofia and people in the early 19th century which did not have anything to  nvy to Paris or any other European capitals. If I can contribute, at my modest level, to help Bulgaria to recover with its glorious past, I would be extremely proud.