I’m m currently carrying a steam deck. It’s awesome!

I gave up on driving about 10 years ago. I’m terrible at it and it causes me stress. There are many places where you can live a lovely car-free life.

It sounds like you don’t have much experience with this. And that’s ok! Since you have a remote job, you should book yourself a month sometime that’s extremely walkable and has a great metro transit system. This will help you understand what day to day life looks like in a walkable place.

Not sure your country, but if you are in the US, go to NYC and live in a very central neighborhood. In Europe, you could pretty much go to the central area of any capital city for the same experience.

It might be an expensive month, but I guarantee you will have a much better perspective on car free living at the end of the month than you do now.

You don’t use a virtual background for calls? I also have a ring light so I can adjust my lighting in the evening.

Many EU countries will issue visas for cohabitating non-married spouses. France is NOT one of those countries, so you will need to be married to get a spouse visa in Spain.

But your boyfriend is not just a French citizen, he is an EU citizen. That gives him residency and family rights in all European countries, meaning you can choose the country that gives you the best opportunity.

For example, Spain will issue a visa for a stable partnership as long as you can present some evidence you are a real, committed couple. If you have a visa for an EU country, you will receive less scrutiny from all other EU counties as you are supposed to be there and there are no internal border controls. Your boyfriend will be able to easily register his residence in the EU country of your choosing as long as he can meet the basic requirements of supporting himself financially.

As that point you can legally be in France for 180 days a year. I’d recommend getting less stuck on whether you are living within the borders of France and just try to use the great EU system to legalize your stay and get yourself closer to where you want to be. Ions step at a time!