2015 will be an exciting year: My wife and I are moving to California!

If you met me recently you might already know it. After more than 7 years in Paris, we decided to change scenery.

As I look back on those 3 years at Google France and 7 years in Paris, I feel very lucky. I had amazing experiences. From working with an awesome team in Capgemini to having a blast at Jolicloud and, of course, Google.

In March, I will leave the Google Cultural Institute. It is the most important project I've ever worked on and one I will brag about all my life. There is nothing more rewarding than working on a project which is helping the world reach Cultural content and Historical patrimoine more easily. It's not the kind of project that makes the tech blog headlines but it's one that will allow future generations to be blown away by paintings, never forget how terrible war is, learn more about the history of the Eiffel Tower or visit beautiful places you may not have a chance to visit in your lifetime. All of this accessible to anyone, anywhere, with an Internet connection.

The team I joined at the Cultural Institute is such an incredible team and I can't thank them enough for everything they gave me. It's been nearly 3 years now and I'm looking forward to a new challenge joining a new team at Google in Mountain View (more on that in another post).

Of course leaving your home country and your family is not an easy choice but we both grew up in houses (not apartments!) and enjoyed the sun and the sea. We feel like it is time to go back to a place where we don't hear our neighbors walking and yelling all the time and where we can do a barbecue WHENEVER we want!

We wanted something new but why so far from France? It's a combination of various things we had in mind when we first started thinking about leaving Paris.

We want a great weather, we can't stand gray sky all the time anymore. We also want to live in a house and have a garden with a barbecue. That might sound ridiculous (and it probably is) but as soon as you are denied those things you want them even more! Finally it's an amazing opportunity to work in the Silicon Valley and my next job is incredibly exciting. Of course nothing is perfect, houses are expensive and the commute can be painful. But in the end, the advantages strongly exceed the drawbacks.

Having access to the city, the beach, mountains or redwoods forests, all in 40 minutes, is definitely another reason.

We will leave France end of February and we look forward to start a new chapter there. I hope to see you either online or in sunny California :)