As she sips on coffee at a cafe in southern France, Chiara Adorno’s ears prick up at the sound of the native accents around her and a smile spreads across her face.

Despite living in the region for nearly a year, she sometimes feels like she’s “walking into a fairy tale” when hearing some of the everyday French words and phrases she’d previously only really seen in books or movies.

“When I came here, I was crying tears of joy,” Adorno tells CNN Travel. “I am so thankful to be here.”

Adorno, originally from Connecticut, left the US for France last October, and admits that this decision had been a long time coming.

After going through “a number of careers,” including as a lawyer, a filmmaker and an artisan breadmaker, Adorno had become tired of the “work, work, work” culture in the US an

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