“In the morning, when we wake up, we go to the beach before it gets too hot and we have breakfast with our feet in the sand.
» Dream morning in Bali before the flood of videoconferences on the computer.
Célestin, 39, is an IT manager for Luko, a Parisian start-up specializing in insurance.
Residing thousands of kilometers from his company, he was able to keep his CDI.
His wife Laetitia, 37, is a freelancer and runs an online decoration store.
Both are digital nomads.
Not having the status of expatriates, they keep a residence and a tax home in France, but exercise their profession in the four corners of the planet.
“We keep our house in Villejuif, in the Val-de-Marne”, they specify.
In mid-May, the couple and their sixteen-month-old baby settled in the seaside resort of Seminyak.
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The company that has employed Célestin for a year and a half encourages and supports relocated teleworkers.
A model of society that attracts younger generations with desires from elsewhere.
“It's the culture of my box.
The employer really trusts us, it's nice.
I start my day at 3 p.m., to manage the six-hour time difference with France, until well after midnight.
My colleagues, I don't see them.
When we do visios, I realize that some have changed countries!
We have lunches where everyone has a dish delivered and we share the moment from a distance, he laughs.
My wife starts in the morning while our son takes his nap.
With a little one, it's not easy but we adapt.
»
French salary in Bali
Moreover, the spouses are not at their first attempt.
Fifteen years ago, the young woman landed her first job in Hong Kong.
Her husband decides to follow her.
“We also took the opportunity to travel.
We left for nine months, backpacking, visiting fourteen countries in Asia!
A thrilling but exhausting way of life.
At each stage of the journey, everything has to be redone: finding accommodation, adopting new habits, recreating social ties.
Currently, the family lives thanks to Célestin's salary, more than 3,000 euros per month.
By earning as much as in Paris, their Balinese lifestyle is advantageous: 3 euros for beer, the same for a meal in a local café and 6 euros for a Western breakfast on the beach.
A financial ease that allows the couple to make strategic choices.
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“We prefer to live in a city where we spend a little more.
We were convinced by the details, remembers the 30-year-old.
Where we are, there are sidewalks.
And for the stroller, that changes everything!
Since arriving in Indonesia, their son Oscar has quickly found his groove.
He walks around in diapers, enjoys the beach and savors the local specialties prepared by his nanny.
professional revival
Now, Balinese scooters have replaced Parisian taxis.
These scenes of everyday life, Laetitia would not have been able to live them if she had not passed the milestone of digital nomadism.
In 2017, while working in banking marketing at Paris La Défense, she suffered a burnout.
“I was unable to set foot in the office.
I had panic attacks,” she says.
There followed a conventional breach of his contract and two years of unemployment during which the couple's income decreased.
It was then that he decided to go abroad.
“When you work in banking, you have a special relationship with money.
It was not at all in my character not to have a fixed salary.
Now that we have tasted this freedom, we can't live without it!
We managed to create the life we dreamed of,” she concludes.
