A living in Paris question...

[barbie1]

Hi

My husband has been asked to transfer to Paris next month until the end of the year and myself and our two young children will be going along, they are 2.1 and 2 months. We are all British but moving from Dubai. Since we are not going to be in Paris too long and neither of us speak French we want to live somewhere with a strong english speaking expat community and somewhere that's got good play schools or nursery schools as well as not being too far from la Défense where my husband will work.

With the help of google french websites we have narrowed down our search to Le Vésinet and St Germain en Laye. What I would like to know is which town is better for children and offers more to do to keep us entertained. I am a bit anxious that we will be bored in the suburbs. We are looking for a 3 bed apartment or house annd our budget is up to ?3500 per month.

Thank you all for your time and help.

In terms of liveliness I would go for St Germain, lots of nice shops and restaurants on your doorstep and a very large English speaking community. It should be no problem getting a 3 bed appt for your budget there. Le Vesinet is very suburban in my opinion with quite a small town centre but is greener and has lots of parks which may suit you better with 2 very small children.
Both are in very easy commuting distance of La Defense and both have English speaking play schools, we live in Croissy but if I was looking to move again I would go for St Germain.

Thank you, we have been accepted into nurseries in both areas so it all depends on what we are looking for. The parks sound good as does the shops and restaurants
I think we are coming over the 2nd week of April to look at the two areas, although the ladies on the messenger site also said we should consider central Paris due to staying only a short time....

TBH they are right next door to each other and both vry nice. Like PP says St Germain is the bigger town but Le Vesinet is really pretty with lots of nice parks. Both would be very nice places to live if you want to be putside of Paris.nProbably the best thing to do is to find the house that you like and base your decision on that.