Living in Paris: please give me tips

[Chochito]

I have just found out I'm going to be moving to Paris. Please, does anyone have any advice? Thank you.

Hello, when are you moving?

Get out for the whole of August, it's beyond boiling.

Hah, yes that is sound advice. Although she may not have accrued enough holiday to do that this year.

I would love to hear advice too I plan to live there after finishing my degree in a year x

Long term or just for a while? My advice for moving for Paris temporarily just for the experience and moving to Paris to build a life there would be different. (I've done both.)

Hi, thanks so much peperethecat and madcatladyforever. I'm moving long term, in July, and start work on 1st September.

I am from Spain and adore hot weather, but yes I am going on holiday (to Spain) for August as usual.

I would really welcome any advice, tips, etc.

But what do you want to know? It's rather an open question! Any advice would change whether you are student/graduate/parent to young children/teenagers/single/a billionaire/becoming a waitress!

The expats in Paris facebook group has lots of helpful people, and I guess there's a Spaniards in Paris group too.

The only non-specific piece of advice I can think of is however much money you think you'll need to move - triple it. It's a bloody expensive city for foreigners.

Yes, what is your situation? What kind of job are you going to be doing, and where is it based? Will you be living alone or with a partner/kids? Do you want to live in Paris itself, or outside the city?

Paris resident here. It's an absolute nightmare finding accommodation in September as all the students are looking around then. Don't know if Covid will change that yet. If you're coming in July, try to find something for at least a few months and not just the summer.

Do you know where you want to live? What will you be going while here?

Lucky you! I finished my university training there and loved it. I don't really have any real advice as I was there in the 80s but I think you will find it more similar to Spain than if you were coming from England for example. If you don't speak french fluently (or at all) then that is what I would concentrate on between now and then. Bonne chance!

I already have a flat, thanks, in the centre. Working just outside the centre, will have to get RER A to work. I'll be living alone, I am single. Work full time. Yes I speak French but not perfectly.

I guess things you wish you had known, things that might not seem obvious to an outsider, your experiences...

Anything you can do to improve your French between now and when you move will help a lot, although it will improve the most once you're actually working.

If you're Spanish you won't need to get a titre de séjour which is great, but there is still a lot of administrative stuff to do in France and it takes a lot of getting your head round how it all works. I think that's the main thing I wish I'd known. Things like getting a social security number, a carte vitale for healthcare, finding out how paid holiday works, all that kind of thing takes time. Ask your HR manager to explain anything you don't understand and don't worry about looking stupid.

Opening a bank account can be a bit of a nightmare. If you're based in the UK at the moment and bank with HSBC it would be worth paying them the £50 or so it costs to get them to open a French account for you. If not, you'll need to open a bank account when you arrive so make sure you have some proof of address for your new flat.

Buy a big lever arch file and some plastic document sleeves and file every damn piece of paper you get sent, because there will be a lot of it and you never know when you might be asked to produce a piece of paper at a moment's notice.

I'll post again as and when I think of more things!

Oh by the way, do you like running, by any chance?

Best way to get proof of address is to get home insurance. You need it anyway before you move in, but you can put it on any credit card from anywhere. If you've already done one international move, you already know about the dumb circle of despair that exists everywhere of 'I need an address for a bank, but a bank for a phone number, but a residence permit for a phone, but an address for a permit' or whatever the variation is. The house insurance cuts the loop.

HSBC advice: if you phone their help line, it gives you a French menu. If you repeatedly say 'English' into it, even though it's a robot, it takes you to their UK call centre. It took me months to find that, and the 'English' helpline advertised on the website has a helpful welcome message in French. HSBC are pretty shit with customer service generally, although asking around it seems like all French banks are terrible compared to other countries. I've heard reasonable things about ING, but they're Dutch and online only in France.

Also, all French mobile and internet providers suck. Prepay is a scam and they steal your money and cancel the number almost instantly, but it's the fastest way to get a burner phone, before you break the circle of despair. Don't try to work from home for a few weeks, it takes forever to get internet connected, and Paris has lousy phone signal and barely any 4G coverage.

If you're working in any sort of public sector job, don't expect to get paid for about 3 months. Make sure you've got some savings, or use the time for an extreme diet. Don't expect HR to speak English unless you're working somewhere amazing (I love the suggestion of talking to HR! Mine shrugged and said in French 'not our problem' when I asked how I was meant to eat after they failed to pay me yet again.)

Can you tell I found the first few months tough?! The baguettes and wine nearly make up for it, although following the bureaucratic nightmares and the handling of the pandemic I'm looking for a job somewhere else (but definitely not the UK!)

I agree on getting your French really fluent before you arrive. Parisians are so much nicer to people who speak their language. They can be very impatient if you struggle to understand.

Scrub up. They really care if your hair/nails/shoes and outfits are chic. I was once told never to wear my glasses again as they ruined my hair cut.

I’d advise not listening to anyone who comments on your appearance !
I know a lot of scruffy Parisians. It’s a diverse city - indeed French culture may be more traditional but having your nails done really isn’t a requirement - in my experience anyway.
Other than that your post is vague - hard to give advice. Yes bureaucracy is a pain and I second the large lever arch file! although it seems like you already have quite a few things sorted - a flat is a great start...! Courage and enjoy - Paris is a tough but delightful cookie.

I don't know anyone who has their nails done here, and to be honest I think fashion in Paris is far less high maintenance than it would be in, say, Liverpool. As long as you're clean and well groomed no one will bat an eyelid.

OK I thought of another thing. When you arrive, try out all your local boulangeries, fruit and veg shops and butchers, and when you've found the ones you like best, keep going there so the staff get to know you. Small talk is important, whenever you go into any shop you always say "bonjour" to start with. As you get more confident, when shopping for food feel free to ask for your baguette "bien cuite" or "pas trop cuite" depending on how you like it, ask for a melon or an avocado that will be ripe to eat today or in three days' time, ask the vendors what they recommend. Do the same in bars and restaurants if you aren't sure what to order. This kind of small talk where you're asking for people's advice or explaining what you want is kind of intégral to French culture and will get you a whole different level of customer service. It sounds stupid but I started to feel much more at home here as soon as I figured this out.

Thanks peperethecat that sounds similar to Spanish culture, to get to know your local places, etc. And yes it is virtually a crime here to enter a bar or shop etc. without saying buenos días so I do it without thinking. In France it's cool but in England everyone looks away and there are occasional tuts 😂

lekkerkroketje Thanks, I have a bank already and my flat had internet. I would not expect to work from home but with the pandemic, who knows. I'm working in the private sector and they have been good so far in transferring money for my moving expenses, sending me a laptop and setting up the logins etc. But I will certainly bear in mind what you have said about salary possibly being delayed at first, thanks.

VelvetTrews Thank you for the tips. I will certainly be hanging on to all of the paperwork in a safe and organised place. So far everything has been done electronically because of confinement so I have a whole list of things to print off when it's possible to do so.

Your employers sound well organised so don't assume that there will be a delay in receiving your salary, especially if you already have a bank account set up. I think I opened my bank account on about the 10th of the months and payroll cut off in my company is the 15th and I still managed to get it sorted in time to get paid my first month's salary as normal. (I work in the private sector.)

You might not have paid holiday during your first year because the way it often works in France is that you earn a certain number of days of holiday each month which you can take in the next holiday year, so people in their first year of a new job often end up either not taking holidays or having to take unpaid leave. I think it's nonsensical but there you have it. Not all employers do it in exactly the same way though, so yours may be different.

The reason why I asked whether you like running is because there is a group called Let's Run Paris that gets together every Monday night at 8pm to run round Paris together. They have different groups going at different speeds. If that's your kind of thing at all, it's a brilliant way to meet new people from all different places. It's mostly a mix of French and English speakers but they have people from all over the world, it's free, and you can just go when you feel like it and not when you don't.

peperethecat Yes, I adore running. The confinement has been stressful for lack of it!

Thank you for the Let's Run tip. I hadn't heard of them. That sounds ideal.

I think that judging by my contract and conversations with HR and boss I will have holiday entitlement from the start (I have tentatively booked some for October, travel restrictions permitting, and they asked me when I want off at Christmas/New Year).

Sounds like you've jumped most of the major hurdles then! They've even rationalised their tax system just in time for you so you'll miss the headache of the old one.

Even with all my negatively, it's a lovely city and even nicer now the air is cleaner. Despite the stereotypes, it's the friendliest city I've ever lived in and I feel safe almost everywhere. It's massively safer to cycle than I expected (although it's the only city outside the UK where I've felt I need a helmet). I guess since you've got friends already and have all the nightmare bits sorted you've just got to explore in your own way! That's the fun bit of moving.

As an aside I also disagree with the comments about grooming. Most of my neighbours and colleagues are pretty low maintenance in appearance. No public sector workers anywhere are super stylish though!

Yes to brushing up on tour French. I taught English their for a year and really struggled for the first few months