Baby has gone to sleep swo will reply while drinking my coffee.
Housing - not cheap here and going up but still a steal compared to uk. If a real bargain, there is generally a good reason.
Childcare - fab fab fab - huge range of subsidised childcare. Have lots of children and could prob advise you which nursery/etc if you wanted. Your ds woudl be in maternelle. Most people choose schools (pub or priv) near where they live as Bx is mare to get around by car. Summer - also brill here - last summer two of my children did sports weeks with everything from water skiing and sailing to archery and tree swinging for a grand £12.00 each for a full week which included two restaurant lunches and transport!
Jobs - my dh has a company and can never find staff but it is probably by sector. Bx is a thriving city and quite international and I think would be as good a place as any to try your luck. Fluent french is absolute must.
Expats - lots of them, you can either live in brit enclave (and some do, to the extent that almost never need to speak anything other than shopping french) or avoid the britpack and slot in. French speaking and kids at school helps.
Cliques - the bordelais have reputation of being like the parisiens with their cold unfriedly manner. This may be so if you come from Lyon, but have personally not had any probs.
Cost of living - have been out of uk long time so cannot answer that. Salaries much lower here, cost of housing lower, debt tolerance is nil, ditto unauthorised overdrafts. Milk, mobile phones and organic produce all much more exp than in the uk, but most other stuff either same price and better qualitly (food or clothing for example).
TV and radio are shite, books are expensive and you can't get Tayberries or gem squash. Other than that, tis brilliant.