Help! Would you move to Paris or London (with small children)?

[pinkypig]

Hi Ladies,

A bit of background. I'm British (worked in London for 10 years) but have spent the past 4 years in Australia as I moved here for work, met an Aussie bloke and now have a 21 month son, 2nd baby due in 6 weeks. We are in our mid 30's.

We have been planning a move to either Paris or London for a year and will make the move in April 09.

We are torn between London and Paris. London because I know it so well and would slot in easily to playgroups/toddler groups and in general life in the UK. But we keep hearing how depressing and violent the UK is which is concerning me.

Paris we both enjoyed on a trip but I have read from a couple of threads here that most Parisian Mum's go back to work quickly and that Paris is therefore not an easy place to be a SAHM in. Few toddler parks/clubs etc??

What are your experiences of life in Paris with toddlers? What advice would you give us?

Also, my French is good and DH is currently learning. He is in a 'C' level job so we should have a fairly comfortable life over there in terms of money.

All advice gratefully received .

Thanks

PP

No Cod I'm not wrong. Don't confuse "mothers" and "women".

x-posts

Also the UK economy has much more flexible (part time, contract etc) working that women use a lot, so that many women who "work" aren't working full-time.

The French labour market is a lot less flexible.

Have you looked at www.messageparis.org?

sounds great

I would take London over Paris any day personally

(Paris looks better but I can never help but think how nice ones cities remain if one collaborates)

I feel London is more vibrant and has more variety in lots of ways.

The French love children and you can take them anywhere. The British hate having kids around in restaurants etc. We were in France for months a few years ago. The teenagers hung around in gangs in the early evening and were impeccably behaved, polite and helpful. In London, the teenagers hang around in gangs and, well, read the papers.

If I was v seriously loaded I would choose London; if I was merely bloody rich I would choose Paris.

Our local teenagers don't read the paper when hanging around!

I bet the teens in Clichy-sous-Bois aren't quite so polite...

You are so au fait, CD. Most impressed!

PS will be in Lunnon in July.....just booking tickets.

oh when??

I am orf on my hols on 19th

beginning o fhte month je pense. need ds's id card and tickets.

great let's meet up
I am not working Fris now

Message withdrawn

I don't think that's true for many any more. To be competitive, very few factories can close during August.
I don't know anyone who gets 6 weeks in summer (except teachers). Most people get 5 weeks to take in the year.

The bank holidays are good though!

Thanks folks. But what about London/the UK. Is it really more depressing and violent than it was 5 years ago?

PP

Re. depressing and violent.

We have just moved back to London after two years in a Canadian suburb. That is the move everyone is supposed to want to make, isn't it - swapping nasty grimy violent London for a lovely clean safe Canadian city. Hmmm. If you are a real urban girl like me, London is the place to be. There were things I loved about Canada but I missed London so much. We only came back twice in 2 years and I found it in many ways unchanged, and in some ways much better (e.g public transport). Admittedly, we live in a nice leafy bit of London, but then it sounds as though that's what you would be aiming at too. There are some depressing things about the UK (read any paper) but there is also such vibrancy and imagination, such life here. In our bit of London children are certainly not shoved to the sidelines and loathed, there is so much to do and so much revolves around family life.

Anyway, I could go on, but suffice to say that I think the benefits of London far outweigh the risks. Very happy to e-mail more about our experience if you want as I don't like going into too much detail on a public forum - sounds as though our husbands do similar things too - margotmaynard at gmail dot com.

Most of the nice bits of central london are wankered by euro bankers now it must be said

Countess Dracula makes a good point - there is a lot less obscene wealth ostentation here in Paris...

effing Europeans, where are the native aristocrats? .

Don't know much about Paris or London, but would live there. We live in another big city, by no means as beautiful as Paris and London. But it is fine.

most of the ones I know have buggered off to Gloucs

lol

This is really interesting, thank you ladies. I might be about to move to Paris as SAHM and have no idea what living in Paris is like. 3000+ for an appartment? We might just be able to do that but ouch. Good news about Message Mother Support Group though, and thanks for the school info. Anything else we should know about?

i think the move would be ok, but you have to ,make sure you can afford to!!!