any advice on moving to france, please!!

[adozenroses]

Hi. I'm looking at moving to france very soon - for reasons I won't bore you with - but I can't seem to find anywhere to rent property, except for holiday homes. DOes anyone have any websites or info on where I can rent a home...and just general advice would be useful.

Also, has anyone moved over and found work? How easy is it to do this??

Thanks in advance

Property for rent: a lot of the immobiliere sites have rentals. Try logicimmo,I think they have some. we got our first rental (on the Riviera) through a local agency, having seen the place advertised in the local free paper that each region has. The second we found by workd of mouth- we moved to Haute Savoie, stayed at a chalet in a campsite while looking for somewhere to rent, asked the campsite owner and she put us in touch with a local couple that were renting a flat behind their house. It's cheaper than what the agencies have too. The more rural the area, the more it's likely to be word of mouth or a notice in the local supermarket, I reckon.

Jobs: depends what sort of job you want, and how your French is. My DP is a construction site manager (qualified in Holland) and he finds work easily enough through temp.agencies, he speaks some French but not brilliantly and isn't working at the level he'd be able to in Holland or an English speaking country. I'ma project manager, and wemoved here to Haute Savoie so that I'd have more work opportunities (in Geneva) when I do want to work. There are possibilities to work in English in Paris and the Riviera, (and Geneva), but I think not so many outside those places. And even then, suitable jobs aren't exactly falling out of the trees.

Good luck with the move. Where will you be? Are you excited?

... the free regional maagazines have lots of rentals, can't tell you a contact because it depends where you'll be. Every region has a number, so Haute Savoie is 74 and Cote d'Azur was 06 I think. THe first two letters of the post code are your area number,so if you have the address of something in the town you're going to you'll have your area number.then you can try to track down the name of the free newspaper. Here it's called Top Annonces, email is www.topannonces.fr and all the ads are online too. Sorry I can't be more specific, it does dpend on the region.
Oh also see if your area has an Anglo Info, a website for anglophones, they may have some stuff for rent or at least they can tell you the website of the local petites annonces paper. There's an Anglo Info Brittany, Languedoc, Dordogne, riviera, and Geneva I know. Maybe some others (Poitou-charente I think?)
Hope this helps.

Try posting under "living abroad" adozenroses, you'll probably get more responses I've got lots of help for my imminent move to Oz.

Thanks fridascruffs, that is really helpful info.

You know, I've never noticed a 'living abroad' section on the boards. I'll go and post there.

It's actually "living overseas" which I should know as I post there all the time

We lived in France for 2 years renting a house.

First thing I would say is, brace yourself! You will need a French bank account, plus deposit plus I think it's about 3 months rent in advance. Credit Lyonnaise allowed us to open a French bank account using an English address so try them. Renting agencies go through the books very strictly and the paperwork can take ages, they may want to see proof of your employment, if you have none then they will want you to set up an account with a years worth of rent in it that is locked for a year. They are very rigorous and demanding! Private renting is easier but again, because you are foreign be prepared to be asked for lots and lots of paperwork!

Employment in France is not good, it's the reason we came back. Teaching English is quite good as they are short of native-English speaking teachers. A TEFL is handy but not essential, however you do need experience of teaching or an education to degree level. Go with an agency. You will only get work with private schools as state school teachers need to be French citizens even if you are teaching English. There is an exam you can take to get round this, but you still might not get work due to the way schools are funded, it's all terribly complicated but that's just the way they like it!

I hope you can speak French because you will need it!

Take with you every original paper you can find because you will be asked for these time and time again. Make sure you have a year's worth of bank statements and pay statements, details of any benefits you've been on, just take everything!

I'm happy to answer any more questions for you.