Calling Gizmo, Lostinparis et al ....

[blossom2]

Hello there ...

Just heard from DH that 1 October 2004 is the deadline!!! Now i'm in panic mood.

I've been looking on Amazon and can't find books about living in Paris has been published recently.
Gizmo - can you recommend something???
Lostinparis - how are you?

Many thanks ladies

I'd forget about books re living in Paris and start surfing the net as you'll probably pick up more info + what sort of info do you need (ie what do you need to get out of a book?). (i) I suppose you need to work out where to live (will you be lodged when you arrive to give you time to find a place or are you going to have to find a place before you come out here? - I don't think a book will really help you on this score, you'd need to come out here for a weekend and get walking to see the areas and once you've narrowed down acceptable/not acceptable areas you can start contacting agents and looking on sites like seloger.com);(ii) contacts with ex-pat community/things to do with dd/ds (sorry can't remember which) you'll get from the net + I think you'll get much more info from the message group gizmo mentionned than from a book; (iii) paperwork - as this is still the EU anything you forget to do before you go is easily (well, once you get through the morass of admin here) sorted out (you no longer need a carte de sejour, if your dh is being seconded by his firm they should provide a E102 so he is entitled to health services under an arrangment between EU states if he is employed in Fce once he gets here he'll need to contact the secu to get a carte vitale which will cover you and dh/ds and his mutuelle will cover costs not reimbursed by the secu) - again sth a book won't help with I think you just need to go with the flow on the paperwork; (iv) what else? Don't panic - each time you think of sth post it on mn or email me and hopefully I or someone else (there is also Frenchgirl who probably knows how things work in France) can point you in the right direction.

Thanks for the info Lostinparis [smile[. You're right about not really needing a book. I started searching the web inbetween messages!

We're hoping his company will instruct a relocation company to help us ie they find the apartments and we'll look at them.

So first thing is too book tickets to Paris!!!
i'll let you know how we get along.

cheers

Sorry Blossom,

I've been away for the weekend, so only just seen this (what, me, browse at work - with my reputation ).

I think LostinParis is probably quite right, there is only so much you can do from 'booklarning', but I did find one or two helpful simply to guide me about what questions to begin to ask.

Two best, in my experience, were Alan Hart's book, called (I think) Living and working in Paris and David Hampshire's book Living and Working in France. Both pretty good on the paperwork aspects, and for checklists of day to day stuff and the logistics of organising moves.

Ignore the chapters in Alan Hart's book about the nature of the arrondissement since 1) they'll be out of date and 2) they're obviously pretty subjective: you might find you love areas the author's run down.

But I think my motto here would be: 'time spent on the web is time rarely (really?) wasted'. Some sites I have found quite helpful: the french embassy in London (good for paperwork, wrestling with French taxation law etc), BBC site (for basic assessment of your language, some good french courses and quite a lot about becoming an expat) and the various Mairies (town halls) of the arrondissements (although their sites are largely in French) for things like childcare arrangements in each district and what the facilities are like. I think the Telegraph website also has an expat forum where you can find expat 'mentors': quite how helpful they will be is hard to say.

Anyway, when are you going over? Are you going for a family outing? If you can arrange a free weekend in the next month, I am thinking of going over myself to look at a few apartments - perhaps we could team up?

Hello Gizmo

Good to hear from you thank you very much for the infor about books & websites. All i've been doing is a google search and all the websites looked the same!!

Alan Hart has got a new one coming out in September so I was thinking of waiting for that to come out.

I would love to meet up. Have you found places by yourself or did you get a relocation company to help?? we're thinking of gettign DH's company to pay for a company to do our searching for us and then for us just to go and look - the whole thing is really daunting for me.

I resigned from work today (work 4 mornings a week) but can't leave until mid-september which doesn't leave me much time to get organised. Had a crying session down the phone to DH about how overwhelming it all is.

I'm really impressed at how much information you've gathered by the way. How is your information search about nurseries for your ds??

Ah, you see, I have had months of contemplating this, while the date for our move drifts...and drifts....and now of course it will probably never happen.

Still, I will stick my fingers in my ears and ignore that possibility ('la la la' ) while carrying on regardless.

If it ever does happen we're planning to take an apartment on a short term (3 month or so) let, so we can search for a more permanent base while we are in Paris. Personally, I've found it really difficult to contemplate looking for an apartment without being on the spot to inspect them. I've even found the perfect short term let (courtesy of lodgis )from the beginning of December, but at this rate we won't be taking it!

Nursery/school for DS slightly confusing: on the one hand I'm told that there is a guaranteed state nursery place (Ecole Maternelle) for every three year old but on the other that you have to go to the Mairie and register and if you miss the deadline you don't get a place...not very sure where we would stand, really.

So where are you based, Blossom? I'm in Cambridge so if you're anywhere in the vicinity we could get together for a planning session...I feel the urge to plan someone's move for them, even if not my own! (sorry, did that sound a bit psycho/stalkerish: I promise not to obsess about it)

hi Gizmo

I'm in South East London I'm afraid.

our moves seem to be at opposites - yours is a question mark and mine is happening far too quickly!!! what is the situation with your move? has your DH got a permanent job there or a secondment?
If the move doesn't happen, you can come and visit us! you'll probably know paris better than we do.

you are more than welcome to plan our move for us . We're going to look to rent long-term (2 years) straight away because the secondment is only for that long and I'm not sure i would move if i didn't know there was a time we would be coming back - IYKWIM!!

i've just ordered the Living & Working in france book from Amazon and a couple of novels. the whole process is made even more daunting because we've got 2 holidays planned in august & september so it really does feel like time is slipping through my fingers ...

Oh yikes, I begin to see your problem...it's a bummer having to move immediately after the holiday season, isn't it?

'Cos I'm a bit of a control freak about my environment, there's no way I'd let anyone do a property search for me, but I know there are some good relocation agencies out there that seem to know Paris very well: you might find the best course of action is to put yourself in their hands - assuming your DH's company will pay - budget for a couple of weekends out there to brief them/be briefed and inspect what they have found, and then go for it.

The one I keep looking at is Intransit International (if you Google 'Paris relocation' it comes up near the top). Somewhere on the site they also have a convenient checklist for the countdown to a relocation. Plus they will be able to give you the full gen on schools, shopping, french classes, everything!

I don't think we'll be able to persuade DH's potential employers to pay for this level of service, sadly. He's been offered (tentatively) a senior role in a start up technology company, but of course everything depends upon funding and it always takes aeons to get any funders signed up. Yawn......

Still, why don't you ask admin for my email, and we might be able to give each other a bit of moral support!

Sorry, I haven't been able to check mn as often as usual so am a bit behind. Re coming over in August it's a good idea to get an idea of the place but one thing to bear in mind is that Paris is basically closed throughout August so you may not get a very clear idea about the real character of areas + many agencies and local shops will be closed. So, make sure that you plan to come over at the beginning of September as well as that is when you will achieve the most here (both in terms of finding acommodation and in terms of administration).