finding accomadation in paris

bobs ur uncle

hi im a 19 yr old lad, im planning on moving to paris for the summer. i no the city centre fairly well but im still clueless wen it cums to finding a place to stay (renting a room, flat or house and how much wil it cost) and wer to look! id like to find sumwer in or around the monte martre erea but not that important... any info wud be helpfull... also is it hard to find work over there? i dnt speak french but i have workd in pubs for a yr or 2... if it helps...lol

Dee1989

Hey there,

I'm also thinking about moving to Paris, at least for a few months (hopefully longer!). I've found appartager.com to be the most helpful in looking for somewhere to stay. The ads are mostly from people who have a room to rent out so you would be sharing which is much cheaper than getting your own place. If you wanted your own flat you could end up paying between €600 to €1000 a month for a very small studio apartment (altough the montmartre area which you mentioned seems to be a little cheaper than places nearer the city centre - at least from the ads I have seen) plus if its an agency you rent through you have to pay the agency fees which can be quite high. Also as French landlords usually require guarantors (who live in France) and/or proof of income of at least 3 times the rent amount I think sharing an apartment is the best option.

You can also put your own ad up and try to find people who are looking for an apartment that you could join up with and rent somewhere together.

The only thing about appartager is you have to pay to become a 'premium' member and this is the only way to be able to read messages from other members and see their contacts details. Its not that expensive though - I signed up for three months for €42.

As for jobs, I can't really help there. You might be able to get a job in an Irish/ English pub or a tourist shop without any French altough you might still be required to have some French. Depending on the job you might just need to learn a few phrases and that will do. There are some ads in the magazine Fusac (which is available online) but you probably wouldn't be able to arrange anything before going over.

Can I ask what your plan is to do when your there if you don't mind or why you want to go? I've been to Paris twice in the past year and love it there - I'm really hoping to get the opportunity to move over soon. I'm learning French at the minute - havent done it since the leaving - and trying to find some english speaking jobs relating to my degree but no luck yet. Thinking of going over to take a French class for a few months early next year (if I can get an apartment!) and continue the job search while I'm there.

Anyway, hope I helped some!

kitsuune

I did this last summer and found my flat on appartager.com as well. I was particularly lucky though, and found a beautiful apartment in Boulogne, right beside a metro stop just outside the périphérique. I only paid 450 a month, but that's really really cheap. It was really handy for transport (Boulogne is the best served suburb, if pretty chic and sometimes a little pricey). The girl whose room I was subletting (i shared with a French girl) was on the CAF and let me pay what she was paying rather than trying to make a profit.

Oh and on Appartager, what I did was bookmark all of the ones I was interested in, went over for a few days beforehand and the npaid 10euro for 3 days so I could contact everyone in one go. Do your best to visit if you can, if just to see the crazy variety. Some flats can be nice but be in super dodge areas so take care.

I know one or two people that it worked out for, but personally, when it comes to Paris I would avoid Craiglists LIKE THE PLAGUE! It is FULL of scams. Any room for under 600 or even 700 on there is nearly definitely a scam. You will get responses from people in broken English, looking for photocopies of your passport, who will tell you that their friends will pass on the keys to you when you arrive etc etc Just DO NOT.

Apart from Apartager, people will always refer you to FUSAC (http://www.fusac.fr/) and PAP (Particulier à Particulier - http://www.pap.fr/ ) There are other sites but I foudn that a lot of them weren't great at replying.
In general I found that France isn't as big on online advertising as say Ireland, so notice boards are still one of the best ways to find a place (particularly if you're not necessarily looking to share or sublet). Particularly for studio apartments , which are probably the most easy to find type of accomm over there.
Best places to look : The American Church (lots of ads for au pairing jobs, and jobs in tourist shops here too), St Michael's Anglican Church, the Irish Cultural Centre (for jobs also), and most of the universities (esp the Sorbonne, if you can sneak in :P). Any of the American colleges and English language places you can find will often have notice boards. Even some cafes etc.

Personally, I think with Paris you really really need to go over there and visit places. There are plenty of dodgey places... I mean, don't even think about the 18th, 19th, 20th!! You can find cheap places in Montmartre if you look, and 14th and the southerly bit of the 6th around Montparnasse can be affordable too. You can certainly find places in the 7th and 8th as well, but expect them to be very small, might be worth it for proximity to everything. I wouldn't recommend Cité Universitaire, as it's all foreigners over the summer, is fairly expensive and is on the RER. Don't be put off by the suburbs, but I would say that if you do go for somewhere out there, for your own sake, avoid places on RER lines... with strikes and everything they are just not worth the stress!

I found a savage job on the Champs-Élysées within a week of being there, so it can certainly be done! Your best bet is places where speaking English would be an advantage. If your French isn't that great then Irish bars or Australian bars are a good bet, even au pairing!

Hope this has answered some questions, got a bit carried away! If you have any other questions just drop me an IM, I'm always happy to talk about Paris!