One of the many paradoxes that apply to life living abroad in France: To open a bank account, you first need an address. But to have an address, you must first have a bank account. The search lasted a little under a month and luckily for us, classes had not yet started. Our owner was a lovely French lady who lived and worked in the southwest of France in Bordeaux. We were fortunate because, although she required the same documentation that other owners had, she was much more lenient with the fact that we were foreigners. I’ll touch on this here shortly. I had been able to secure a French guarantor through building relationships with people from the Sorbonne following my first year which was how I ultimately secured housing my second year.
Throughout the search, you’ll come to find out that your nationality (i.e., your passport) can either work for you or against you. This is the case for many countries. As an international student registered under a non-EU passport, more often than not, this can likely go against you[i]. This was the case in my first-year housing search. Although widely dispersed around the city and in the nearby Parisian suburbs, French university dorms, largely provided by the CROUS[ii], were usually conveniently located close to public transport. This was a major plus for students on a budget like myself. However, there were two major obstacles (disguised as one) I faced here in my housing search. One was national, the other financial. I would learn over the course of my searches prior to my first year that the CROUS required that applicants have a French guarantor making at least two to three times more than the monthly rent. These two items, nationality and finances, are the most important in your file and in the case that you did not meet both of these requirements, your application would be rejected. This rather explicitly favors French citizens of a relatively high class standing. There are cases where this can be offset as an exchange student as the CROUS works with foreign institutions to reserve housing for its incoming international students. But as a direct enrollment[iii] student applying directly to the Sorbonne, as was my case, I wasn’t afforded this perk and therefore had to go in alone. The same goes traditionally for off-campus housing. Being born in France is also a plus here as applicants must show proof of a guarantor with a permanent French address. Even where understandable, the nationalism can be a huge turnoff and be quite frustrating for the foreign student who has no official ties to Europe or to a university back home. France, a country proud of its rich history, culture, and language, which they want to safeguard from ‘outsiders’ (especially English speakers), can make the search unsurprisingly challenging as a non-native. In an international city like Paris however, the nationalism, although still prevalent, decreases even if only slightly. This is important. Our search, being three foreign students—one American and two Chinese guys— took us through different neighborhoods in and around Paris all via the internet at first. I found our would-be owner’s listing in the 15th on a site called Leboncoin, one of the most popular and widely used in France. It is likened to Craigslist here back home being a generally classified site where you can find just about anything listed on sale. There are tons of resources out there when it comes to housing however. Be sure to use every resource out there whether through a particular site (e.g., appartager.fr, pap.fr, etc.) or through private Facebook groups like the American expats in Paris or PARIS: Location appartement, Colocation, Sous-location chambre à louer. Do not be afraid to ask around as this can sometimes be the difference between living in the city with all of the amenities it affords or living outside of it. Notes: [i] Money can sometimes make up for this but not always. [ii] CROUS or Centre regional des oeuvres universitaires et scolaires is a regional organization responsible notably for providing housing and dining services to students. [iii] Direct enrollment refers to students who apply and enroll directly in a foreign institution and therefore pay fees directly to the school. This is opposed to a traditional exchange where students apply to a program through their host institution or a 3rd party provider such as CIEE and CIS abroad.
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Raymond J.
This blog seeks to incorporate stories about life abroad in Paris and beyond. |