Hey everyone !!

Congratulations les assistants de langue en France !!

Most of you must have received your arrêté de nomination by now. I have already started getting emails requesting information about House Hunting in France. So here I am, doing a short blogpost to help you deal with the accommodation stress and also to make you aware of certain important things.

First things first, please draft an email to your prof ref (if you haven’t yet!), and ask him/her for help. Try to make them understand (sometimes they don’t know this detail) that attestation d’hébergement is super important for your assistant d’anglais visa process.

While doing so, stay polite and do your own research before asking for anything. People can only help you with suggestions, primary research will be yours.

Here are some websites to help simplify your house hunting in France 

Leboncoin.fr
Pap.fr
seloger.fr
appartager.fr (for shared appartements)
Facebook groups: Assistants considering masters in France, Indians in Paris, (also look for city specific groups. English Speakers in the South of France 

If you’re interested in an apartment that you found online:

  • Share the link with the prof ref, and ask them about the locality, distance from school, etc.
  • Also check if it’s possible for them to connect with the person ( in case you have trouble doing so). Do this only when you’re genuinely not able to contact the person. It’s your headache after all. 😀
  • Before trying anything else that I have mentioned in the blog, just take a second opinion from your prof ref. They are mostly sweet, and understand you panic!
  • Make sure you remain extremely kind and thankful at all times. Merci is a magic word.

The best option otherwise is to directly call the person because people generally take time to respond. Especially between mid-July and end of August because of school holidays. If you want to write an email, here’s a quick sample that you can always modify:

House Hunting in France inquiry letter content : 

Bonjour,

Je m’appelle ___________ et j’ai _______ ans. Je vais travailler dans l’école ______ pour une période de 7 mois. Je viens vers vous car votre annonce m’intéresse beaucoup mais comme je ne suis pas actuellement en France, est ce que ça sera possible d’avoir quelques photos de l’appartement afin d’avoir une meilleure idée? Je serai dans la région à partir de _________ et j’aimerais savoir par rapport au loyer mensuel (toutes charges comprises) et les meubles dans l’appartement.

Dans l’attente de votre réponse, je me tiens à votre disposition pour toute information supplémentaire.

Je vous remercie d’avance. 

**Beware of scams**

When it comes to looking for an accommodation in France, not everything easy.

⚠️  Scams are everywhere and the best way to detect them is to see if the apartment seems too good to be true: best price (below 400 euros), everything included, no sharing, super cool ambiance. AND the person will be quick at email correspondances. ALSO, it’s possible that he doesn’t stay in France.

Most important thing: YOU DO NOT PAY ANY ADVANCE BEFORE YOU ARRIVE. It doesn’t happen. You do not pay while you’re in India or elsewhere. Frauds mostly ask you to pay in advance to reserve the appartement. Sometimes they ask you to do a chèque de banque. So watch out!! You might want to read this article for more clarity or simply run a google search of the email address of the person proposing your the house.

Another thing to watch-out for: 

⚠️  There is one more thing that’s happening to students / assistants that come to France these days — They get a phone call from the embassy (yes, the caller ID would indicate that the number is from the embassy) asking you to pay a certain amount because your paperwork was incomplete and you would be deported back to your country soon if you do not pay back. Do not pay attention to the stupid caller – it’s a scam!

Conclusion

So well, that’s about searching house in France. It won’t be easy but do not feel stressed and seek help on different facebook communities. Let me know if you have any specific queries by leaving your comments below, I’d be happy to revert back to you. If you have already been a part of the program once, do share your experience to help others.

One last bit, I may not be able to respond to facebook messages because they are sometimes repetitive, so it’ll be better if you could post here so others could read as well.

Thank you, and check out my instagram (@prettymorningsinfrance) if you haven’t yet! SURPRISE!

Bisous,