Q & A

Subject: Recently retired and planning to live in France for at least one year.

Question:

I am recently retired and planning to travel to France next year and stay for at least one year. I will probably live in Paris and travel to other destinations for short trips.
Do you have any ideas for me? How would I best find an apartment for a year? Also I have heard there is a social group of Americans living in Paris/France. How would I contact them? Thank you.

Answer:

I am recently retired and planning to travel to France next year and stay for at least one year. I will probably live in Paris and travel to other destinations for short trips.
Do you have any ideas for me? How would I best find an apartment for a year? Also I have heard there is a social group of Americans living in Paris/France. How would I contact them? Thank you.

My experience is that you need to be in France before you can seriously start looking for an apartment. You could try the French web, http://www.bonjour.fr, http://www.e-annonces.fr or http://www.parisienpa.com/pa/index.jsp, this will at least give you an idea as to price. The way that my wife an I found an apartment, I don't know if it is the best, was to go through a real estate agent, we had to pay for access ($150) to their list of apartments. It worked, after seeing five apartments we found one we liked, within our price range. As for social groups in Paris have a look at, http://www.newcomersclub.com/fr.html#Paris or http://www.expatriates.com/directory/community/club/. Enjoy you time in France!

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