So, you know you're going to be moving to France. Step one, then, is choosing where you're going to be living.
Before you even start researching available housing, you need to ask yourself a few questions. How much choice do you have over where you're moving to? Is the country your oyster and you're going to find a job in whichever place takes your fancy? Or have you been posted in a town, like I was?
If your answer to the former was 'yes', then that's a bit easier for you, as you're likely to be moving to a bigger town or city where you'll have fewer challenges regarding (poor) choice of housing and public transport, amongst other things. If you're choosing to move to a smaller place, then more of the information here will be relevant to you.
If you are being posted somewhere, and that somewhere is quite a small-looking place (make sure you do a lot of searching on Youtube and Google Maps to get a feel for this as soon as you know where you're being posted; you can also google the population to get an idea) then you need to decide: do I want to live in this small town, or further away and commute in?
Now we're at the heart of questions that I wish I'd had the forethought to consider before I made decisions about housing: what are public transport links like for this town? How accessible is the nearest train station? How frequent are buses to your town? If you're moving to a city, this is unlikely to be a concern for you. However, just this evening I spent 3 hours sat waiting for a bus back to my teeny-tiny town as they are so infrequent, which is a constant source of stress, upset and anger when I am left stranded and unsafe, or have to leave training days early. So: a bit of researching into how easy it is for you to get into and out of your town will be invaluable, and if you think it's not looking very promising, this is when you might want to consider living in a bigger town and taking public transport, driving, or cycling to wherever you will be working.
(Useful tip: France is very big on a ride-sharing service called BlaBlaCar. It's a bit like Uber but it's someone who is going to be doing a long drive and advertises themselves as willing to pick you up and drop you off at points along the way. Drivers have ratings and reviews so you can decide if you trust them or not, and you can see who else will be travelling with you. This is very often a much cheaper alternative to long bus or train journeys, and can really save your skin when public transport lets you down (which it does every single time you need to use it, trust me). So if you are moving to a smaller town with poor transport links, download the BlaBlaCar app before you get there - you never know when you might need it.)
Similarly, if you have begun looking into available renting or buying options in your town and it's looking sparse, do consider living outside the town. This may seem obvious but it's not something I gave much thought to, and if buses around your town are good, you might be very grateful to be living somewhere where there's a bit more going on.
Now I have covered some of the preliminary questions you need to look into, in part 2 I will tell you about how to begin house-hunting.
Before you even start researching available housing, you need to ask yourself a few questions. How much choice do you have over where you're moving to? Is the country your oyster and you're going to find a job in whichever place takes your fancy? Or have you been posted in a town, like I was?
If your answer to the former was 'yes', then that's a bit easier for you, as you're likely to be moving to a bigger town or city where you'll have fewer challenges regarding (poor) choice of housing and public transport, amongst other things. If you're choosing to move to a smaller place, then more of the information here will be relevant to you.
If you are being posted somewhere, and that somewhere is quite a small-looking place (make sure you do a lot of searching on Youtube and Google Maps to get a feel for this as soon as you know where you're being posted; you can also google the population to get an idea) then you need to decide: do I want to live in this small town, or further away and commute in?
Now we're at the heart of questions that I wish I'd had the forethought to consider before I made decisions about housing: what are public transport links like for this town? How accessible is the nearest train station? How frequent are buses to your town? If you're moving to a city, this is unlikely to be a concern for you. However, just this evening I spent 3 hours sat waiting for a bus back to my teeny-tiny town as they are so infrequent, which is a constant source of stress, upset and anger when I am left stranded and unsafe, or have to leave training days early. So: a bit of researching into how easy it is for you to get into and out of your town will be invaluable, and if you think it's not looking very promising, this is when you might want to consider living in a bigger town and taking public transport, driving, or cycling to wherever you will be working.
(Useful tip: France is very big on a ride-sharing service called BlaBlaCar. It's a bit like Uber but it's someone who is going to be doing a long drive and advertises themselves as willing to pick you up and drop you off at points along the way. Drivers have ratings and reviews so you can decide if you trust them or not, and you can see who else will be travelling with you. This is very often a much cheaper alternative to long bus or train journeys, and can really save your skin when public transport lets you down (which it does every single time you need to use it, trust me). So if you are moving to a smaller town with poor transport links, download the BlaBlaCar app before you get there - you never know when you might need it.)
Similarly, if you have begun looking into available renting or buying options in your town and it's looking sparse, do consider living outside the town. This may seem obvious but it's not something I gave much thought to, and if buses around your town are good, you might be very grateful to be living somewhere where there's a bit more going on.
Now I have covered some of the preliminary questions you need to look into, in part 2 I will tell you about how to begin house-hunting.
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