Dear fellow readers.
From now on this blog will be in english.
I’ve said it before in French, but since I’m going to live in Paris and write articles belonging to the “I survive in Paris” line, I think it has to be written in English.
French are not interested into survival in Paris. They survive since they are born. I got nothing to teach them.
Quite exactly, I’m planning to survive in Paris. The big shock when planning to do that is the cost. The difference is huge between Thailand and Paris.
Now if I want to settle in Paris, I got to pay a 2 month rental as a caution, plus one month in advance.
Then, because a real estate company is supposed to do the search for me, I woud have to pay an additional 2 months rental to them. Plus the taxes!
It looks very very scary at first sight, but as a survivor in Paris, the first thing to learn is that there’s always some sort of schema to help people out.
Renting an apartment in Paris requires an MBA! Because there’s loads of paper work to fill. Proofs of this, proofs of that. Salary, tax papers, there’s also this rule saying that you can’t rent an apartment which rental is more than one third of your salary. Who came up with this kind of rules?!
So, since it’s a lot of money to advance if you are not born in this country, there’s this schema I’m talking about. It’s called LocaPass.
It means the french government pays your apartment and all the costs, including the real estate fees, and you pay it back monthly.
Right now I’m planning to say: Listen Guys, it’s very nice to try and look a place for me, but I think I will be better doing that by myself.
A very nice friend and ex-collegue I’ve haven’t heard of for years just contacted me as the story and horror was unfolding in front of my eyes just a few days ago, to tell me:
“You are coming to Paris, that’s great! I’m in Paris too now!”
Then, as I explained my difficulties:
“You can come to live with me for a while until you find something for yourself.”
I guess there’s someone listening to prayers sometimes.
Blog de beton 