Where should I live in Paris?
June 4, 2010 4:22 PM Subscribe
I'm moving to Paris...which arrondissement should I live in and do you have any apartment hunting tips?
I live in NYC now but I'm moving to Paris in September for a year. I'd like to live in an area that is busy at night and safe for me, an early 20s female, to walk around by myself. My budget is around 1200 euros a month. For reference, I usually go out in the Lower East Side/East Village, enjoy loft parties in Brooklyn, love going out to eat in the West Village, and currently live in Nolita.
I'm pretty sure no one will rent me an apartment without a guarantor in France to co-sign the lease, which I don't have, so can anyone recommend websites to find apartments? I know of fusac, pap.fr, lodgis.com, parisattitude.com, and paristay.com. After briefly scanning Craigslist, I don't think I'll find much there. I'm also up for finding a roommate on appartager.com, but it doesn't seem like there are that many apartments listed.
Merci d'avance !!
I live in NYC now but I'm moving to Paris in September for a year. I'd like to live in an area that is busy at night and safe for me, an early 20s female, to walk around by myself. My budget is around 1200 euros a month. For reference, I usually go out in the Lower East Side/East Village, enjoy loft parties in Brooklyn, love going out to eat in the West Village, and currently live in Nolita.
I'm pretty sure no one will rent me an apartment without a guarantor in France to co-sign the lease, which I don't have, so can anyone recommend websites to find apartments? I know of fusac, pap.fr, lodgis.com, parisattitude.com, and paristay.com. After briefly scanning Craigslist, I don't think I'll find much there. I'm also up for finding a roommate on appartager.com, but it doesn't seem like there are that many apartments listed.
Merci d'avance !!
Best answer: I found a room in a shared flat on pap.fr--place with an astounding view in the 19e--where I stayed for over a year. Previously I've found places to live in Paris and elsewhere in France (for 1-6 months) on colocation.fr. These were shared places, and my name didn't go on the lease. The 'formal' flatsearch thing in France, above all in Paris, seems to be a complete nightmare; doing it this way, however, I've always found it relatively painless.
Is €1,200 your total budget or your accommodation budget? The latter would obviously make this task easier. The place in the 19e was costing me €450/month (in 2007-08) for a room in a flat that had a decent living room, small but okay kitchen, bathroom big enough to have an actual bath in it, and only one other person living there. On the other hand, I was widely felt to be getting a good deal (especially with the view). That was the second place I'd looked at; the first was a 10-square-metre studette in the 13e with an electric hob in one corner, a shower that was virtually free-standing, and a shared toilet sur palier, i.e. out on the landing--which was also €450/month. And wanted a garant.
Next question: do you have anyone you can stay with while you look for a place? That really takes the pressure off: you don't feel obliged to take the first halfway decent place you see on the grounds that you can't afford another night in the hotel/can't bear another night in the hostel. (You might feel obliged to liberate your friend's sofa-bed, but that's a different kind of pressure.) Having the time to visit quite a few places and walk around different areas really helps. Anyway, you'll know to save yourself time by arranging a few visits before you arrive.
As for where those areas might be--of the bits that I'm familiar with, it sounds like you might like the 10e around or east of the canal; most of the 11e; parts of the 19e and 20e that are closer to the Boulevard de la Villette (including the lower part of the rue de Belleville, and de Ménilmontant), say roughly as far as the rue des Pyrénées. Also the 13e around the Butte aux Cailles. There is, of course, great variety within these areas--a main street can be busy at night, two streets back it might be virtually silent.
Good luck! It should be great.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 7:11 PM on June 4, 2010
Is €1,200 your total budget or your accommodation budget? The latter would obviously make this task easier. The place in the 19e was costing me €450/month (in 2007-08) for a room in a flat that had a decent living room, small but okay kitchen, bathroom big enough to have an actual bath in it, and only one other person living there. On the other hand, I was widely felt to be getting a good deal (especially with the view). That was the second place I'd looked at; the first was a 10-square-metre studette in the 13e with an electric hob in one corner, a shower that was virtually free-standing, and a shared toilet sur palier, i.e. out on the landing--which was also €450/month. And wanted a garant.
Next question: do you have anyone you can stay with while you look for a place? That really takes the pressure off: you don't feel obliged to take the first halfway decent place you see on the grounds that you can't afford another night in the hotel/can't bear another night in the hostel. (You might feel obliged to liberate your friend's sofa-bed, but that's a different kind of pressure.) Having the time to visit quite a few places and walk around different areas really helps. Anyway, you'll know to save yourself time by arranging a few visits before you arrive.
As for where those areas might be--of the bits that I'm familiar with, it sounds like you might like the 10e around or east of the canal; most of the 11e; parts of the 19e and 20e that are closer to the Boulevard de la Villette (including the lower part of the rue de Belleville, and de Ménilmontant), say roughly as far as the rue des Pyrénées. Also the 13e around the Butte aux Cailles. There is, of course, great variety within these areas--a main street can be busy at night, two streets back it might be virtually silent.
Good luck! It should be great.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 7:11 PM on June 4, 2010
It's been awhile since I've lived in Paris (as a college student) but I think you'd really like the 4th or the 11th -- I always felt perfectly safe walking through the Marais fairly late at night, even by myself, and it's a great area for everything else (food, things to do).
The 5th/6th are okay, too, but more tourist-y and student-y and just a teeny bit less lovely. As lapsangsouchong notes, however, there is a lot of variation within arrondissements, and a place can change dramatically from daytime to nighttime.
Good luck! I'm so jealous =)
posted by estherbester at 11:10 PM on June 4, 2010
The 5th/6th are okay, too, but more tourist-y and student-y and just a teeny bit less lovely. As lapsangsouchong notes, however, there is a lot of variation within arrondissements, and a place can change dramatically from daytime to nighttime.
Good luck! I'm so jealous =)
posted by estherbester at 11:10 PM on June 4, 2010
I would recommend the Marais too, it was out of my price range when I lived in Paris, but my best friend loved it. In 2008-9 she paid €800/month for a tiny but functional studio.
There are some great shops and bars, and a really good food market round there.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:32 AM on June 5, 2010
There are some great shops and bars, and a really good food market round there.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:32 AM on June 5, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks guys! Great answers, if anyone has any other recommendations I'd love to know :)
lapsangsouchong, My budget for accommodation is 1200 euros/month, so I think I'm okay for finding a small studio. I also don't know a single person in Paris (which is terrifying/exciting) so I'll just be staying in a hostel until I find an apartment.
posted by cm young at 8:34 AM on June 5, 2010
lapsangsouchong, My budget for accommodation is 1200 euros/month, so I think I'm okay for finding a small studio. I also don't know a single person in Paris (which is terrifying/exciting) so I'll just be staying in a hostel until I find an apartment.
posted by cm young at 8:34 AM on June 5, 2010
Also, it's worth thinking a bit about where you'll need to go regularly (office, library, archive, college) and seeking out places that are well linked to that place/those places by metro, bus, or bike-paths. I was four and a half miles (in different directions) from both the office where I worked most days and the library where I worked when I wasn't at the office, and the metro connections weren't great for either of them. If I'd been living anywhere on the line 14, my journey time to both by public transport would have been much less. But on the other hand, I had good bike-routes to get me most of the way to both destinations, and by the end of the year I was probably in better shape than I've ever been.
And with €1,200 a month to spend on accommodation, you should be able to find something more or less anywhere, and more than just a small studio in most places!
posted by lapsangsouchong at 2:54 PM on June 6, 2010
And with €1,200 a month to spend on accommodation, you should be able to find something more or less anywhere, and more than just a small studio in most places!
posted by lapsangsouchong at 2:54 PM on June 6, 2010
Best answer: I hate to be gloomy, but even if you deal directly with the owner (pap, for example), almost all Parisian landlords want to see proof of your income (several months' worth of pay slips, a year or two of tax returns, etc.), in addition to requiring a garant. And they want you to earn 2, 3 and sometimes 4 times the monthly rent. So if you're looking to rent a place for 1.000 Euros a month, you'll be expected to prove that you earn 3.000 Euros.
Sharing is a good way to get around this. Besides the sites you mention, you can try:
Kijiji
Vivastreet
If you have time and decent French conversational skills, you might be interested in this clever approach to the difficult Paris rental market (but it's not feasible to do it from outside Paris).
You might also have luck checking on-site bulletin boards at places like The American Church, Shakespeare & Co. bookstore, the American Library in Paris, the Scottish Church, and various pubs. But as someone above mentioned, you'll need to have a living base to work from while you're looking.
As for where to live...it's so personal, and frankly almost every part of the city has something to recommend it. But if you're looking for a hip, racially and economically mixed area with a real neighborhood feel, you can't beat the 19th and 20th arrondissements. My favorite area is Belleville/Ménilmontant, especially around Jourdain, Pyrénées, and Ménilmontant métros.
Another nice area, but somewhat more expensive, is the 11th and 12th, around Charonne, Faidherbe-Chaligny, Breguet-Sabin métros, etc. Another possibility is the 10th, around République, Strasbourg St. Denis and the lower canals.
FWIW, I've found that Paris is a city that makes you prove your love for it. It's not easy for a 'foreigner' to survive here, but if you persist, it's more than worth it. It's a truly beautiful place to be.
Bon courage!
posted by Paris Elk at 2:41 AM on June 7, 2010
Sharing is a good way to get around this. Besides the sites you mention, you can try:
Kijiji
Vivastreet
If you have time and decent French conversational skills, you might be interested in this clever approach to the difficult Paris rental market (but it's not feasible to do it from outside Paris).
You might also have luck checking on-site bulletin boards at places like The American Church, Shakespeare & Co. bookstore, the American Library in Paris, the Scottish Church, and various pubs. But as someone above mentioned, you'll need to have a living base to work from while you're looking.
As for where to live...it's so personal, and frankly almost every part of the city has something to recommend it. But if you're looking for a hip, racially and economically mixed area with a real neighborhood feel, you can't beat the 19th and 20th arrondissements. My favorite area is Belleville/Ménilmontant, especially around Jourdain, Pyrénées, and Ménilmontant métros.
Another nice area, but somewhat more expensive, is the 11th and 12th, around Charonne, Faidherbe-Chaligny, Breguet-Sabin métros, etc. Another possibility is the 10th, around République, Strasbourg St. Denis and the lower canals.
FWIW, I've found that Paris is a city that makes you prove your love for it. It's not easy for a 'foreigner' to survive here, but if you persist, it's more than worth it. It's a truly beautiful place to be.
Bon courage!
posted by Paris Elk at 2:41 AM on June 7, 2010
I have been looking also at leboncoin.fr and seloger.com and kijiji which is the most like a french craigslist. Some of the posts are by brokers and some are post-by-owner.
Do you use couchsurfing? There is a specific forum for apartments/co-loc.
I have not tried appartager.com in Paris but have found it very useful in other places.
Feel free to keep in touch by MeMail, I am doing this right now but I am looking near Montparnasse.
posted by whatzit at 12:48 PM on June 8, 2010
Do you use couchsurfing? There is a specific forum for apartments/co-loc.
I have not tried appartager.com in Paris but have found it very useful in other places.
Feel free to keep in touch by MeMail, I am doing this right now but I am looking near Montparnasse.
posted by whatzit at 12:48 PM on June 8, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
I don't fully understand the membership fee, but it made sense at the time, and the organization is definitely legitimate and definitely has some decent places.
posted by amtho at 5:56 PM on June 4, 2010