Your university might tell you that you don’t need to bother finding a place to live for your year abroad until a couple of weeks before you start your placement. But this is not a good idea if you’re going to Paris. Two friends from my uni and I went out at the beginning of July to find a 3 bedroom apartment with a budget of 800 euros each. This was pretty impossible. We went to several agencies, some good ones to try are Paris Attitude (who we signed a contract with in the end) and Paris Stay. You should also try www.seloger.com , www.pap.fr and www.fusac.fr.

We were told by our agents that for our budget we wouldn’t find anywhere for 3 bedrooms because anywhere with 3 separate bedrooms would most likely be a very large and property, and so the owners would never agree to let it to 3 English students. We got the impression that they were more unlikely to do so because we were English, as opposed to French, students.

You need to think carefully if you want to live by yourself or with other people. It would be much cheaper to live in a studio by yourself but obviously lonelier and not as fun. If you don’t mind having one or two people sleeping on a sofabed in the living room for the year then you’re okay to look for a 3/4 person apartment. However, some landlords are not happy to rent out a 2 bedroom apartment for 4 people and they will probably expect more money. It’s a lot easier just to find a 2 bedroom place and a one bedroom place, which is exactly what we decided to do.

If you’re going to Paris for a few days to find a place to live, you should definitely buy a metro pass (ParisPass) for 3 or 5 days depending on how long you’re out there for. It’s 29 Euros for a 5 day pass and definitely worth it with all the travelling back and forth between viewings. We stayed in a really cheap hotel (Etap) in the 19th which worked out to be £12 per night. Although it was fairly far out, with the metro pass this wasn’t a problem at all. http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-4982-etap-hotel-paris-la-villette-19eme/index.shtml

I know this sounds silly, but make sure you visit your apartment before you sign any contracts. Some agencies in Paris don’t let you look at the apartment until you show a real interest in only one of their properties. Paris Attitude, for example, do not give you the owner’s details or arrange a viewing until you email them with one particular property which you would potentially be happy to sign for if everything is okay once you have seen it. More of this on the PARIS ATTITUDE page.

By harriette@yearsabroad.com