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Arriving alone in a foreign country is a jarring experience. Even well-travelled assistants are sometimes driven to tears in
their first few days. The best way to keep your spirits up is to stay busy and stay smart: decisions you make now will affect the
rest of your year in France. Unless you work in a city and are flying directly into that city, part of your travel will likely be by rail. Remember to get
your Carte 12-25 (http://www.voyages-sncf.com/info_resa/guide_du_voyageur/Carte_1225.htm) immediately if you're 25 or
under. Unless you've bought a
Prem's (http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/_SvTermCommVoySaisieLf?_TMS=1088004907301&_DLG=SvTermCommVoySaisieLf&_LANG=FR&_AGENCY=VSC&_TMS=1088004907105)
ticket in advance, buying the card now will get you a big discount on your first trip (in fact, the card will likely pay for
itself on your first trip if you're going far enough). Just bring a passport picture to a ticket counter at any train station
(this is easier than buying one online). The SNCF services remote towns by bus only, but the same tickets and discounts
apply. Make a photocopy of your Carte 12-25. If you lose it, this will help you get a new one. If you school has arranged for your lodging, breathe a sigh of relief. You'll normally have to pay a small monthly
sum to stay in the internat, and its funishings may be spare beyond reason, but at least you'll have somewhere to
sleep. If your school has not arranged for your lodging, you will arrive in your town and literally have no place to go.
This happens most often in larger cities, with busy school system offices that pay little attention to assistants. Assuming you
arrive by train, make your way to one of the hotels near the train station (there are always a few). You can expect to pay around
30 - 40 € per night for a single room with no toilet. You'll want to find something cheaper immediately. Don't be ashamed to
share your troubles with teachers or anyone else at your school or inspection; it's not uncommon for teachers to take in
assistants while they find a place to live. Many assistants have never had to find their own apartments before, much less do it in French. Consider asking someone at your
school for help; one of your teachers should be happy to help you make phone calls to set up appointments. Most regions have free
classified ad newspapers. Get a feel for the average prices, decide what you can afford, and then start looking at apartments. Be
sure to see a few before you make your decision! In all likelihood, you won't have the necessary paperwork to sign a lease
(un bail) for at least a week anyway. A typical French apartment lease, following the law of July 6, 1989 (http://www.pratique.fr/vieprat/log/loc/daf2006.htm), lasts for three years with the option to
exit from the
lease at any time as long as you warn your landlord three months in advance. (It’s also possible for a landlord to write up a
lease for less than a year that does not have this option.) Most landlords hate French paperwork as much as you do, and so their
ideal tenant is one who will stay for the full three years. It is in your interest, then, to be vague about your own departure
plans. Perhaps you’ll stay for the Summer – who knows? When you're looking for an apartment, remember that your rent will be subsidized by the generous French welfare system (http://www.caf.fr). Believe it or not, assistants have full rights to public funds (we do pay
taxes, after all). The amount of aide au logement to which you are entitled (you can calculate it online (http://www.caf.fr/SimuLog.htm)) is determined by a few different factors: The best apartment to have is a large, unfurnished one. The amount of aid goes down drastically if you have a small, furnished
studio. It may seem silly to buy furniture for such a short stay, but it's possible to do it cheaply and actually save hundreds
of euros. Look around your town and ask your teachers about used furniture stores, sometimes called salles de vente. You'll
probably need to either have someone take you there or have things delivered, but just remember that France is paying for most of
it. Whether your arrival in France is hard or soft, you'll likely want to talk to your friends and family back home soon, and at
length. There are lots of ways to do this, ranging in cost from a few cents a minute to $50 for a short call. Fais
gaffe! Many public phones have stickers or posters, both official and unofficial looking, advertising cheap international calls with
a credit card. Never, in France or any other country, use one of these services! Their rates, which are not usually posted, are
simply awful. Calling their free number and giving your credit card number may seem like a good idea when you're desperate, but
you won't be happy when you see your credit card bill. Purchasing a real France Telecom card (with a chip) is a good idea. This will allow you to make calls within France easily and
at a reasonable rate, and you can call home at a rate that, while not good, is at least discernable. Cards are sold for amounts of 7.50 € and 15 €, each with a certain amount of credits that you can watch count down as you make
the call. These fast and easy cards are particularly useful when you're only calling home to ask that someone call you back. To make an international call from France, you first dial 00, then the country code, then the number you are calling. For the
U.S., you will dial something like If you're calling the U.S., it's a good bet that the rate for a direct dialed call from home is better than the FT card's
rate. (And if it's your parents, they probably have more disposable income than a French assitant!) Fortunately, every public
telephone in France can be called from abroad at the number posted above or near the phone. To call from the U.S., you first dial 011, then France's country code 33, then the number in France leaving off the
leading 0. This comes out to You're probably skeptical of the “10 10” numbers advertised by worn-out celebrities during Jerry Springer commercial breaks.
You should be! One of these services, however, has been a lifesaver to assistants: it's the cheapest reliable way we've found to
talk between the U.S. and France. 10 10 987 (http://www.1010987.com/) really does charge the rates advertised on their site, even to european
cell phones: 46¢ to connect, 3¢ per minute afterwards. (As a result, it's much cheaper to call a French cell phone from the U.S.
than from France.) Ask people to call you with this service, and they really won't have cause to complain about the cost of the
call. They will complain about the numeric soup of numbers required, though. Get ready… All of this is correct, however since July 2004 they do charge a mobile phone surcharge which is dependent on the country you
call but for europe it is generally 10 cents a minute so be aware of that and don't make your calls too long and get the bill
later. Check their website first for the accurate charge. If the jumble of numbers required to call France is too much for some people, or if you don't always want to be taking a free
ride, you'll need to find a good calling card. In larger French cities you will be able to find calling cards with reasonable rates. A 15 € card should get you at least a
few hundred minutes of talk time. Go to a large Tabac and ask for a discount international card, and check the rates
printed on the card before you buy it. In larger cities look for the orange EuroMaxi cards usually sold by shady looking vendors
or automated telecarte machines. It will give you about 5 hours to the U.K, Canada, France and the United States. These cards do trade quality for quantity. Be prepared to redial several times if the call doesn't go through. Sometimes,
there is a very annoying echo or a delay in the conversation. And you may need to let the service automatically call you back at
your pay phone to get the best rate. It's a hassle, but in the end this is the only practical way to have a long conversation
dialed out from a French pay phone in the rain after dark while your stateside pal is sipping an afternoon martini by the
pool. If you have your own apartment and an activated telephone line, waste no time signing up for Tele2 (http://www.tele2.fr). While
their international rates are not as good the best from the U.S., they are low enough that you can relax a bit when making phone
calls. Don't use a foreign mobile phone service in France if you can avoid it, it's obscenely expensive. See below for information on a French
subscription. If you've got a computer, a microphone, speakers and an internet connection of reasonable speed, instant messaging is your
best option by far. Get a hold of some IM software such as MSN Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger and you're set. True, your parents
or friends back home will need to be online at the same time. But it's free, and none of the above alternatives can beat
that! You will need an account with a French bank in order to receive your salary. While a savings account is sufficient for that
purpose, a checking account with a bank card is required for cell phone and internet contracts. Several pieces of documentation
are typically required to open a bank account in France: The justificatif de domicile could be a lease, a phone bill, or a letter from a school administrator asserting that
you live somewhere. Sometimes banks will accept customers without these. You will most likely need to make an appointment to open your bank account. Make an appointment with a bank that is convenient
to you. When you make your appointment, request a brochure on the accounts available. If the reception at the bank is rude, find
another bank. As you will see in the next
module, these are people you will have to deal with over and over throughout the year. Banks in France bear little resemblance to those in the United States. Bank cards are not free; they generally cost 30 € up
front or are billed monthly. Even having access to the bank's web site is often a paid service. Glean what information you can
from brochures and be sure to ask questions about each service (including account closure!) before you open your account.
However, the Compte Bagoo offered by La Poste is available for those between 18 and 25 years old and is by far the best option.
The fees incured for this account are minimal- generally around four dollars every three months. There are several different
types of visas and check type cards to choose from, along with the additional bonus of free checks, which come in handy when you
need to pay for the cafeteria at school. The best part about this account is that your liability is limited similarly to what you
would expect from an American account for both your checks and bank card. This can be reassuring if you plan on spending any
amount of time in Barcelona. They even send you monthly magazines as a Bagoo account member. France has an advanced carte bancaire system that allows you to pay for purchases just about anywhere in France using
your bank card and code. In many ways this system is superior to anything available in the United States. However, it has a few
drawbacks: Unlike ATM and credit cards in the U.S., where your liability is
normally limited to $50 or less (http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/article.cfm/ObjectID/36CE716A-D287-414B-992B6EFC72E4557A/catID/A255AF52-3FB9-4A67-A55A147C244F92F6),
a stolen bank card in France could leave you owing the bank thousands of euros. Although it seems unlikely that someone could
steal your card and know your PIN, there are criminals lurking in McDonald's balconies all around France watching customers enter
codes and subsequently picking their pockets — yes, this happens! You should take all due caution with your bank card to avoid a
financial disaster. The second problem is not as bad as its solution. Because cartes bancaires only function in France, French banks have
linked into Visa and MasterCard networks to allow their customers to make bank card purchases abroad. Unfortunately (and
deplorably) the same unlimited liability policy applies to purchases made through these networks. Therefore, if you are traveling
outside France and your wallet is stolen, a criminal can charge thousands of euros to your account, even if you do not have them,
all without needing to know your code. Until you manage to call the toll number in France to cancel the card, those charges are
yours. Shady hotels can get away with this as well. If something seems crooked, it probably is. Pay in cash or with your American
card and get a receipt. The compromise solution is to get a bank card without the Visa or MasterCard logo and use ATM machines (or American credit
cards) when you travel abroad. Or, if your bank offers it, look for a card with Visa Electron. These cards can be used to make
purchases outside of France (particularly in the U.K.), but will always require the PIN. If your bank manager is unable to
understand what you want, feel free to leave without opening the account. There are many confused bank employees in France who
are unaware that purchases can be made abroad without the PIN, or that purchases can be made in France without a Visa; you do not
want one of these people to be your bank manager. You could too suscribe an assurance for 20-30 €/year at your bank (it can cover bank fraud, losing your papers/key,
etc...) The mobile phone system in Europe, like everything else, is different. In the US, we're accustomed to paying between $40 and
$50 dollars a month to have 500 or more daytime minutes and unlimited nights and weekends. Divide this by about ten (but keep the
price the same), and you have a European mobile phone plan. They hardly have any time to talk. Usually, people send SMS messages
to each other to avoid using minutes. One of the only advantages is that they do not pay for incoming calls, there are some
exceptions for international calls, however. You will most certainly want a mobile phone as soon as possible. Everyone else will have one, and you'll feel left out if you
don't. If you are one of the lucky assistants provided with lodging upon your arrival, you would have to be extraordinarily lucky
to have a landline as well, as very few internants have working ones. If you move into a private apartment, you could
likely have your landline up and running in a few days and theoretically do without a mobile phone — you'll want one anyway, of
course. The fastest, easiest, and safest way to have a mobile phone is to bring a Europe-capable phone with you to France. In that
case, you only need to purchase a power adapter for the phone and a SIM card
(une puce). You won't need to enter into a contract, and you won't need to wait for all the documents required to enter
into the contract. Do this if you can! If you don't have a compatible phone already, you can either buy one at a very high price or you can enter into a mobile phone
contract (abonnement). Several things are required, some of which you will not have for at least a few weeks: The mobile phone carrier SFR (http://www.sfr.fr/) has contracts ranging from six months to two years. The longer the contract,
the better the deal on the phone and monthly credit allowance. As the salespeople will assure you, it is possible to terminate the
contract if you are a foreigner when you depart permanently from France. However, keep in mind that having to cancel a phone
contract will add to the paperwork and general stress of your departure. Signing a contract that you can fulfill is a better
choice. Don't call numbers beginning with 08 from your mobile phone. Not only will you pay the high rate of that 08 number, you will
also have to pay for the airtime out-of-pocket, not from your forfait. (Free numbers, 0800, can't usually be called from
mobiles.) For this reason, most international calling cards will be useless with your phone. But if you look hard enough, you may
find a card with a Paris (01) or other access number. So long as you have the forfait minutes to spare, you can use
these cards to call home relatively cheaply (compared to dialing directly, even with SFR Monde, et al.). |
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