France Expats or Locals Advice Needed (1 Viewer)

[gmunny]

Since the PCF community is indeed worldwide and seems like a lot of members that live or have lived in France, I thought I'd ask here.

My youngest daughter is graduating college this spring and I have a co-worker that has bought a chateau somewhere in the country that they will be retiring to later this fall. We are currently planning on my daughter to house sit for them over the summer. She speaks kind of (conversational high school French) and wanted to spend her summer (2.5-3 months) in Europe. Their place is around 4 hours train from Paris, I think Toulouse is largest nearby city? During her stay, she is planning on making a number of short trips around France and neighboring counties.

A few topics that we have questions on:

1) Cash, Banking, Purchases:
a) I assume its better to keep a bank account in Euros, is there a main bank in France that has a lot of branches and has ability to have both Euro & US balance accounts? How hard is it to transfer between a US bank and France bank?
b) do most people pay in cash or is there a debit or credit card or app that is widely used? Is it really different in small towns vs larger cities?
c) Is there tipping?
d) is there bartering? Like someone selling something for 50 Euro, can you offer 40? Or is that considered rude?
e) anything else to be aware of?

2) Transportation:
a) do they have services such as Uber or Lyft in France or similar companies? Are they safe?
b) train - i think she is planning on getting a rail pass. Any specific ones that would be helpful?
c) car or vespa rentals - worth it? any recommendations? She is planning a few short trips to other areas / countries like Spain or Italy
d) she was also planning on buying a used bike.

3) Travel Places Options of overnight Stays:
a) Is there "AirBnBs" or similar in France? Are they safe?
b) I told her i'd prefer her not to stay in Hostels, but maybe cheaper hotels? Any branded lower cost hotel/motel or they not safe? Like motels in the US can be decent and clean OR in bad areas with drugs and prostitution.
c) any other recommendations?

4) General Safety:
a) female alone, do you recommend it?
b) places or areas to avoid?
c) she is aware of pickpockets in Paris, but being a Dad, i was more concerned about drugging/kidnapping/trafficking, you know like in Taken except I have zero skills that Liam Neesom has.

Any recommendations or advice is appreciated!

 

[Coyote]

French members know a lot more than me, but France is still a rule-of -law country for the time being.

Understanding and speaking French is of paramount importance.

 

[cyril]

Hi, some answers, don t hesitate if you need more.




b) do most people pay in cash or is there a debit or credit card or app that is widely used? Is it really different in small towns vs larger cities?
as you like, credit card is used every where, small town too and you can use cash if you want under 1000€

c) Is there tipping? you can but as you like, its not necessary like in USA, but he has to be smaller, between 1 and 5%
d) is there bartering? Like someone selling something for 50 Euro, can you offer 40? Or is that considered rude? not really, except for expansive thing like a house, it can be considered like rude


2) Transportation:
a) do they have services such as Uber or Lyft in France or similar companies? Are they safe?yes but only in big town, you can use bus or cabs in smaller
safe most of the, may be less in Paris.
b) train - i think she is planning on getting a rail pass. Any specific ones that would be helpful?
I don t think there is pass for train but i can be wrong
c) car or vespa rentals - worth it? any recommendations? She is planning a few short trips to other areas / countries like Spain or Italy no problem but spain and italy are too far to use vespa from toulouse
d) she was also planning on buying a used bike. no problem

 

[Coyote]

and to whomever deleted my post, a huge FUCK YOU

 

[cyril]

3) Travel Places Options of overnight Stays:
a) Is there "AirBnBs" or similar in France? Are they safe? yes and yes
b) I told her i'd prefer her not to stay in Hostels, but maybe cheaper hotels? Any branded lower cost hotel/motel or they not safe? Like motels in the US can be decent and clean OR in bad areas with drugs and prostitution. no a lot of branded hotel, present in all the townssafe at all the price. France is very safe, of course there is some place in very big city where she should not go, but most of the time france is safe, like in usa,.

4) General Safety: yes
a) female alone, do you recommend it? not in suburb or late in the night but in center town or while the day no problem
b) places or areas to avoid? Suburb
c) she is aware of pickpockets in Paris, but being a Dad, i was more concerned about drugging/kidnapping/trafficking, you know like in Taken except I have zero skills that Liam Neesom has. NO, pick pocket in paris where there is a lot of tourism yes but nothing like in taken

 

[Coyote]

a) female alone, do you recommend it? not in suburb or late in the night but in center town or while the day no problem
b) places or areas to avoid? Suburb

Please name the name of the "suburbs". My post was deleted by puritan censorship here.

 

[cyril]

I understand you are afraid, i will be too if my soon go to leave aboard but it s not like on movies. France is a safe place, but like every where in the world there is some place less safe. Even in suburb it s not the jungle.
To be honnest, most of us are pretentious, it s thrue but most of the time, french are very welcoming people.

 

[cyril]

I saw your message, thanks to the admin for deliting those stupid words.

 

[Coyote]

I saw your message, thanks to the admin for deliting those stupid words.

OK, may the Republic help you

 

[cyril]

For the language, most of french people under 50years old, in big city can understand you if you speak slowly, it can be a little more difficult in countries.

 

[Coyote]

I saw your message, thanks to the admin for deliting those stupid words.

How about censorship, by Voltaire's standards?

 

[Coyote]

In short, @gmunny , make sure your daughter wears a Muslim scarf in the suburbs of French cities...
to avoid being considered a westerner prostitute woman.

 

[gmunny]

Thanks @cyril for your helpful comments!

 

[Coyote]

@Don Clay , @BELGRADE

 

[cpac54]

Since the PCF community is indeed worldwide and seems like a lot of members that live or have lived in France, I thought I'd ask here.

My youngest daughter is graduating college this spring and I have a co-worker that has bought a chateau somewhere in the country that they will be retiring to later this fall. We are currently planning on my daughter to house sit for them over the summer. She speaks kind of (conversational high school French) and wanted to spend her summer (2.5-3 months) in Europe. Their place is around 4 hours train from Paris, I think Toulouse is largest nearby city? During her stay, she is planning on making a number of short trips around France and neighboring counties.

A few topics that we have questions on:

1) Cash, Banking, Purchases:
a) I assume its better to keep a bank account in Euros, is there a main bank in France that has a lot of branches and has ability to have both Euro & US balance accounts? How hard is it to transfer between a US bank and France bank?
b) do most people pay in cash or is there a debit or credit card or app that is widely used? Is it really different in small towns vs larger cities?
c) Is there tipping?
d) is there bartering? Like someone selling something for 50 Euro, can you offer 40? Or is that considered rude?
e) anything else to be aware of?

2) Transportation:
a) do they have services such as Uber or Lyft in France or similar companies? Are they safe?
b) train - i think she is planning on getting a rail pass. Any specific ones that would be helpful?
c) car or vespa rentals - worth it? any recommendations? She is planning a few short trips to other areas / countries like Spain or Italy
d) she was also planning on buying a used bike.

3) Travel Places Options of overnight Stays:
a) Is there "AirBnBs" or similar in France? Are they safe?
b) I told her i'd prefer her not to stay in Hostels, but maybe cheaper hotels? Any branded lower cost hotel/motel or they not safe? Like motels in the US can be decent and clean OR in bad areas with drugs and prostitution.
c) any other recommendations?

4) General Safety:
a) female alone, do you recommend it?
b) places or areas to avoid?
c) she is aware of pickpockets in Paris, but being a Dad, i was more concerned about drugging/kidnapping/trafficking, you know like in Taken except I have zero skills that Liam Neesom has.

Any recommendations or advice is appreciated!

We live in Switzerland, but spend an overly large amount of our vacation time on France and I am in Lyon from time to time for work.

We spent 5 weeks in southern France this past summer, including time just east of Toulouse in Carcassone and along the coast in Narbonne. It’s a stunning country.

In terms of language, if your daughter can speak even moderately good French, she’ll get along just fine in day to day situations. As a comparison, I can barely fumble my way through basic interactions and my wife speaks decent school French and we have never had any issues. Like in most countries, be polite and treat people with respect and that’s most often how people will treat you back.

France is a modern country with all the amenities you’d find back home, even if the culture can be quite different.

Like in any country, there are areas to avoid in large French cities, just as there are places to avoid in American, Canadian, British cities, etc.

Not much to add to @cyril‘s post above. Credit card is fine 99% of the time, but I like to have some cash on hand in smaller towns just in case.

As for train passes, depending on what her plans are, there are tourist passes like the Eurail pass which give preferred rates, but need to be booked in advance.

Feel free to reach out via PM with questions if need be.

In short, France is great. We’re heading back for 4 weeks near Avignon at the end of August ourselves. Vive la France.

 

[BELGRADE]

Credit card is fine 99% of the time, but I like to have some cash on hand in smaller towns just in case.

Yes I'm agree but in France compared to the US we use debit cards and not credit cards (we have to type a code to validate the payment).

Paying with an American credit card there may be a risk of scam.

I think the best thing is for her to pay as much as possible in cash.
The best is withdrawals in French ATMs.
She withdraws €1000 all at once to pay for her restaurants and activities rather than paying each time by credit card because the fees will be lower by withdrawing €1000 at once than by paying several times by credit card.

For her safety that she is always on alert because she's an american woman alone, you never know.

 

[gmunny]

thanks @cpac54 and @BELGRADE !

 

[ekricket]

 

[legend672]

It’s amazing there are still countries where people don’t speak English

 

[Coyote]

It’s amazing there are still countries where people don’t speak any foreign language

FYP

 

[gmunny]

Oh thanks for bumping this old thread. I should give an update and thanks to everyone, especially @cyril @Coyote @cpac54 @BELGRADE who had some truly helpful tips!

My daughter ended up spending 5 full months in Europe and visited France, Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Romania, Bulgaria, and Sweden. I visited her for a few weeks and visiting the south of France, Monaco and Italy. She had to balance out the Schengen, but luckily the UK, Romania and Bulgaria were outside the EU last year.

A couple things that I thought were helpful:

> we did get her a EU rail pass, which she used so much so it was definitely worth it. Also paying for reserved train sets for long distance was helpful. For the most part she used the train for most of her travels, mixing in local ride share/taxi and rented a car in Milan and Bulgaria. She did get an international drivers license before her trip. Uber was available in the larger cities, which was helpful.

> she opened up a Schwab checking account so she was able to use her debit card with no foreign currency fee. For the most part, she paid with her savings from summer jobs and graduation $.

> she used a mix of airbnb (room rentals) and hostels for most of the cities she visited. She was very thorough as far as only staying at well reviewed and popular places.

> she told me she felt relatively safe in almost all areas and the only strange encounter was in Greece when a strange man who looked on drugs was following her around in broad daylight. She ditched him fairly easily. She typically doesn't go to clubs or bars, but did go to a number of concerts and plays in various countries.

> for the most part, she was able to communicate in most countries using English and French.

She had a blast and met made a few friends along the way.

My last day in France and she seemed a little too happy that I was heading home

 

[Coyote]

In Greece, despite the current administration's best efforts, there are still thousands of illegal migrants coming from a culture not just different, but openly hostile to western liberal values (Sunni Islam).
They 've killed and raped a few Greeks (in their own country), Greeks being infidels in their book.