An American in Paris!
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Testimony
This is an email sent to me by an American friend of mine who went to Paris for a summer internship.
Date: 11/17/2005
I'm not sure what kind of information would be most helpful... I found my appartment through a website called "appartager.com," which was nice because I was able to find a shared place with two very friendly French people. I think that was a lot more interesting than living in Cite U with other Americans, or living in a tiny studio by myself. The website costs money to register, but it was certainly worth it in the end.
It's very important to have a cellphone. I bought a triband GSM phone here on ebay, and then bought a pay-as-you-go service in France called Orange. There's another one called Nomade, I don't know which is better. You could also wait until you get to France to buy the phone, I think a lot of people have old ones there that they could sell or give you. The cell phone service is very expensive on a per-minute basis, but it's free to receive calls, and text messages are cheap. Calling the US can be very cheap -- I found a phone card for 15 euros that had 1200 minutes; internet cafes sell these kinds of things. But of course, first you have to pay to connect, so if you're calling by cell or pay phone, you still have to pay a lot for that.
French keyboards have a different layout than american ones. This can make typing passwords extremely difficult. It is usually possible to switch layouts by hitting SHIFT-ALT or something like that.
There are some cool bilingual magazines that have listings about stuff to do, but I don't remember their names anymore. Some people will tell you to look in FUSAC, but I found that's mostly aimed at business travellers. FNAC, a sort of French Barnes and Nobles, has a lot of these magazines, and some of them are free. PariScope is a french-language listing of movies, concerts, plays, etc, and it costs 40 cents. There's another one that's basically the same, but I can't remember what it's called. These two are available in kiosques all over the city. Oh, also, when you're in a bookstore, you should buy a little red book that contains maps of Paris. It has small maps of each neighborhood, a list of street names, and even which metro stop is closest to each street. There's also a blue book, I don't know if it's better or not. They're certainly both a lot more discreet than some big tourist map that you have to unfold.
If you buy a weekly or monthly metro pass, you really do have to put your photo on it. A friend of mine got a 30 euro ticket for not doing this. You need ID photos for lots of random things in France. They have booths in many of the metro stations, just get four color pictures made when you get there.
Food: The university cafes have absurdly cheap food, and it is expensive to eat in restaurants otherwise. The idea of buying a slice of pizza appears not to have been invented. McDonalds tastes better than in the US, but is much slower. Turkish food is the best bargain if you don't want to cook. Often Turkish restaurants are called "Greek," possibly because Turkey is not popular in some circles in France. If you want to impress upon French people that you are not a close-minded american, take the smelliest, moldiest cheese you can find, and eat it ravenously. I'm not kidding -- food is taken very seriously, and you will be surprised how much of an impact this makes. Additional bonus points for eating pate and anything undercooked. Do not use ketchup, do not eat potato chips as a snack, and do not order soda, unless you are at a cafe. If you don't smoke, you may want to consider starting. French beer is quite bad -- it's all either too light, or worse, fruity. Pelforth is pretty good, and it's available in most bars and cafes.
Medicines have different names in France, and it may be hard to find and get what you want. You should bring any medicines that you use frequently.
Opening a bank account can be difficult. I used Caisse d'Epargne (the red one with the squirrel), they were quite helpful. I have heard horrible, horrible things about BNP (the green one). Societe Generale (red and black) is supposed to be accomodating to foreigners. When you open a bank account, you may need proof of your permanent residence. I had to bring my roommate's passport and a utility bill, as well as my own passport. In general, I found the stereotypes about French bureaucracy to be true. Any time you do anything, bring any document you think might possibly be relevant. When dealing with secretaries or other administrators, ask questions -- do not assume that they will automatically tell you everything you need to know, unless you ask them specifically. If you don't have a place to stay when you get there, Hotel Ouest in the 14eme is only 28 euros per night, which is almost as cheap as the hostels. You do have to pay an additional 5 euros for the shower. It is surprisingly clean and not too noisy. Well, that is all I can think of for now. Writing this was a lot more fun than working. One last thing -- a stereotype that I did NOT find to be true was that French people all hate Americans or that they're really unfriendly. They are certainly much more reserved than Americans, but I found most of the people I met to be very welcoming and generous with me. Have a great time!