Moving To Paris – Essential Tips For Living In The City Of Light

Relocating to another country is understandably a stressful time. There are so many things for you to consider, from travel and accommodation to learning the language and making friends. If you’re travelling there alone, this is even more of a concern as you may feel as though you’re lacking in support, whether you’re the most outgoing person or not. To help you with this process, we’ve listed some of our top suggestions for living in Paris, to hopefully reduce your stress levels slightly, and give you some things to consider during this exciting new journey. 

Essential Documentation
First of all, it’s important to make sure that everything is in order for your travels and the time you’ll be spending in this wonderful new country.

Travelling from the UK post-Brexit means you’re going to need to secure much more in terms of documentation and permissions as well as lots of other important tasks. You’ll need to obtain your visa, residency and working papers to ensure you’re eligible for the trip at all and ensure your passport is in date too. You also have to register with the French government before moving there and it’s also wise to sort out a French bank account among other things too.

Choose The Right Neighbourhood
Finding the right place to stay is also an essential part of your move, and this requires a great deal of research. There are some phenomenal places to live in Paris such as Bastille, Butte-Montmarte, and Saint Germain if you’re prepared to pay a high price for some luxury living. As with any city, Paris is home to some very undesirable locations too, so try to avoid places like Gare du Nord, La Chapelle and Marx Dormoy to name a few. Renting in Paris’ most popular areas, however, can provide you with some exquisite, culturally rich experiences that few get to try.

Learn The Language
While it’s a very respectful thing to do when living in another country, learning the local language will help you in countless ways, even if you’ve only learned the basics. It will help you communicate with others much easier, especially if they have a basic understanding of English too, and you’ll find that this basic understanding will serve as a perfect foundation to naturally develop a much more complex level of understanding of the language.

Learning a language in a foreign country can also help you to feel a better sense of belonging too and as you learn the language; you’ll start picking words out of conversations and this will slowly begin to reduce feelings of isolation.

Embrace The Culture
As well as learning the language, living in Paris demands that you learn to embrace the culture in some form, to get the best experience possible.

Whether that’s trying the amazing foods on offer or visiting some of the most popular destinations for locals, you’ll find yourself fitting in more and more each day. Making some friends locally will help you to become assimilated into the Parisian lifestyle as they’ll be able to introduce you to things around the city that you’d have never considered before.