JorgeParis

Hello,

I am going to live in Paris for a year or more and I would appreciate some help in deciding the correct areas for me where to rent.

My budget is Ok; my wife is moving with me, so we prefer to be comfortable in a familiar residential area.

I am going to work in the Charles de Gaulle Airport, so I would like to stay in an area from where I can drive to the airport without spending a lot of time. To be sincere I don't know how much traffic usually there is in the road to go to the airport and how long it takes.

I have been looking for in the arrondissements of the north of Paris such as 17,18,19. But I don't know if they are familiar, quiet, noisy, etc and if it is reasonable to drive from there to the airport.
We don't mind to live in the suburbs as well, but we don't know anything about the villages around.

Thank you very much in advance.
Regards.

nytraveler

I would not assume that living in Paris is a great idea if working at the airport.

Before providing more info you might consider:

What are your work hours and how do they coincide with the usual rush hours?

How would you travel back and forth? Drive? Train? If the latter how close are you to a station?

What will your wife be doing and is living in Paris a benefit for her?

Have you looked at towns in between which might provide a shorter commute as well as less expensive rents?

I really think that you need to look at a relocation or ex-pat web site which might provide a lot more detailed info. Also have you check with colleagues who have nor or previously worked at CDG to get their perspective?

Christina

I think no arrondisement as a whole is either noisy or quiet, it depends on the location of the exact apartment in that regard. Certainly parts of those are noisy and many parts are not. Not sure what you mean by familiar.

Sometimes when I get a taxi in Paris, even on the far Left Bank, they think it is quicker to drive through the center of Paris and up through Porte de la Chappele or Clignancourt or wherever up there than going around the peripherique to the airport, so it seems do-able. Depends on what is reasonable, I routinely drive one hour or more one-way to/from work so it would be reasonable to me as I'm not a big fan of suburbs.

Believe me, there can be tons of traffic on the peripherique around Paris, seems like there is always some accident or bouchon when I am on it.

fuzzbucket

Just a thought - have you asked your employer for help in deciding where to live? Most workplaces will try to assist someone who is relocating to work for them.

I agree that getting back and forth from Paris to the airport can be problematic, and should be avoided if possible. If you are thinking about a car, you would have trouble finding a building with parking included, and parking on the street or in a public garage in Paris is expensive.

You should do some research on nearby suburbs - which might not have the architecture that Paris does, but will have what you need - and decide whether or not you need a car or public transportation to get to work.

You can always get into Paris when you want to - but getting to work on time on a daily basis might not be possible.

Sarastro

The RER B is just too convenient, I would not even consider driving to CDG from Paris. If you want to live in Paris, anywhere along the RER B line, or close to it, will make commuting relatively easy.

A lot of people who work at CDG actually in and around Senlis. You might take a look.
http://www.senlis-tourisme.fr/

JorgeParis

Thank you very much to all. I appreciate your information and the time you have taken to help me.

I am moving to Paris due to a relocation in my work. It's a new "base" and, unfortunately, no other colleagues of mine have been there before me. So I have to open the way.
And my company pays a lot of things about the relocation, but doesn't help me to find a lodgement.

My schedule changes from day to day. Sometimes I have to work early and sometimes in the afternoon. It depends on the flights. So, I suppose that if I lived in Paris I would find traffic in the early morning when usually people heads to work and in the evenings when they come back.

As I said I wouldn't mind living in a village near the airport; I have had a look at Senlis and it is really beautiful. I will consider it.
If someone can propose new ideas of nice areas to have different options will be welcomed.

Thank you again.

kerouac

Driving to the airport is madness from Paris. I worked for an airline at CDG for 35 years (although I was based at the downtown Paris office), and I don't think that there were more than 2 out of 50 employees there who actually lived in Paris. Rush hour on the A1 autoroute is horrible unless you are lucky enough to start work around 5 a.m.

Most airport colleagues lived in cities like Le Blanc Mesnil, Drancy, Senlis, Villepinte, Tremblay or Aulnay-sous-Bois. All of these towns have both good and "bad" (poor) areas.

If you hope to benefit from the attractions of Paris, my own advice would be to find a place to live very close to the RER B rail line. Using a car often will just be a source of unnecessary expense and aggravation.

fuzzbucket

If you'd like to get an idea of what's available for rent in the cities that Sarastro and Kerouac mentioned, this is a very good website to use - just enter the name of the city and other criteria:
http://www.seloger.com/

Then, use Google Map Street View to check out the neighborhood where the rental is located.

WeisserTee

A co-worker used to live in Chantilly and her husband had a job not far from the airport. They loved living there. Of course, they also love living in Basel, so perhaps they simply have glass-half-full, "bloom where you're planted" natures. But you might want to add Chantilly to your list of small towns to consider. Chantilly has a train station (Chantilly-Gouvieux) that makes it easy to get into Paris itself (or, more correctly Paris Nord) without a car on your days off.

P.S. No, they did not live in the castle.

JorgeParis

Thank you, I have been checking Senlis and Chantilly and are nice villages. Well linked to the airport CDG. Chantilly has a RER station as WeisserTee said and could be a good option too.
I will check the web selonger.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Senlis and Chantilly are lovely villages that I am in very frequently for work. Of the two, I prefer Senlis as i find it more charming. If you want to see more photos of both places and some of the nearby countryside and villages you can have a look at a photo report I wrote about exploring that area:

http://tinyurl.com/ch2odst

And this report covers some other towns, villages and countryside near Senlis: http://tinyurl.com/cazwcpx

There are buses between Senlis and CDG that only take about 30 minutes but I don't know that they are very frequent and would be reliable for regular commuting purposes. Other than that there is no rail line between either Senlis/Chantilly and CDG. There is a suburban rail line from Paris to Chantilly and while the RER D does occasionally stop in Chantilly it is a 50 minute journey. If going between Paris and Chantilly the best is to take one of the suburban trains to Gare du Nord as it only takes 25 minutes.

Some other nice, and somewhat posh, suburbs north of Paris that are within reasonable driving commute distance to CDG are Ecouen, Montmorency, Luzarches, Enghien-les-Bains and Auvers-sur-Oise. You can use www.viamichelin.com to get driving times and distances if you want to know how far a place is from CDG. With all that being said, my first choice would still be Senlis.

JorgeParis

Wow, FrenchMistique, is an amazing report. Very nice pictures, certainly Senlis seems a tale village. I love mountain biking as well as running. That's a perfect area to do both of them. I have liked the rest of the villages in he north of Paris too.
So, there are various options, Senlis, Chantilly, Montmorency or Enghien-Les-Bains, which are the areas that I have most liked. All of them seem to be within 30 min driving to CDG Airport. The last ones are connected to Paris by metro, which is a good point, especially for my wife but aren't as nice as the first ones.
I also have to think in her, who I'd like to have some independence while I'm at work.
I thank all of you for this great information.