Ann, I certainly wouldn't want our lawyer to eat less well than everyone else's, but spending more on lunch than her month's rent might be in questionable taste. So maybe only one apéritif.

Isabel, thanks so much. This is all encouraging. We'll see about Cité Universitaire, but it looks wonderful. With the IES program I think you take what you get or strike out at your own effort and expense elsewhere.

Slightly off topic, but how difficult legally is it for your daughter to stay and be employed there as an American, non EU citizen?

ok Stoke, here's my choice for my entree:

<< White Truffle From Alba Region, Veal Carpaccio, Raw Chestnuts, Old Parmesan Cheese, Lightly Whipped Potatoe Purée, "Salt and Pepper" Egg Yolk, Ginger Broth, Sweet Onion Ravioli >>

regrettably the menu doesn't give prices. I suppose that if you have to ask, you can't afford it.

Last time I was there, the potatoes weren't whipped exactly to my liking. The kitchen staff responsible was fired as a result, of course, so order with confidence.

stokebailey - my daughter didn't "stay", she came home, finished college, worked for a couple of years. Then she applied to the program (French government) that places English speakers in the French schools as teaching assistants. They are mostly from the US or Britain but I think any English speakers, who also speak French of course, can apply. I believe you must be a college graduate. For most of the people she knows who are doing it, they are there just for one academic year. At least a few have managed to stay longer but I'm not sure how they did this. Her Visa is just for this program. From what I know there are a number of jobs/programs that allow recent college grads to live over there. For most of them you need to be under 26, but if you want to live in Europe for a few years that's the time to do it. After that it gets more difficult, as many threads on this board attest to.

Thanks Isabel. I assumed it was just her junior year, and she had returned to live there for awhile. What a great experience. Nice for you that it's temporary.

hi Stoke,

i guess I'll just have to settle for Guy Savoy then.

the langoustines and "coleur de caviar" sound pretty good.

or the tasting menu at just €275 pp.

one snag - all the table have to take it. fancy coming with me so we can be "all the table"? we'll take your DD a daggoy bag.

I've seen the applications available for those English teaching assistants, I believe they are posted on the French embassy website. They have a certain number of slots allocated to Americans, I don't know about other countries. You have to be aged 20-30 and proficient in French. Actually, you don't have to be a graduate, it says.

This is the page with the info
http://www.ambafrance-us.org/spip.php?article375

Stoke - sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to you about the apartment site. The website DD used to find her apartment to share in Paris was appartager.com

It sounds like the teaching assistant program several of you are talking about is the one DD did last year. She was in her junior year in university and did it part-time (I think about 15 hours a week) while she was a full-time student. So, no, she did not have to be a college graduate. There were personal interviews, essays, etc., held here in the States, where she had to demonstrate her proficiency in French before she got the job.

Hi, Ann. We certainly don't want our lawyer eating alone in Paris. Table for two, please, and send the bill to my accountant.

Christina, Thanks so much for that embassy link. That seems to open up possibilities. Oh, to be paid to use your French in actual France, even if just enough to live on.

NorCalif, great appartager link. I love the one with Sylvain where the bed lowers electrically from the ceiling. Also great to hear that a student can apply for those jobs, and help pay for the extra cost of being in the vital center of things.

We really appreciate all your help. This makes it seem possible. My daughter said the other day she'd rather go with the Rennes study option than be stuck out in the banlieue.

My crack about the $50,000 tuition per annum was meant to say that IES would be likely to err on the side of safe but boring, with well-heeled parents breathing down their liability-conscious necks.

Yes, DD sure appreciated her salary over there! She loved teaching the kids although it was a little bit of an experience to be thrown into teaching classes of kids just 2 years younger than she was, especially as she had no "classroom management" or teaching experience. She was alone with different classes ranging from 4 to 20 kids. It wasn't the French language that was the biggest challenge, needless to say.

She had her first taste of what it would be like trying to establish control over the classroom when, on her first day, a teacher introduced her to a class, and had DD tell them a little bit about her background, where she was from, etc. DD then asked them if they had any questions. One of the boys called out, "Yes. What's your phone number?" Ah teen-aged boys: the same the world over!

BTW, I forgot to say that as DH and I were living in Amsterdam last year while DD was in Paris, and just 4 hours away by train, I found it absolutely necessary to go help her out, just by my presence, quite often! Yes, yes, dedicated parenthood is such a burden at times, but I nobly rose to the occasion. So I personally think you would be abdicating your parental responsibility if you didn't go over there to "help" your DD as often as possible. I'm just saying.

hi Stoke,

at the risk of forgoing our lunch a Paris, Rennes would be a great place i think.

lots of young people but in a town that is small enough for her to feel "at home".

yours with regret,

ann

Hello,
i'm not american but i spent a semester studying in Paris some years ago.
If you can, try to arrange for your daughter to stay in the Cite Universitaire in the 14th, as suggested above. I stayed there in my country dorm, and it was very beautiful, with well cared gardens and very different buildings for each dorm (some very interesting), we could either eat in our communal kitchens our in the main building with people from all over the world, there were sports facilities, and in most nights we went to other dorms to see a movie, a play, or to a party. It was a culturally fulfilled time! Can you tell i loved it?!
Most of my classes were in an Institute in the Banlieue and i can tell you, it was always a pain to commute there. I think i really would've lost a lot staying outside of Paris since the six months passed in a blink :)

Yes, NorCalif. That's us mothers: self-sacrificing to a fault!

Ann, we'll always have Paris. Good to hear that about Rennes.

Hi sms. Your experience sounds so fun. Thank you. Did you arrange your own stay there?

Hello again, my stay was arranged by the Erasmus interchange program between european universities. It is the official EU program for undergraduates, but there were people there doing their doctorate programs, and not only portuguese citizens in our dorm.
Take a look at the offitial Cite Universitaire site www.ciup.fr/

Hi, sms6778,

Thanks so much.

Yes, the Cité Universitaire is superb -- at least most of it. Since each country manages and keeps up its own building there have been times when some of them have fallen more or less into total ruin. I think the Cambodian pavilion was unliveable for a certain number of years.

tell me about it, having spent time in the Maison de l'Inde. Not the best. We looked out onto those of Norway, Japan, etc., and of course they were really nice. I could have moved to the Fondation des Etats-Unis, room opened up, but I didn't fell like moving and they are right on top of the RER line, I heard, and lower rooms can be noisy (USA). Now the Spain one is very nice and they have their own cafeteria, as I had friends in there.

Sometimes you can get into other dorms than those of your country, but they do have that weird country-specific system (which I think has to do with funding, obviously).
It's still a convenient location, nice campus, good services, and you meet a lot of people there. Now there is a tram running down along that bd, I believe, isn't there, which should make it even better. It's nice being near the parc Montsouris, also. Things are different in summer when I was there, though, as that's when the countries rent out the rooms to a lot of different people as they have free space (which is how I ended up in Maison de l'Inde as I'm not Indian). I wish I had taken up that offer to stay in the College d'Espagne the summer I was going to Schola Cantorum as others students did, but I rented an apt. instead.

Living with your compatriots would seem to defeat the purpose somewhat. Or even if you were in a houseful of predominantly, say, Norwegians or Brazilians.

But you only spend most of your time sleeping there and don't care who is sleeping in the other rooms.

I was looking at the website and I did notice that some of the places reserved the residence for nationals and others reserved only half of if for nationals.