Student housing in Paris
 

I know this subject comes up regularly, especially at the end of summer, but I would like to bring your attention to a major area of student housing in Paris that I have never seen mentioned here. (Of course I know that it is just because I don't read every post here -- I'm sure it has come up before.)

A lot of you have seen that there is an RER station called "Cité Universitaire" and you have probably wondered what it is. I finally made a trip there with my camera, and it is indeed a nice place to consider trying to obtain student housing. Here is my photo report: http://tinyurl.com/ylybhdb

I'm pretty sure that most of the various residences have their own websites, but I did not go looking for them.

wow, WHO WAS TO KNOW! Those buildings are beautiful. Wish I were still a student...

Thanks for taking the time to do such a detailed report.

Thanks, kerouac, for bringing back fond memories of my long-ago residence at the Fondation des Etats-Unis! I just returned from Paris on Thursday, having taken eighteen college students over there for a week. I'm trying to decide whether a trip report would be of interest as ours was definitely not the typical family trip usually discussed here!

ALL trip reports are fascinating, UNCalum -- the atypical ones perhaps even more than the others, at least to me.

My daughter stayed there when she was a student a couple of years ago and loved it. It was a great experience and she liked the neighborhood too. I have a few photos of it here: http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/image/120879836 (that one and next three or four). She is living in Paris again this year (working as an English teacher) and lives in the 18th and I think she liked the area around Cite University just as well.

Thank you for these photos. I had read about the area and the residenced but in sources at least 20 years old and am glad to see that they are going strong.

We started out to find them a couple of years ago but got sidetracked by the Parc Montsouris and watching the crowds on their way to a Segolene Royale rally at the stade.

A new destination next time we are in Paris.

Very interesting! Seeing all those buildings from all over the world kind of reminded me of Expo 67 in Montreal (I was very young then!!) and visiting the pavilions and getting my "passport" stamped. It's very cool that all those countries have their own student residences, built on their specifications (and money). Does anyone know if there is anything like this in any other university or organization anywhere else in the world?

Thank you for sharing this, Kerouc. Your photo essays are always so unique, interesting and educational.

Jo

......and sorry for misspelling your name! There really should be an edit feature here. :)

And thanks, isabel, for your photos. Very nice.

What an eye-opener! Must be one of the most beautiful campus's
in the world.
Your photos are excellent Kerouac - thank you very much for giving us such a lovely photo-essay!

Checking the websites, it says students who live there must be working towards a degree at least Masters 1 level or equivalent. Is this the same as a US Master's, as in post grad?

Our DD lived there for six weeks or so in fall of 2008. Her university here in the States uses it as the initial place to stay for the students in their Study Abroad program while the students look for permanent housing for the year. Since school doesn't start for most university students in Paris till October, I believe, other students can use the rooms in the summer till then - they were all undergrads. That was my understanding anyway.

Even though she was from a US university, they all stayed in the Canadian house, if I remember correctly. I remember when we went with her there the first day, even though she and another girl were sharing a room so small you practically had to crawl on the beds to get in and out the door, the campus was so pretty, I was jealous of them!

My daughter was a sophomore at the Univ of Massachusetts when she did her study abroad and lived at Cite. It wasn't temporary, she lived there the whole semester (about 6 months). The rooms were smallish but they were singles when she was there. And there was a shared kitchen.

There are of course dozens of rules for getting a room in lots of these residences -- and just as many exceptions. I saw that the Cité Universitaire also operates two new buildings in the 19th arrondissement on the opposite side of town. So capacity is growing slowly but surely. I would imagine that there are additional advantages that help to save money in such places besides just low rent. They probably all have free unlimited wifi and things like that, whereas all of the students in independent apartments around Paris have to assign an additional 20 or 30€ of their monthly budget to that new necessity.

I need a time machine set for My Sophomore Year in College.

I need to put in a new link -- the other place moved the subjects around and broke all the links.

New link: http://tinyurl.com/ykorh3f

Plus theres an international party every wednesday night, usually each house (country) has its own night for parties, but all come togetehr for the international party!!!!

isabel, did your daughter's school set her up there?

Does anyone know whether students can negotiate to live there on their own?

I lived there one summer, but not in the US place. Cite Universitaire has been mentioned numerous times on Fodors, including this recent thread that kerouac participated in:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...experience.cfm

Hi, Christina. Yes, thanks.

What I'm unsure of is whether my own specific sweetie pie can sign on at, say, the Belgian or Swiss House, as an individual who's attending Paris universities. The program her US college uses doesn't offer Cité Universitaire as an option.