Our daugter and friend, ages 20 and 21, arrived in BOrdeaux yesterday. Due to a sad comedy of errors they have no place to live for the next six months and were told it would be fairly easy to find a place once they arrived.

They've tried the local apartment leasing office and it's fairly expensive and they seem to want to lease for lenths of a year or more. They plan to go to U of Bordeaux 3 tomorrow (where they will attend) to search the message boards there for shared housing.

They tried online websites such as seloger.com and appartager.com. These are possibilities but, again, it was hard to find a place for only six months.

Thank goodness they both speak French well enough and have a great adventurous spirit, but they are concerned about finding a place to live.

Does anyone here at Fodor's have apartments to rent or websites to share or something?? Their budget if they share an apartment is about 900 euro a month. Furnished would be great of course, but they are willing to rent unfurnished.

I, of course, am looking online but if anyone has any other hints I would be very grateful.

Merci!

They should go to the tourist office in Bordeaux, and they should look at the ads in Le Sudouest. Both will have local current listings.

Thanks for the tip on Le Sudouest, St Cirq. I didn't know that the tourist office would handle a long term rental?? Good to know if they do.

They're headed to the university tomorrow to further check out places. Their home university really dropped the ball on this! This was suposed to be a reciprocal exchange...

So sorry, soogies.

Try this: appartager.com

Posted on my own "student in France" thread by someone whose daughter found a Paris apt there. This is for people looking to share a place. Might be worth a try.
Good luck.

Hi,
I found myself in a similar situation when I was a student in France.

Landlords don't like short-term rentals and there don't tend to be many of them around. However, under standard rental terms you can legally break a longer term lease if you give three months' notice (sent by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt).

This is what we ended up doing - we took an apartment with a year long lease and then gave our 3 months' notice and left before the year was up. The landlord may not like it but it is perfectly legal in most circumstances (check the lease first, of course!)

The other important thing to do is to be very strict when carrying out the incoming inventory check (etat des lieux), noting down EVERY chip in the paint, scratch on the floorboards, mark on the walls, etc. Take photos too. Some landlords will try and pin any sort of damage on tenants in order to get out of paying the deposit back, so it definitely pays to be extremely rigorous when entering the property. (so speaks the voice of bitter experience)

Also, have they tried www.pap.fr ? It only has listings from private individuals, not agencies, so they won't have to pay agency fees.

Thank you stokebailey - they have tried appartager and so far the only good ones asking for roomates are by single guys - go figure! The girls wish to shy away from that.

hanl - a big thanks to you. i was also wonderring about breaking leases. I spolke with one woman who said it was possible to break the lease after a month notice, so it was great to hear that maybe three months notice is in order. The girls are at U of Bordeaux 3 today and haven't Skyped me yet. hopefully they're finding something. I sent them the link for pap.fr. Many many thanks.

Their university here has totally let them down. They knew three weeks before leaving that they didn't have lodging, nor any help from their school here, but they decided to have an adventure. Actually, only 1 of the ten students sent to bordeaux has been given lodging. Im pissed at their school but it also is a great learning experience for the kids.

Well, good for them, and I hope they find something soon.

Go online at De Particulier à Particulier and look under apartments, Bordeaux, as well.

Thanks again, St Cirq - pap.fr is De Particulier a particulier but I appreciate your response. there is nothing suitable on the website right now but the girls are reconsidering the housing situation. currently, there are 10 USA students without housing in Bordeaux. They are currently communicating amongst each other to see if they can share a larger property.

It's a real mess and a disappointment but the "kids" are really handling it well. I am furious with their home university but will reserve my nastygrams until this situation is solved. Our daughter wants to handle this on her own and without parental intervention with her home univ and we will respect her wishes.

i will appreciate any other options that anyone can come up with. many tahnks again to all who have contributed.

I can sympathise - it must be very frustrating for you and your daughter!

Another problem in France is that sharing apartments isn't that common (though increasing in popularity): not only are there few apartments available with more than one bedroom, but many landlords don't want to rent to students who want to share - they'd rather their property was occupied by a family. To the extent that when two friends and I were seeking an apartment to share in Paris a few years ago we actually had to make up a cock-and-bull story about being cousins before the landlord of our apartment would consider renting to us (in the end it was he who turned out to be a complete fake and imposter, but that's a whole other story!).

Anyway all I can suggest is that they persevere - something is bound to turn up sooner or later.

If it's any consolation, when I was a student abroad, those of us who waited till we arrived in the city where we were studying always ended up getting better, cheaper accommodation than those who moved into prearranged lodgings or home stays organised by their universities.