Finding an apartment

We learned that to be able to live in France for a year you need a Visa de Long Séjour, a “long-stay” visa. We'd seen on the French consulate's website that among the requirements for our visas was proof of accommodation in France. So even though the normal order of things would be to rent an apartment after we had our visas, we actually needed to have an apartment to request our visas. And then hope that you´d actually get the visas. A  risky juggling act, but the only option was to take the risk.

From what we'd heard and read, finding a decent apartment in Paris is not easy if you're on your own and you take the traditional route. You have to put together a thick dossier—a portfolio, so to speak. Typical things like pay stubs, a letter from your employer, paid utility bills, tax receipts, identification, letters of recommendation, and so on. Anything that will make you look like a qualified candidate. Probably in triplicate and with accompanying translations. 

Fortunately there was a way out of all that. Since we wanted a furnished apartment, and we just needed a 10½-month lease, we looked at the long-term vacation rentals, which there are plenty of in Paris. Since we wouldn't have a car, we wanted to be within a 15-minute walking distance from the kids' school. That made our search quite easy since we were able to focus on a very specific area of Paris. 

Luckily we found a place that met most of our requirements and was about a 10-minute walk from school. It was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with separate living and dining rooms and kitchen. It was located on Avenue de Wagram, in the 17th arrondissement, near Place des Ternes, the Arc de Triomphe and Blvd. de Courcelles. Although we were only able to see it in pictures, it looked great, and we hoped there would be no surprises when we got to Paris. 

With a legal rental contract in hand, we still needed to make travel arrangements as well as work on all the other documentation required by the French embassy.

Finding a school

One of the hardest parts of any move when you have kids is finding the right school, and once you find one, getting accepted. So we started looking into schools right away: it was already mid-March and we needed to move quickly. 

Do they even have schools in Paris? The city is known for its museums, monuments, cafés, bridges over the Seine, but when you're there you don't normally see any schools. But if there are families, there are children, and if there are children, there must be schools.

Our children were in elementary, in 1st and 2nd grades, so we weren't too worried about what school they went to—just that we'd find a nice and affordable school in the city. Many expats opt for private British or American schools because of the language issue or because they want to continue in the American or English systems, as well as for the community. There are several schools like that, such as the American School of Paris, the International School of Paris, or Marymount International School, but we'd each have to sell a kidney to pay for them because only those who are transferred to Paris by multinational corporations can afford them. Also, since acquiring languages happens so easily at their ages, we thought it would be nice if they learned some French during the year, even if that wasn't the main goal, so we ruled out enrolling them in an English-speaking school. We also ruled out French public schools because we didn't want to traumatize them at such a young age.

We learned that besides the standard public schools and the independent private schools, they also have state-contracted (sous contrat) private schools. They must teach according to the French education system, but the teachers are paid by the state, so basically you get state-funded international schools with a pretty reasonable tuition. We found a few of these schools, and after some research and talking to friends who'd lived in Paris, we settled on three that seemed to welcome children who didn't speak any French: Eurécole, Ecole Active Bilingue-EAB Monceau, and Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel. These last two used to be one school—Ecole Active Bilingue—but ended up splitting in two around 1979. To further differentiate themselves, the schools recently changed their names to Ecole Internationale Bilingue-EIB Monceau and Ecole Jeannine Manuel. All three schools were sous contrat private schools.

Obviously we told our kids about our plan. We explained it was just for a year and that we would be coming back to our same house and to their same school. All their friends would still be there. I think they were young enough not to worry about all the things adults worry about and knowing they would resume their normal lives in a year was enough to keep them happy. 

We scheduled school visits and interviews and then booked a flight to Paris. Who ever thought we'd be back so soon?

We found a nice little VRBO apartment on the top floor of a building on Rue Prony, next to a beautiful park we had never heard of before, Parc Monceau, and very close to one of the schools. Could that be a sign?

We spent the first few days in Paris fighting jet-lag and getting acclimated. Spring was in full bloom and we enjoyed some incredible weather at the Jardin d'Acclimation, a favorite of the kids from last summer, and the Jardin des Plantes, a beautiful place to spend a day, where the main botanical garden in France as well as the Museum of Natural History are located. The kids also loved the trip to the Parc de la Villette, which included the City of Science and a tour of the Argonaut submarine. We also visited the Jardin du Luxembourg and did a late-night trip to the Eiffel Tower.

The first school we visited was Eurécole, a small school located in a non-distinct building on Rue de Lübeck, near Place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement. All we knew from our initial inquiry was that we'd meet with the Director (or Headmistress, as they're called there) and the children had to be present since they'd be asked to complete a little task adapted to their age. A decision would be made after the interview, and if the children were accepted, you'd then send in your enrollment paperwork. 

The actual interview consisted in us meeting with the principal in her tiny, cramped office, kids included. I wish I could've taken a picture. The kids were given a blank piece of paper and were asked to draw or color while she explained the French school system to us. We thought that was a bit informal but definitely relaxing. Although they call themselves a French immersion school, after visiting a couple of classrooms we realized their immersion system consisted in putting the few new foreign kids they get each year with the rest of the French kids and providing language support when needed. At the end of the visit we were told we would be accepted as long as they received all the paperwork within two weeks. We wondered if that's what they told everyone, but it was nice to know we basically had a school, which made the following interviews less stressful.

Ecole Active Bilingue-EAB Jeannine Manuel, located in the 15th arrondissement near the Eiffel Tower, had a different process. They had a presentation on one of the days we were in Paris, which we attended along with a couple dozen high-octane parents. The school is well placed among Parisian schools and admission is very competitive, but just learning about their application process made us dizzy (for example, applicants had to submit a standardized admission test). Not what we were looking for for just a year in Paris, so we quickly crossed it off our list and did not pursue an interview.

The next day we had our interviews at Ecole Active Bilingue‑EAB Monceau, located in a beautiful building right next to Parc Monceau. By now we had figured out that Parisian schools were housed within regular buildings.

We had already corresponded with the elementary director and knew their admission process was a bit more formal. We had already sent our applications and references from their current school and were expecting an interview and some form of evaluation of the kids. We thought we'd first meet with the elementary director before the kids did their assessments, but as soon as the director appeared in the reception area she said, "Okay, who wants to go first!" We had coached the kids on more or less what to expect, and what kinds of questions they wanted to ask, but were not expecting this. Fortunately Daniela said "Me!" right away, and after her went Nicolás, then Andrea, each one taking about 20 minutes to complete their evaluation. Although it was reassuring to know we'd already been accepted in one school, it was a little nerve-racking waiting in the reception while all three got done. 

After that it was our turn to go upstairs. We discussed our goals and their assessment of the kids, which were spot-on, and we got a pretty good sense of the school and their methodology. This school has a great French immersion program in which each grade has a separate class (called "adaptation class") where all the new foreign kids (around 12-15 kids) are placed. Most subjects are taught in French, ensuring that all the kids learn French at about the same pace. That's what real immersion looks like, and seemed to be pretty unique to this school. They guaranteed that after four months the kids would speak some French and that by the end of the year most kids would be speaking French fluently and would graduate to the following grade. Those who continued in the school would then be placed within the regular classes, opening spaces for the next wave of newcomers. We definitely liked this school very much. 

Thankfully all three did great and were offered spots in the adaptation classes. We could not contain our excitement: this was probably the biggest hurdle in our plan to move to Paris and in no small way it was happening thanks to them. If everything else went as well as this, we'd be moving to Paris to start school in September.

Dreaming of Paris

“And if we moved to Paris?” Dianny asked, nervously.

It was a gray, rainy day in Seattle, typical March weather, and Dianny, my wife, and I were discussing the future. After 16 years abroad, we were debating whether to move back to Bogotá, Colombia, our home town. We had left in 1995 and after a few stops along the way, had ended all they way up in Seattle, where, after a successful tenure at Microsoft, I decided in 2011 to start working freelance. I could work from anywhere, and the possibility of leaving Seattle played a big part in that decision. After all those years away, we were getting tired of the long and expensive back-and-forth trips to Bogotá and Dianny was starting to feel a bit homesick. I guess we never expected to be away for so long. And now that we had children, we wondered if we should get back to our roots. After all, Colombia was where our entire extended family lived and was the place we'd always gone back to for Christmas and other important milestones throughout all those years. It was home.

But moving to Bogotá was not an easy decision for me. It was still a complicated place and I was realistic about the challenges we'd face and that, after 16 years away, it would be hard to re-adapt. I was pushing back very hard. Seeing that we were at an impasse, Dianny played the Paris card.

Although Dianny's question seemed to come out of the blue, I'm sure she had been pondering that option for a while, and it actually didn’t take me by surprise. We had fantasized about living in Paris before. Ever since we'd been to Paris together in 1998, we'd fallen under the city's spell. To love Paris may be a cliché, but the truth is we loved everything about it: the monuments and the boulevards and the architecture and the bridges and the sidewalk cafés and the language and the atmosphere and the wine and the food. It was like we belonged there. We became incurable Francophiles and Paris became the place we always wanted to go back to. 

But life got in the way and only until the summer of 2010 were we able to return. By then we had three kids, so we had to adapt the trip to suit them, but that was fine, all we wanted was to be in Paris. For the simple pleasure of being there. 

We had a great time. Although we tend to think of Paris as a city for adults, it's a child-friendly city and we found lots of things to do besides doing all the typical sightseeing. We climbed up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, we visited places like the Metamorphosis, an old barge docked near Notre Dame that was converted into a restaurant and a magic theater down below, the Jardin d'Acclimatation, a mini amusement park for children, the Fête des Tuileries, a traditional funfair that takes place in the Tuileries Gardens every summer, we discovered great playgrounds at both the Tuileries Gardens and the Luxembourg Gardens, and got on just about every merry-go-round they have in Paris.

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We were happy to see that the kids seemed to like it—although it's not clear if it was all the parks and playgrounds we visited, all the merry-go-rounds they got on or all the crêpes they had, or just hearing us say all day how great the place is. 

So although we had just gotten our Paris fix, I think Dianny saw the opportunity we suddenly had. Because now that I was going to work on my own there was a lot of flexibility in terms of schedule and location. And the kids were young—our older daughter was 8 and the twins were 7—a great age to move anywhere and old enough to participate in the adventure. Even I, the more practical one in the family, could see it wasn't that crazy. In fact, it sounded really cool. Besides, it was not like we were moving forever, it was just for a year. 

It was already March, and when you have kids, a lot of things revolve around school, and I was already starting to see the challenges ahead. So if we wanted to do this, we'd have to move fast. 

"We’d need to find a school for the kids right away," was all I could think of saying.

Dianny couldn't believe it. This was a big shift in plans, and I'm sure she expected me to shoot down the idea or at least put up some resistance. After all, moving to Paris is one of those things you usually dream about and talk about but end up dismissing as crazy. But not this time. Moving to Paris sounded like the best idea I’d ever heard.

It’s a bit risky and intimidating to just uproot your family and move to a foreign country, even if it's just for a year. And there’s always a good reason not to do this kind of thing or put it off for later. But this was one of those things that can't wait till you're retired, or till you get all your ducks in a row. It was something we really wanted to do, the timing made sense, and we knew it would be a great opportunity for the whole family. We looked at each other and with a sense of purpose and determination and said, “Let’s do it!”

Paris is always a good idea.