When I applied for this language assistant position, I didn’t really think I would be accepted. I certainly didn’t think I would be posted to the Paris region. I had been counting on being sent to some small city or town far away from the capital, in a region in which I had never been – where apartments are much cheaper and easier to come by.
As it stands, my options are limited. The Académie de Versailles encompasses four districts: Val d’Oise (95), Hauts-de-Seine (92), Yvelines (78), and Essonne (91). Regardless of where my school (or schools) are located, I can choose to live in any of these departments, or in Paris proper, as they are all quite close to one another, and the rail and metro systems are extremely well-integrated throughout the entire capital region. While this expands the pool of available dwellings, the proximity of each department to Paris means prices are high and competition fierce.
A sample: 17m² of living space, with a half-sized refrigerator, 2-coiled hot plate, and a shower cubicle = 440€/month, plus security deposit of 410€ and 365€ in agency fees. (That’s 1215€ up front – approximately $1885 Canadian dollars!) And this is one of the cheaper ones, well over an hour away from Paris…
With a take-home salary of about 785€/month, it’s cause for some concern.
