We are finishing up a 7 month sabbatical in Northern France (Lille). When we were preparing for this trip a year ago, I wasn't able to find any sites with tips for families on sabbatical in Europe, so I hope this will be helpful to others out there.I am a stay at home mom with 9 year old twins. My husband, a chemistry professor, was awarded a grant to do research at a University here. You'd have to ask him how to get the grant, but the advice I give "jealous" friends who dream of sabbatical is to plan years in advance.
This is our second sabbatical as a family. Five years ago we spent a semester in Boulder Colorado. It was a wonderful experience, so soon after that we started thinking about our next adventure. While France is the focus of most of my tips, but some apply to domestic trips as well.
HOUSING
We used sabbatical.com for Colorado and rented a wonderful house in Boulder from a professor who was on sabbatical the same time. It worked beautifully. We tried to rent our house out on sabbatical.com but were unsuccessful. For our Colorado trip we had neighbors look in regularly and my husband went back home about once every 4-6 weeks for work reasons. For the France sabbatical we found friends who were renovating their house to house sit.
In looking for housing in France we perused the craigslist equivalent, leboncoin, but little came up. There is no MLS or zillow in France so it's a little harder, especially when looking for a short term furnished rental. We eventually found a house through Homeaway, ( VRBO)which was listed as a vacation rental. We asked the owner if she'd lower the price for a 6-7 month rental and she agreed. We contracted with her in late fall 2015 and moved in mid- January.
This is a short section considering we agonized over several issues-whether to live in the city and use public transportation, how to pick a neighborhood when we didn't know anyone. I only have two tips. First talk to everyone you know to find a contact in the city. A new neighbor had a sister-in-law who gave us advice and did a drive-by of our actual rental. The second piece of advice is you can live with anything for a while. We do not have as ideal a place as might be possible, but the combination of the incredible experience we are having and the understanding that most people in the world live in far worse conditions makes us pretty content.
LEASING A CAR
We had hoped to live in the main city of Lille and not use a car, but we ended up in suburb where we needed a car. In retrospect we are very happy to have the car for all the reasons you'd expect. Lots of people here buy used cars, but we ended up with a long term lease available only to foreigners through Peugeot. It's usually limited to 6 months but can be extended a little if you qualify. My husband is a "Chercheur" and so was able to lease the car for what we needed, 6 1/2 months. It was pretty reasonable, especially because it includes 100% insurance coverage. (When we had the odd circumstance of our license plates being stolen, we had to have the car towed to a place and then waited for new plates to be made. We had a rental car for several days and never paid a cent.)
Our one mistake was we rented a bigger car than we needed, a station wagon. We were worried about our initial load of luggage when we moved to Lille. We have really never needed the cargo space except for the first trip from Paris to Lille. If we could do it again we'd rent a smaller car and have sent the luggage by train with part of the family.
The GPS was absolutely necessary but I am guessing all cars come with it now? Google maps is always better because it tracks traffic, but you can't always get google in remote areas.
WHAT TO PACK
Obviously you don't want to buy a completely new wardrobe but you can find WHATEVER you need here, easily and cheaply (H&M etc). We over- packed and while we aren't bringing much home we do have some souvenirs we're struggling to find room for. While I would be sure to bring favorite coats and shoes I would bring less clothing and more room to bring home souvenirs.
We didn't bring guidebooks and I regretted this. We thought we could rely on the internet but in the car, train, and while traveling there is nothing like a real, non-virtual guidebook. We ended up buying some in England. I am guessing you can buy guides in English in Paris but not in Lille (that I know of)
The only things we didn't find easily in France were kids dental floss (individual flossers).
We also regretted not bringing the kids' scooters/helmets so my husband picked them up on his one trip back to the states. They take up a lot of luggage space so if you are staying for longer you probably want to buy them, or bikes. Europe is a wonderfully bike-friendly place.
We let the kids decide what toys to bring. They brought a few games, but mostly have played with their favorite stuffed animals. My daughter noticed that they need to be more creative here, with fewer toys, and said she would miss that. See NEWS AND BOOK below as well.
While you can get converters here, a friend loaned us a wonderful charger that plugs into french outlets and has four ports for devices. I was happy we brought this, very helpful when traveling.
MEDICATIONS
I had to apply to the state of Virginia to get 7 months of prescriptions. Once you get permission you call your doctors and have them prescribe the number of pills you need. I take sudafed for allergies and was not able to get an extended prescription since it is a controlled substance. Ahhchoo!
DOCUMENTS
Bring everything, and I mean everything, and copies, carried separately. Birth and Marriage certificates too. I had to send home for my birth certificate. we had to have them translated into French, tres cher. It is supposed to be cheaper in the states. This was all to get my residency permit.
SENDING THINGS HOME
We are taking a 2 week vacation at the end and didn't want to haul our large bags so we are using sendmybag.com. It costs 110 euro for up to 15 kilo and 166 for 30kg. It takes only a few days and they have a fantastic website that makes it very easy.
SCHOOL
The summer before our trip we put the kids into a french immersion day-camp. One of our kids loved learning french and the other hated it. We expected that the french lover would try a local elementary school and that I might home-school the other twin. Our future landlady recommended that we try the local bilingual school , as her nephew attends the school and said kids come and go at all times of the year. After a little persistence we applied and were accepted in late December, to start in January.
The school they attend has 3 hours of instruction in french and 3 hours in english. After 6 months of school they (both) do not enjoy the french part of the day since the instruction is beyond them. The English portion is generally far too easy. Math seems to be at the appropriate level.
But the school provides a structure to their days, friends, and a great introduction to french culture. And a delicious 3 course lunch. My son, who hated the french part of the day, cried on the last day of school, so I consider it a success.
Public schools in France are \very strict. In fact, harsh public schools were just cited as a reason Paris was less desirable as a replacement for London as a financial center after Brexit. Even in the bilingual school the principal comes into the class and read the report cards outloud!
Preschools are cheap or free, but I have no expertise in this area.
NEWS AND BOOKS
We took on-line subscriptions to the Washington Post and our local U.S. paper, and had the International New York Times delivered.
For books, the kids brought a few non-fiction books that they read over and over. (Reference type books and Calvin and Hobbes). We also bought some books in England for them (Horrible Histories) that they read over and over.
But mostly we relied on our U.S. public library to check out e-books. We could check out 28 books at a time if is there was something good the kids could read it on different devices at the same time .
We brought a kindle fire, a kindle paperwhite, and an older IPAD. All were indispensable.
We also used audible.com. I jogged to french tapes and books, and the kids listened to books.
LOCAL NEWS
You will want to keep up on strikes and manifestations, politics, sports etc. My best sources for French news in English are bbc.com, French24.fr (both written articles and newscasts in english!) and for one article a day or so, thelocal.fr. I would buy the local paper once a week or so. I wanted to subscribe but it required a local debit card which we never bothered to get.
TV/VIDEOS
Our rental house came with TV and wi-fi. We watched the Euro Cup and some tennis on the TV, and occasionally documentaries (with closed captioning on) but our french wasn't good enough to enjoy regular programs much.
My husband was able to hook one of our computers up to the TV so we could watch movies we downloaded. This was wonderful.
We have Amazon and Netflix subscriptions at home, but the movies available in France are more limited. If you have any favorites that the kids watch over and over, buy them in the US before you leave. Anything you already own can be watched in France.
PHONE
We switched to T-mobile because they have free calling if you use WIFI and 20 cents a minute to US if you don't use wifi calling, The call quality was fantastic- I had the best conversations with my 90 year old father from here- more clear than my old phone in US. We have Samsung 6 I think.
Data is a little slow on the regular package (You can upgrade) but it was fine for us.
SHOPPING
At home I rely on Amazon, but I couldn't get a french account (Amazon.fr) with an American credit card. I was able to order from other online sites in France.
Shopping is pretty much the same as the States- I used Auschan as my "Target."
For grocery stores you bring your own bags, and pack them. You can buy bags at the checkout counter if you don't have any or forget. You have to slip a coin into the grocery cart to take it from the cart holder, and when you return it you get it back. Groceries have loyalty programs so ask for a carte de magazin for your keychain.
Grocery shopping is a real pleasure- enjoy it! I'd send my husband on Saturdays as a treat for him :)
We also used bakeries several times a week, for pastries on the weekend, bread at other times. You can also pick up pre-made baguette sandwiches for a picnic.
TRAVEL ADVICE
We bought some eurail passes mainly because kids ride free. While this probably got us traveling more than we would have, I regret buying them because we were tied to train travel and had to pay for reservations on top of the passes to get anywhere from Lille. Instead I would look more to easyjet and Ryan Air. We took Ryan Air to Berlin for less than 200 euro round trip for our whole family. WONDERFUL.
And while I wouldn't bother with a eurail pass, we loved every minute of train travel in France and beyond. 2nd class is just wonderful, not sure why one would bother with first. With reservations on high speed trains we always had a booth for our family (meaning 2 seats facing 2 seats).
My only warning is don't rely on the cafe car being open.
I love love booking.com because I could search for family rooms and specific levels of hotels, look at the map, etc. I am guessing we used it 20 times and never had a problem. Europe seems better than the states at catering to families. We usually were able to get a suite or a 2 bedroom apartment for 125 euro or so. The big exception was Amsterdam which was CRAZY expensive. But fun!
BANK ACCOUNT
Very very difficult. See my other blog, gronertsinfrance.blogspot.fr : "Our village center" and "Update on bank account"
DOCTORS
We used one local doctor for a strep test for my daughter. The cost, including the prescription fro antibiotics, was under 50 euro. I just called the office of a pediatrician I found in the yellow pages (online)who was close to me. I could have tried to use our insurance somewhere but the copay would have been similar to the entire cost!
That's all for now. I'll update this as I think of new things. I would love for readers to add corrections, comments or questions!
