Insurance

In addition to all the other annoying things one must do to procure a visa (reviewed by Maggie in an earlier post), there is the curious hurdle of proving insurance coverage. Quoth the Boston French Consulate website:

Makes sense - they have universal coverage in France, and want to make sure you're not taking advantage of their system by coming over without health care. And lots of companies specialize in insuring travelers, plus your regular insurer probably has a provision for overseas or "out of network" travel.

Problem: Most insurance companies do not cover "repatriation expenses" as part of your regular plan. So, in addition to your normal American health insurance, in most cases you would have to pick up traveler's insurance. Luckily there are tons of companies who can provide Medevac services - for a few hundred dollars, of course. I used www.insuremytrip.com to get quotes from a number of travel insurers, and prices ranged from $250 to $655 per person for a 9-month stint. Bummer!

Maggie and I are lucky in that, for the most part, we will be able to avoid this extra expense. As a student, Maggie's health insurance will come from the French government. (Thanks, Nanny State!) She may need to show that her current health insurance extends through the first month we'll be in Paris (before her classes start), and that may involve picking up Medevac insurance just for that month (which should be relatively inexpensive - around $150). I'll continue to pay for my Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts insurance because I'll need it when we return, and I'll avoid picking up Medevac insurance by relying on Harvard's affiliation with International SOS. ISOS is an emergency medical services provider that is free to Harvard (and many other schools') affiliates:

Summary of Harvard’s International SOS Benefits

Medical Assistance Services

·       24-hour access to I-SOS physicians who provide emergency and routine medical advice

·       24-hour access to I-SOS Alarm Centers for medical information, referrals and emergency assistance

·       Medical and dental referrals

·       Emergency medical evacuation

·       Medically supervised repatriation

·       Medical expenses guarantee and payment*

·       Arrangement of ground transportation and accommodation for accompanying family members*

·       Assistance with documentation for insurance claims

·       Dispatch of prescription medication and medical equipment*

Asterisks mean that ISOS will pay upfront, but ultimately must be reimbursed. Still, it's an amazing deal. If you're a student, staff, or faculty at any academic institution, check to see if they work with ISOS - it could save you money, and (in booming, dramatic radio announcer's voice) IT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!!!

Fantastic Friends

You may not think that this post is related to our upcoming trip to Paris, but it is! Read on to learn more...

My dear friend from high school, Margaret Stutt, is now the leading lady and brains/heart/soul behind the smash sensation Pezzettino. I have been listening to her bring the funk via accordion, xylophone, and vocals for the past few months through YouTube and Myspace. And now I am so happy to report that I will get to hear her live THIS SATURDAY at Cafe 929 at Berklee College of Music. [From their website: Static of the Gods, The Hollow Sound, Pezzettino. A Ryan's Smashing Life live show delivers remarkable music talent, straight from the celebrated music blog's digital pages to New England's finest live stages. This tradition of music exploration continues tonight at the Cafe 939 with three outstanding acts that promise to thoroughly entertain, reigniting your passion for exciting new music!] 

Whoo hoo!

Pezzettino has a page on Facebook, can be followed on Twitter, and watched/heard on YouTube. Margaret seems to be a master of using social media to stay in touch with fans and find new ones. In my opinion, you should definitely become a fan - you won't regret it!

In fact, once you are done reading this you should go to the event page for her upcoming Boston show and RSVP that you'll be attending! Don't live in Boston? Check out her other tour dates at her Myspace page, and enjoy the sweet (and sometimes sizzling) sounds of this not-to-be missed talent.

Photo by Kevin Groen

Sooo... what does this have to do with Paris, you ask? Well, Margaret and I took French together in high school and one time she stabbed me in the hand with a pencil (she claims it was an accident). I still have the scar today. Ok - that's not really a connection to Paris, but I wanted to be sure that this story was aired before Margaret gets really famous.

BnF

Warning: This post may be boring for those of you who don't get excited by rows upon rows of gleaming, esoteric books.

That's right: The BnF, or Bibliotheque nationale de France, located in Paris, is the national library of France. (Find it on our map.) I'll be spending a ton of time here, both at the pictured Site Francois Mitterand (aka Tolbiac), and at the Departement de la Musique, at 2 Rue Louvois, on the Right Bank. At both locations, I'll be sifting through boxes of unpublished correspondence, personal memoirs, financial records, musical sketches, party invitations, concert programs, and all kinds of other primary source documents from the Interwar years. 

As a foreign academic, I can only gain access to the Rez-de-Jardin (bottom level of the main branch, which is devoted to research) by presenting my passport and a letter of introduction at the Richelieu branch (also on the Right Bank). There, I'll sign up for a year membership (normally 35 euros, but 18 with a student ID). Once at the BnF site Francois Mitterand, I'll surrender most of my belongings at a vestiary and descend into the wondrous depths:

What it looks like inside (I may have taken this picture illegally)

A view of the below-ground-level garden (name-sake of the "Rez-de-jardin," or "garden level")

Here's the floor plan of the Rez-de-Jardin; each letter marks a different subject.

I've already done some research here, and it's a good thing, since initially it took me a few days to figure out how everything works. First I didn't bring my passport to the membership office; then I couldn't figure out how to request books; I also wasted time reading things I could have accessed just as easily in the States. This time around, I'll be better prepared!

Photo break

Because there aren't enough pictures of Panda on this blog...

Flip Side

Sure, we need to find an apartment in Paris - but we also need to find a subletter for our room while we're away. To that end, we've finally gotten around to taking some pictures and posting an ad on Craigslist. Check it out! Tell your friends!

(Maggie brought this bedspread back from China!)

Visas!

Oh boy... here we go. We've heard horror stories about applying for visas to stay in France longer than three months. This informative post should help us sail through the process, right? The following information was obtained by reading the French Consulate of Boston website.

First, to apply for a visa, we must bring an original and a copy of all the necessary documents. They won't make us photocopies. Visas cost money. We must pay in advance. If they decide not to give us our visas, absolutely no refund will be granted. How much does a long stay visa cost? 99 Euros. What is a long stay visa? The long stay visa allows one to stay in France for more than 3 months, for example to study, work, retire, etc.

OK - now: more details from the visas section of their website

Processing time for a long stay visa is about 2 months (except long stay student visas for American citizens: the visa is generally issued in 3 working days). [So fast! We'll see about that...]

Personal appearance is the basic rule and is required. [When I first read this, I thought it meant we needed to dress up. Anyway, we are lucky that we live so close to the Consulate - it's right down the road in Boston!)]

IMPORTANT REMARKS: The Consular Administration has full authority to request additional documents than those submitted by the applicant. Note that the visa does not in itself grant you the right to enter a French territory. It is necessary that you carry the original documents used to obtain the visa with you at all times. Border authorities may request that you show them upon entry to France. [I think this is intended to scare us. What other documents might they possibly request?]

Beginning April 1st, 2009, all visa applicants will be required to obtain an appointment on-line to apply for a visa at the Consulate General of France in Boston. [Ok... they're moving into the 21st century here!]

ATTENTION: Since March 1, 2007, you MUST enroll with CampusFrance in order to obtain a temporary long stay visa or a long stay student visa. Visit www.usa.campusfrance.org to learn more and register. [Really? Um, ok. Just tried... my browser is not compatible. Bah.]

For stays of more than six months: you have to apply for a long stay visa by filling out 2 long stay application forms. Long stay application forms being in French, you can download an explanation in English. 

With a long stay visa, you will have to apply, as soon as you arrive in France, for a residency card ("carte de séjour") with the French prefecture which has jurisdiction over the place where you will be studying.  [Basically, we must bring more forms with us in order to fill out more forms.]

Necessary forms (for Maggie, at least): 

• A passport valid at least six months upon arrival in France (+ 1 copy of pages containing birth date, photo, and expiration date). Please make sure a blank page remains in your passport for the visa stamp.
• 2 long stay application forms filled out in black. Please do not forget to write your phone number and e-mail address.
• 3 photographs [something about the image they send you to for more information is creepy...]

The photo must be a recent head shot, in color and on a white background. 

• A proof of residency or of studies in one of the following states: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont [Any ideas of what might serve as sufficient proof of residency?]
• Letter of admission from a French school/University (+ 1 copy) [Luckily, I have one of these in hand and another on the way]
• Letter from your university in the US stating that you are currently registered there as a student (+ 1 copy) [Now, if I'm not currently a student, will they still require this form?]
• Proof of sufficient funds: Copy of parents’ bank statement or copy of student’s bank statement [I wish I could tap into my parents' bank accounts for this trip...]
• Processing fees: by credit card (Visa, MasterCard) or cash

Phew! Anyone with experience navigating this process is welcome to leave further feedback. As for me, I'm going to go to bed - thinking about all this paperwork leaves me feeling sleepy!

Finding Apartments II - Craigslist Scams

I'm a big fan of Craigslist - I've bought a bike, a bookshelf, and a rain barrel through it; I've also found piano students through it. But so far it's been terrible for finding an apartment in Paris. Out of seven emails I've sent, five or six have come back as probable scams. How do I know they're scams? I don't, really. But the below apartment should not be listed at 800 euro, and the owner should probably be in town if he really wants to rent me the place.

More interesting is the pattern that I've noticed in emails I've received back from inquiries. Check out this one, which is downright scary:

Some of this information seems relevant to someone renting their apartment, but address? religion? how many months can you pay upfront? Seriously???

The pattern becomes even more obvious with this next email:

Now, Maggie and I don't want anyone accusing us of being anti-West African missionaries. But surely you'll agree that there's something fishy about all of these appartements chouettes that are surprisingly cheap being rented out by people who 1) can't be around to show you the place, 2) have recently moved to West Africa, and 3) don't care when you move in/represent the apartment as always available.

In conclusion:

1. If the price is too good to be true, it's probably not true.
2. Stick to French-language sites (like pap.fr or fusac.org).
3. NEVER agree to send a deposit without having had someone see the apartment for you.
4. Consider finding your place through an agency (which will charge a fee), which saves you the trouble of figuring out which ads are scams and which are legitimate.

Finding Apartments I - Useful Websites

In our search for an apartment, we're getting lots of helpful tips on where to look. Here are a number of websites that we're using:

http://paris.en.craigslist.org/apa/- I'll post more on Craigslist later, since so far we've seen nothing but scams. But supposedly it's possible to find a real apartment on it, so we'll see.

fusac.org - an expat website (stands for France USA Contacts) and extension of a print magazine that offers classifieds in all sorts of categories. Kind of an old-school Craigslist.

pap.fr - "Particuliers a particuliers" - as far as I can tell, this is a "rent by owner" website that helps you avoid paying the agency fees that come with a lot of Parisian rentals.

http://www.h-france.net/housingdigest.html - This is an academic listserve that sends out housing offers once a week.

sabbaticalhomes.com - that's right: people on sabbatical needing a home, and people on sabbatical leaving a home. All academia, all the time!

http://paris.kijiji.fr/  - no idea. yet.

www.leboncoin.fr - no idea. yet.

http://www.seloger.com/ - a general French apartments site. 

I'll make sure to update this list as we learn of new websites and as we explore the ones listed here more thoroughly. Also, look for another post very soon on the dangers of Craigslist ads. 

Couchsurfing!

A somewhat-Paris-related topic I'm going to address is Couchsurfing - a website that connects travelers with people willing to host for one, two, or many nights! Hosts and hostees leave references on each others' profiles, thereby letting the community know who is a reputable surfer. Details of each hosting agreement are worked out between the two parties, and the spirit of the game is flexibility, cultural exchange, and fun! Louis and I have surfed in Germany and hosted in Somerville. We've met people from all over the world and have had very pleasant traveling and hosting experiences. In fact, I would say that I have been more comfortable staying with Couchsurfing hosts than at hotels/hostels.

This past weekend we hosted Melanie and Bianca, currently living in Venice, Italy, originally from Montreal and D.C., respectively. They only stayed one night but we enjoyed dinner, conversation, and ice cream with them. In addition to lively stories, they brought mints, truffle oil, and balsamic jelly from Italia! Whoo hoo!

Here they are, with Joey:

We likely will not officially host Couchsurfers in Paris, but we WILL be hosting many friends and family throughout our time there. Can't wait!

Banking

Spending time in France is great. The food is tasty, people are friendly, public transportation is efficient, yada yada yada. But spending time in France without a French bank account is not great. You get charged to use your credit card (unless you have a fee-free card), you get charged at ATMS for withdrawing money from your American bank account, and you can't use self-service machines at train stations or Velib pick-up spots because American debit cards (carte bancaire en francais) don't have the puce, a little security strip that validates the card user's identity.

The puce is the gold-colored square on the left, above the numbers 4970. Damn you, puce.

This time around, we're finally going to take the plunge and open a French bank account. After a spot of research, here's what we apparently need:

1. A carte de sejour (residence card), which establishes that we'll be in the country more than three months.
   
2. Proof of French address (utility bill, rental agreement)
3. Proof of earnings or status (student card or pay stub)
4. A letter from my American bank stating how long I've had an account with them and confirming the good standing of my account.

Doesn't sound too bad, right? (Actually, the carte de sejour is going to be a pain to get, according to various sources.) Now we just have to pick which bank to open our account with . . .

One of my favorite things

Yesterday, Louis mentioned Velib', Paris' extra-awesome bike-sharing program. Today, I'm going to show/tell you more about it!

This is a photo (above) of a Velib' pick-up/drop-off area at night. This picture was taken just as Paris was rolling out the bike sharing system (15 July 2007, according to Wikipedia). Clearly, the program was a huge success - at this station, ALL the bikes were out and about.

Because we were visiting Paris just as the bikes were being let loose, we often saw trucks full of eager bikes heading to all corners of the city. 

Velib' has certainly caught the attention of folks in other major cities around the world. Just after the launch, Agnes Poirier of The Guardian (UK) mused: "What the philosopher Roland Barthes described as the true epic dimension of cycling can now be experienced by millions of ordinary citizens living in the same city. Setting a different pace of living, these riders create a new harmony, smoothing the rough edges of modernity, taming the flow of the polluting cars around them."

I'm not sure that Parisian drivers can be tamed by anything, but I'm looking forward to riding the streets of Paris on my very own shared bike. 

Dogs of Paris

A lot of people have expressed interest in the logistics of bringing Panda to Paris, and I, too, am interested in how that works. Maggie?

Seriously though, getting her there shouldn't be a big deal. No quarantine is required, and while most airlines have a rule about not flying dogs in checked baggage when the temperature is above 85, you can always pay a little more to fly the dog in cargo, which (I think?) is air-conditioned.

Once we get there, my impression is that Paris is an extremely dog-friendly city. We should be able to bring her into most stores, many restaurants, pretty much all cafes, you get the idea. And if Panda's Somerville popularity is any indication, she should be a great conversation starter with random people on the street. (I get stopped at least three times a day by people who want to know what breed she is, how old she is, whether their child can pet her . . . )

We're confident that we won't have any trouble getting her there. We're less confident (or maybe just more ignorant) about the logistics of dog-owning in Paris. Do they carry the brand of dog food she's used to? How much do kennels or dog-walkers cost? We already know we can't bring her on the metro or any other trains, which is a huge bummer. Will Panda's walky-dog attachment fit onto the Velib bikes?

Stay tuned to find out . . .

Frustration

If you've ever had to deal with French bureaucracy, you will know my frustration over the past week.

In order to reside in France legally for 9 months, I will need to obtain a long stay visa. One way to do this is to sign up for classes in order to get a "student" visa. However, this is not as easy as it sounds. 

First, I pre-registered for French classes at the Sorbonne. But it isn't really the Sorbonne. I would explain, but I don't really understand myself. 

I know deep down that these French classes will cost more money than I should have to spend in order to be a student in Paris. French university costs are very low... so I just need to figure out a way to enroll at an actual French university. Campus France supposedly has the information I need, but I can't begin to describe the absurdity of their website. Check it out for yourself! Help!

Favorite Things

For the first in a series of "these are a few of my favorite Parisian things"-themed entries, I'm focusing on cuisine.

The BEST tea parlor (salon de thé) in all of Paris is Ladurée, family-owned and operated from 1862 to 1993. Hélène and Clément introduced the place to me in 2006, and I brought Maggie there in 2007. And if you come visit us, we'll bring you there in 2009-2010! 

Here's my journal description from 2007: 

"La Durée Salon de thé is one of the oldest and most reputable of its ilk in Paris. They offer not only a wide and excellent selecton of both cold and hot drinks; their desserts are legendary. Maggie and I both ordered Réligieuses - her violet, me chocolat. Based on empirical observations while trying to make the delectability last as long as possible, I can tell you the following: A réligieuse is a pastry where soft dough encloses not ice cream but just cold cream - it's so much creamier than ice cream. Coating the pastry's outsides is more of that flavor in icing form. A smaller pastry is stacked on top of the bottom one, but its composition is pareil [the same]. Pictures may help.

We almost expired from extreme culinary pleasure, these réligieuses were so good. Wondering about the name, our conclusion was that eating these pastries constitutes a religious experience: ecstasy in the original sense."

Here's a link to their website - I've only ever been to the Left Bank (21 rue Bonaparte) location, which is apparently the newest one, even though it looks old. Along with Berthillon Glace, this is my favorite dessert source anywhere. So tasty!

So proper!

So, so good.

Netflix in France

Today I researched a French version of Netflix, and it turns out there is one, called glowria. While perhaps not the most important element of our year in Paris, I think it will be a nice way to get our fill of American movies and tv shows while we're there. Glowria works just like Netflix and appears to be comparably priced.

1. I choose my DVDs at glowria.fr

2. The DVDs arrive in my mailbox within 24 to 48 hours 

3. I watch them whenever

4. I return my DVDs and I receive the next ones

Easy as pie!

Throw a dart, find an apartment

A lot of people have been asking us if we know yet where we're going to live next year.

The short answer is, no. 

The longer answer is, we have some leads, and in a few weeks we'll start emailing friends in the hopes of getting some new leads. 

In the meantime, here's a map of Paris. Where do you think we should live?

View Larger Map

Swimming pools!

I know I'm supposed to wait until tomorrow to post, but this article just got me so excited! Pools in Paris!

http://globespotters.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/taking-the-plunge-pools-in-paris/

To Do

Maggie and I have decided that we're going to try to post something new every day - taking turns, of course. So I'm going to get us started with a to-do list, which will probably inspire a bunch more posts.

To do: 

Get long-stay visa

Arrange health insurance

Find a place to live (ideally 1 bedroom, not a studio)

Find subletter

Make monthly budget

Contact French scholars

Email French friends/family

Find/take a picture to headline this blog

Figure out Panda's travel arrangements

Book flight(s)

Find other useful Americans-in-Paris blogs; steal their ideas

Sign up for classes

Ok, that's a start. Wish us luck!