France

[danaeris]

So, I'm interested in doing the Europe thing.

My idea is to find some kind of part time job being a nanny or English teacher somewhere in France.

This way, I could
(1) Brush up on my French through immersion
(2) On weekends, visit other places in Europe

I'm looking for advice on buying flights to France... are any of the airports more, or less affordable?
I'm also looking for advice on traveling Europe, and on finding work.

All of the tickets I see on first glance look to be in the $1000 USD range... We'll have to see if I can swing that by this summer. Doing this in between this job and going back to school would make a lot of sense, which means this summer.

Comments

[gerardp.livejournal.com]

Just a bunch of wild-ass ideas ...

-- maybe you can try to find some English-language writing work (in science or technology) in Paris, or other nearby places in Europe
-- maybe you can get some writing work in other forms of writing (other than science/technology) such as travel or food or something

What an exciting idea! ... moving to Europe ... Good luck and keep us updated ...

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

Yes, I figure that I just need some kind of base income, because I will be able to do freelance writing to supplement that.

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

Oh, and to clarify... I'd only be there for the summer, not permanently.

[karenbynight.livejournal.com]

I find that european travel is always more expensive than I think it will be. I expect that living in europe is much the same. Among other things, knowing how to live cheap -- knowing, for example, which stores are inexpensive -- is a significant life skill that it will take a while to pick up.

OTOH, I'd be surprised if you couldn't find plane tickets less expensive than that. I can get SFO-London tickets for $410 USD.

[furious-g.livejournal.com]

I would love to do that before school starts. Have fun ! :)

A friend of mine actually took a birth on a cargo ship from Halifax. Was very much cheaper than flying over, just takes more time. A number of ships actually have rental cabins for this purpose.

Might be an idea of you have the time and budget is tight.

[90pointmetaphor.livejournal.com]

Try looking at flights with Condor or Air Transat - they're both discount airlines that do transatlantic flights. It's also worth considering flights to nearby countries (cities like Frankfurt or London) and taking a train (or even a Europe-only discount airline) to France from there. Deutsche Bahn is generally the easiest site for train schedules.

[solestria.livejournal.com]

Hello, I got sent your direction by hellsop since I spent a year in Switzerland as an au pair.

I went through orbitz.com for my tickets to Europe (I flew into Zurich) for about $600 one-way; I spent more money doing one-ways, when I should have done a round-trip ticket and paid whatever more it costs for a flexible return. I used discountfares.com for my ticket back.

If you're flying over to work, your employer may be required (or at least willing) to pay part of your airfare; Swiss families employing au pairs are required to pay half the travel costs. Look into the requirements both for yourself and for a potential host family for France (and also, don't forget that part of Switzerland speaks French as well).

As to finding au pair work, I found my family online through eaupair.com. I also recommend greataupair.com and aupair-world.net. Great Aupair also has some really useful information on the proceedures of the country where you want to work. I know France has TONS of paperwork involved with anything, including the hiring of an au pair. The families willing to hire someone without a working visa are generally not worth working for.

Also check out aupair.

As you might have guessed, I'm quite happy to answer questions if you have them, so if you want to talk to someone who's done this, feel free to contact me. My contact info is on my userinfo page.

[lastmx.livejournal.com]

Go for it, although an EU passport would really help.