Student residences, apartments, and sharing

Student residences or French families

Living in a student residence or with a French family are far and away the easier options because the school usually arranges everything for you. You can practice your French and see "typical French lifestyle". In most student residences, you usually can't share living spaces with a French student, but you can live in residences that are mixed with foreign and French students.

There are student residences all over Lyon. Some privately managed residences resemble apartments where you have your own kitchen (usually more expensive, but more centrally located), and others managed by the CROUS (a government organisation for student services. Their main location is on rue de Madeleine, near Jean Macé station, they have free internet) that resembles student housing as we understand it in Canada. Check this site: ADELE, for a list of student residences in Lyon and their addresses.

*In France, it is also common for students and young workers to live in foyers for extended periods of time. These places are comparable to a student residence. For foyers in Lyon check this site: L'hébergement temporaire (from Lyon Campus), for a list of youth foyers in Lyon.

I found a housing website (in French) for Les services du PUL (Pôle universitaire de Lyon) that you might want to consult. This site lists a variety of housing services and types, including addresses, common for students.

Living on Your Very Own:

Finding an apartment of your own in France is virtually impossible if you are not a French citizen, are related to a French citizen, or know any French citizens. Most landlords (propriétaires) are quite cautious and quite possibly the biggest problem confronting foreigners is finding an acceptable guarantor. A lease (le bail) is usually for one year and as for the deposit, it is commonly two months of rent. The process of renting an apartment in France is also not spared from document checks.

Apartments

In France, the apartments are listed according to the number of rooms rather than bedrooms. By number of rooms, that usually means bedroom(s) plus common area.

F1/T1: is a studio, although the setup may vary. Usually a studio means that you sleep, cook, eat and watch TV in the same space.
F2/T2: Means a one-bedroom with a bedroom door that closes.
F3/T3: Means a two-bedroom.
I think they only go up to F5/T5 because after that you're probably in mansion territory and will likely have somebody who can think for you, but you get the picture.

*You can also consult this helpful website from Queen's University or this article from Expatica.com, both have explanations of the abbreviations and offer helpful descriptions of the apartment-hunting experience.

Sharing an Apartment

Sharing an apartment or doing un collocation is also common in France. Subletting is not technically legal (but it isn't either in Canada) unless you have the property owner's permission, but it is done often and unless you run into a serious case of bad luck, you won't get into trouble. There are usually ads posted up all over schools from people looking for roommates. You can also check a few websites such as appartager.com (*see my blog "Finding a Roommate in France" from July); the bulletion boards at schoo, and free papers such as ParuVendu.

The minuses of finding your own way:

1) Unless your name is on the lease or the landlord is willing to formally acknowledge that you live there, you do not have right to the CAF (Caisse d’Allocation Familiale) – which is a subsidy from the French government available to all students (and low income families and individuals). Living in student residence, you always get the CAF.
*My friend was able to access the subsidy even though her name wasn't on the lease by having the propriétaire fill out a supplementary form available online.
2) Rent is not that cheap in Lyon and I’ve been told that 300€ per month is really, really good.
3) The school, aside from being there to listen and maybe make some suggestions, cannot help you at all if you run into any problems.