Today we spent the morning looking at a couple of houses. We’ve been doing this for over a month now. We’ve found a couple serious contenders but we haven’t made up our mind about where we want to live and how much we want to pay. We’re looking at two main areas: Saint Germain-en-Laye and Chaville. Both are near schools with a bilingual curriculum (French & English). The one in Saint Germain is more selective and very difficult. The other school is in Sèvres, and it seems to be pretty good. Houses in Saint Germain are “affordable” (I use that term loosely, what I should say is “more affordable” because nothing near Paris is really affordable) and they’re newer, but it’s farther away from Paris and the buses stop after 10pm. Houses in Sèvres are outrageously expensive, so Chaville is the city next door.
What it’s coming down to is a very nice house about 20 years old in Saint Germain, 145m2 for 600k Euros ($800k USD) or a 50 year old house 100m2 for the same price in Chaville. That’s a big trade off to be closer to Paris with better public transportation. Saint Germain is, as a result of the international school, very international with people from all over the world. Sèvres & Chaville are for the most part mostly French where people are not as sociable and most people don’t even know their neighbors.
So here’s what happened today to give you an idea of how it is going. This week my wife found a new listing on the De Particulier à Particulier (litterally “from private to private”, it means basically “for sale by owner”). She made an appointment for 10am this morning. The owner was very nice, did an excellent job of presenting his house and describing it. Before we left, another couple arrived for the next appointment. After seeing the house, we drove to a real estate agency that we saw and discussed our options with the agency. He had a house to show us just a couple minutes walk away. Nice presentation, no pressure. I like that. We preferred the first house, and are trying to decide between this Saint Germain vs. Chaville thing. We can always go one more city away from Sèvres where it would be a little cheaper, but just a little farther from the school, work, Paris, etc.
So that’s our current situation. If you want to follow along, follow the home buying tag.
I would think the house in Saint Germain would be the only choice – because of the “international” aspect. You don’t want your children to grow up only knowing the French side of life, especially if you plan on a lot of travel with the kids and if you plan on your kids going to the international schools. Wouldn’t you want your neighbors and the kids friends to be international too? I would think it would make for a more rounded kid in the long run. Also, consider the house itself, is this a house you & your family can live in for the next 20-30 years and be happy? Once you’re in the house, can you afford the upkeep an older home requires?