Moving to Essonne region - Advice

[nikki cranley]

Hey, salut,
I will be moving to the Essonne region in October to start a new job.
Can anyone advise of towns to look for accommodation and good sites to search.

I was looking at Massy mainly because of the train serices. But there's also Palaiseau...

Is it a nice town? boring? interesting? good social scene?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Merci en avance...
Nikki

[Bevdeforges]

Where are you going to be working/studying? And what sort of accommodation are you looking for?

Massy and Palaiseau are "busy" towns (Palaiseau is a sous-prefecture) and are popular with students, probably precisely because of the access to the RERs running in and out of Paris.

Going out a bit farther, there is Saclay, where many labs and research centers are located. Not much in the town itself in terms of social scene, but you're in an area with loads of other "scientific types". Orsay is home to the university (one of the many branches of the Paris University) and again, a pretty heavy student scene, which includes post-doc students and their families.

Housing tends to be a bit expensive - not quite as bad as in Paris, but not a whole lot cheaper. The big advantage is the variety available - including free standing houses with small gardens, if such thing interests you.

The Bures-Gif-Orsay area (those are three towns) has a large and very active AVF (Accueil des Villes Françaises) group for meeting people, and all three of the member towns have a pretty active calendar of concerts, spectacles and other town-sponsored events and associations. You can learn quite a bit about the towns by searching out their websites, though right now we're in the midst of the summer doldrums - not much of anything going on anywhere until early September.
Cheers,
Bev

[nikki cranley]

Thanks for that Bev.

Ill be working in Les Ulis.
I like to cycle and run a lot so I am open to anywhere within a 10-15km radius of Les Ulis so that I can run/cycle to work.

Im looking just for a small apartment/studio type place (actually I dont really care what type of place it is, as long as its furnished) but preferably in a town with a good social scene as it will be easier to meet people and get involved in various groups/sports clubs etc. Also having an RER stop nearby means that I can get to/from the airport easily enough as I will be travelling a fair bit.

How did you find the move? Any advice?

Nikki

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

Where are you going to be working/studying? And what sort of accommodation are you looking for?

Massy and Palaiseau are "busy" towns (Palaiseau is a sous-prefecture) and are popular with students, probably precisely because of the access to the RERs running in and out of Paris.

Going out a bit farther, there is Saclay, where many labs and research centers are located. Not much in the town itself in terms of social scene, but you're in an area with loads of other "scientific types". Orsay is home to the university (one of the many branches of the Paris University) and again, a pretty heavy student scene, which includes post-doc students and their families.

Housing tends to be a bit expensive - not quite as bad as in Paris, but not a whole lot cheaper. The big advantage is the variety available - including free standing houses with small gardens, if such thing interests you.

The Bures-Gif-Orsay area (those are three towns) has a large and very active AVF (Accueil des Villes Françaises) group for meeting people, and all three of the member towns have a pretty active calendar of concerts, spectacles and other town-sponsored events and associations. You can learn quite a bit about the towns by searching out their websites, though right now we're in the midst of the summer doldrums - not much of anything going on anywhere until early September.
Cheers,
Bev

[Bevdeforges]

If you're going to be in Les Ulis, you may want to check Bures-sur-Yvette, which is right next door (and has an RER stop) or Gometz la Ville, which is in easy biking distance to Les Ulis.

A furnished flat is going to be tough to find, because of the way the laws work here on residential leases. Furnished places are treated like hotels or vacation rentals and this part of Paris really isn't too high on anyone's vacation spots list. There may be some furnished places available for the students and researchers, but they're generally small and designed for temporary accommodation.

Where are you moving from? I'm not exactly in the area, though I'm pretty active in the AVF in Bures Gif Orsay. And I moved here almost 20 years ago to move in with my (now) husband. Things have changed quite a bit in the area since my arrival.
Cheers,
Bev

[maartenvd]

Originally Posted by nikki cranley

Hey, salut,
I will be moving to the Essonne region in October to start a new job.
Can anyone advise of towns to look for accommodation and good sites to search.

For sites to look at, seloger.com was quite good when we moved about a year ago. The catch is that the listings usually don't indicate clearly where exactly the place is; when there's an address attached you can see on a map it's often the address of the rental agency.

As you can see if you look at the area on the satellite view of Google Maps, Orsay/Les Ulis is about where the urban sprawl starts to break up and mix with the countryside. If you go west a bit, you can live in smaller, greener towns and it gets a bit hilly; if you go NE a bit back up the RER B line (which you can see overlaid on the map if you click on one of the stations) you can be in Paris' suburban sprawl.