Flying the nest and arriving in Paris

Bonapart client from Alberta, Canada, Heather Cutknife and her mom Alison posing in her new Paris apartment - a view of the Tour Eiffel no less.

It is a very busy time of year for me, August is never a month to relax at Bonapart. We have a significant younger clientele as originally the company worked to assist those from overseas arrange their accomodation in Paris in advance of their arrival. This was mainly because when I moved here, it was such a hassle I couldn't believe the service didn't exist - eh voila, Bonapart was born. Later we expanded to assist buyers purchase property but I must admit I love this time of year working with young people arriving in paris for the first time to embark on their first adventures.

We've developed a package to assist young people to get up and running with the minimum of hassle and get on with the important business of starting their new jobs or courses without wasting time and energy. As we have worked in conjunction with schools admissions offices for many years we have clients each year from Parson's School of Design (a personal fave of mine), the American University and the numerous MBA schools.

This means that August and La Rentrée for us means helping new arrivals choose a great apartment (often those we have assisted owners in purchasing - so of course they are great!) but as well as this there are many other things to consider..........

Helping select an apartment before they arrive is just one thing, support on getting to it from the airport, connecting to the internet, purchasing a mobile phone (and learning how to pick up messages, yes, surprise surprise the automated voice speaks French!) all takes careful explanation - not always easy to absorb after sleepily arriving direct from a transatlantic flight.

To save time, we now put together a bag of goodies for new arrivals: a mobile phone, "Plan de Paris" (city map) and a Carte Orange for the metro (monthly travel card).

More boringly but essentially we also organise the obligatory tenant's "multirisque" insurance. Without a bank account (hey we also set this up on the first day - not bad going if you know the usual delays here in France for this........), no means to pay by local cheque (not everyone accepts credit cards here, strange but true), speaking not a word of French and not really understanding the why's and wherefores of the law, I can only guess at how horrible this is to deal with alone.

Many students arrive with family in tow hoping to take a holiday at the same time. Sadly they often spend the precious time anxiously racing through Paris on the metro trying to track down their child's accomodation and feeling worried because they don't really know the layout of the city and the areas to avoid (there are a few....) or how the transport to school or work will be. It's no fun and usually in October we have Les Miserables coming to us to move from the apartment they'd booked up for a year after realising it wasn't at all convenient or reasonably priced.

All can be taken care of in advance of arrival (including financial logistics which can be a little longwinded involving international bank transfers and the like). Therefore during the vist the family can enjoy shopping for knick knacks to make the apartment homely, accompany the kids to buy essential supplies, do some sightseeing and relax in the knowledge that their son or daughter is safe and about to have a really great stay in Paris.

Note for apartment owners: Students are great tenants. Just take a good deposit, two month's is the norm, and touch wood, we've never had any Led Zeppelin style antics from any of them. In fact they've been model tenants and this is why so many owners who have apartments on our database come back to us year after year.