Hit the pavement
If you aren’t required to have a job lined up before you come, you can always wait until you get here and pound the pavement as you would at home! France’s major cities are abound with English, Irish, and Scottish style pubs and bars that are in need of a helping hand during high tourist seasons. The work is often temporary and particularly adapted to those who plan on staying for a relatively short time and looking for some pocket money to supplement their savings. The best way of finding a job is to walk in and ask! It’s best if you manage to come in just before the start of the tourist season and the start of exams, as the work is popular with students once they are on their summer holidays.
Go camping
If you want to get off the beaten track and have a stay in the countryside, try your hand at helping out at a camping site in France. This is particularly ideal if you plan on going into tourism later on. You’ll need to organise yourself before you go, and you can start by doing a search for campsites on campingfrance.com. Cast your net as wide as possible and you’re sure to find something!
Down on the farm
If you want to work out in the sunshine and do something physical with your time but campsites aren’t for you, why not volunteer to work on a farm? There’s more to it than just milking cows and picking fruit and for most of us can open our eyes to a whole new way of life. One popular organiser is WWOOF – WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms. There’s a whole network of participating farms throughout France – have a look!
Get a work placement
This opportunity isn’t limited just to the warm weather, and is for those who want to come as part of an internship or just simply prefer office work. There are too many options for me to talk about them all in this article, but you can get started by checking with on EURES, the European job mobility portal, or if you’re already in France, you can ask at a private employment agency or at the Pôle Emploi. If you’re a student you should also get some information from your university. The major ones will no doubt have links with organisations and companies in France and can be able to help you find something.
1. France has a world-class education system. Students from all over the world have been coming to France for their education since the days when Latin was still the main language of education in Europe. Today, France has some of the top public universities in the world conducting top-class research, and the grandes écoles (the business and engineering schools) give professionally oriented training in specific fields that is second to none. In going to your classes you’ll be soaking up some of the best thinking in the world.
2. Take your network global. France is one of the world centers for foreign students: over 260,000 international students are enrolled in French higher education institutions (11% of all students in France are foreign), and France is home to thousands of foreign businesses, particularly in Paris. In France you’ll have the opportunity to connect with others from around the world, giving you huge travel, professional, and cultural opportunities.
3. France has an excellent student life. Paris, Rennes, Nantes, Lille, and Bordeaux are each major cities that have a large student population, with a large and varied lifestyle. While you’ll be spoilt for choice when looking for a bar, café, or nightclub to pass the time with your friends, each city offers a unique cultural experience that will broaden your horizons during the day.
4. Traveling is super-easy. France has an excellent rail and airway system that will whisk you to wherever you want: The TGV or high speed rail system radiates out from Paris and rarely takes more than three hours for most journeys within France, and then all over Europe, and its two main airports serve destinations all around the world.
5. You’ll never eat so good. France is known for its cuisine, and French food doesn’t mean tiny portions that cost a lot. Real French cuisine is rich in dairy, meat, and vegetables that are bought at the market. And in case French food isn’t your thing, successive waves of immigration have brought their own culinary traditions, so if you get a craving of Chinese, chances are you’ll find a Chinese restaurant near you.
6. Tuition is cheap cheap cheap, and the courses are shorter. Just in case one year abroad isn’t enough for you, you can sign up and study for an actual French licence (aka bachelor’s). It only takes three years and tuition averages around 300€ per year. So work hard at your French, and you could save yourself some serious cash.
7. Become fluent in French. Let’s face it, the best way to improve your French is to hop a plane and speak it with the natives. After six months of speaking French with your classmates, friends, and neighbors, you’ll be amazed at how you well can speak it. And for those days when you’re homesick and need some English (or German, or Chinese), chances are there’s someone around from your home country that you can talk to.
France offers endless opportunities for you to make the most of your study abroad in the way you want to: big cities, little villages nestled in mountains, towns that sprawl on the beach. However you want to spend your time here, it’s available in France: theatre, cinema, sports, museums, travels are all over in France.
Have you or are you already studying in France? What were your reasons for coming, and what did you enjoy most? Let us know in the comments.