Moving to Toulouse

asianakasha,

My wife and I moved to Toulouse two weeks ago. We are in an intensive two week course at Langue Onze in Toulouse right now and would recommend the school. We moved from NYC and are enjoying the small town feel here. We stayed in centre ville (Rue du Taur) our first week here and decided we didn't want to live hyper-center and increased our search radius. The noise was too much for us.

We don't have work permits so can't really comment on that point. I think your husband's level of comfort will be directly proportional to his ability to communicate. He can't learn too much French before he gets here. He has you but he's not going to want to rely on you for everything.

$550-600 is quite low for centre ville, especially of you want furnished. We found what we thought was a real deal near St Michel (Busca) for $675 (I'm not sure how to make the Euro symbol!). Feel free to contact me if you have more  questions.

Neal

Link on finding jobs: https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 31#1582100

asianakasha wrote:

Hi Everyone!

My husband and I are planning to move to Toulouse, in the South of France during the months of August and September. I am French but my husband has spent his whole life in Southern California. He is really apprehensive about the move: when will he be able to work, how is he going to feel over there. And what about the French language classes?
We are also looking for an apartment type T1 bis or a T2 in the center of the city for €550/€600 max. Has anyone already experienced the same type of move?

Thank you so much for your answers. 

Hello!

Concerning the right to work, when you guys apply for a visa to accompany you, it's going to depend on a couple of things. Have you already registered your marriage in France? Because generally, you're going to need a livret de famille and other marriage paperwork from the French consulate of your area in the US.

Generally, if all those things are in order, I believe that a spouse should already have the right to work. It's hard for me to say for certain, as I came over on a long term visa, got married to my French spouse, and then we turned my visa into a carte de séjour. In any case, you guys are going to have to get your spouse an appointment at your local French consulate so that you can get your papers in order. Since you mentioned Southern California, I'm going to assume that your consulate would be in Los Angeles:

http://www.consulfrance-losangeles.org/ … article800

During his first or second visit to l'OFII, they will already determine if your spouse needs French classes. If they determine he does, then he will have a certain number of hours that he has to do. Those classes will be free. He is of course, free to take other FLE classes afterwards if he wants to improve his French even further.

Gotta be honest with you though - until his French is of a certain caliber, finding a job is going to be nigh on impossible. Unemployment is still relatively high in France, and no employer is going to take the risk of hiring a foreign employee (even if he has the right to work), if communication will be a burden.

Concerning the apartment, I have to agree with the other person who responded - finding an apartment at that price in the center of Toulouse is not going to be easy/ almost impossible. I do not live in Toulouse, but my husband and I go there regularly, as his family lives there. When we first arrived, we spent our first month in an absolutely miniscule furnished apartment (about 20 sq. meters), where the bathroom didn't even have a real door (the space was too small), and we spent about 100€ for that. Granted, that was the hyper center, we were about about a block or two away from Capitole, but that gives you an idea.

How he feels there depends mostly on what you guys do typically where you live now, and what you plan/hope to do. Do you already have friends/family who live there? Do you know people who speak English there? Because until he gets a sufficient level of French, it can feel very isolating. At leas the good thing with the classes he will have to take, is that he can meet other French-learners who are in a similar situation to them. There are a fair number of Anglophones who live in Toulouse, but it's also important not to surround yourself with only other English speakers, otherwise your husband will have a hard time getting into speaking French.

Sorry if what I said seems a bit harsh - it really isn't meant to be. I wish you both the best of luck. Don't hesitate in contacting me - like I said, my husband and I go down to Toulouse on a regular basis, and we know what it's like!