Housing in Paris

Housing was a very big concern to me when choosing which program to study abroad through. With CEA, I had 4 options: apartment with other Americans in your specific program, home stay, dorms in an all American building, or dorms mixed in with French students. In part of the preparation work for CEA I had to rank where I wanted to live and also take quizzes to match roommates together- my roommates and I became extremely close and I still talk to them today! Possibly due to the personality quizzes? Maybe. Anyways, I ended up in an apartment with 3 other girls in my program in a building that had 2 other apartments with people from my program. My apartment a very different living situation than I had ever lived in before, but I ended up loving it. It was a duplex, and my bedroom was a loft shared with one other girl. CEA provided pretty much everything we needed: couches, table, chairs, bookshelf, and all the kitchen utensils (first one they checked for was a wine opener, only in France). I was on the fourth floor and luckily there was a elevator for use for the days we had luggage. I really liked the locations with CEA, all the housing was located in the heart of the city, meaning that no one lived in the suburbs of Paris. This was a huge bonus because everything was so easy to get to. My apartment specifically was located in the 13th arrondisment (district) of Paris, close to the boarder of the 5th. I was able to walk to huge landmarks like Notre Dame in about 20-25 minutes. Also, my apartment builing was with all Parisians, which gave us a chance to get to know our neighbors, most were adults or small families, and create more French friendships.
Another big question with housing in linens, to bring or not to. I would recommend to bring your own, you can probably find information from your program or other alumni what kind of bed to expect. For me, a bed, a duvet, and a pillow were provided. I brought my own sheets and pillow case and bought a duvet cover once I arrived.
Heres a couple pictures of my apartment when I first arrived!

Thats all for now!
A Bientot!

Kelsey