Moving to Paris

[meta]

Hell yeaI am a designer who went to UCLA, and I going to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in Sept 2008. I am taking a year to move to Paris to learn French and travel through the big design centers of Europe. I was wondering if anyone has any advice from experiences living there, studying abroad, or whatever.

I just signed the lease for my apartment in Montmartre, and I am so stoked to get out there. I was just wondering if there are any good resources for Americans, English Speakers, or Designers living out in Paris? I have heard of the Fusac and Alliance Francaise's mailing lists, which list job openings for english speakers and can help you out with housing, which is a nice start.

Does anyone have any advice on finding design work/whatever in Paris? I am willing to intern and do pretty much anything. I have a very solid graphic design portfolio, and have been spending the past couple of months working at a children's clothing company doing graphics for t-shirts which are being sold in Bloomindale's and some other high profile dept. stores here in the US. I also have some work here on the forums that I did for superfuture projects, but when it comes down to it I am really a graphic designer.

this concept for the sufu project jeans: http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/7353/projectjeansil0.gif

this stitching concept: http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/3963/myidea2fv0.gif

the runner-up for the WH/BiG contest jeans: http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/9100/finalmonkeyjy6.jpg

To begin my hustle I have some projects. My uncle runs a Paparazzi firm in Paris and I guess I will be working there until something better comes up. I will also be freelancing at a copy shop doing design work, doing freelance for my old company over the web, and babysitting for kids in the neighborhood since my aunt is a kindergarten teacher. I am just finding any way to hustle to pay for rent and french classes, but it would be ideal to find some type of internship or firm to work with.

I know the French gov gives you an allowance of 300 euro's a month if you are a student, to help pay rent, so that will definitely help offset the cost. I am going to either take classes at

the Accord(http://www.accord-langues.com/) or the Alliance Francaise (http://www.alliancefr.org/) to get my French solid. Does anyone know anything about these programs?

If you want to hang out, know of any good tips, or have experience studying abroad in Paris please send me a pm. To be honest, any information about living in Paris from the nightlife, to shopping, or sightseeing would be awesome.

[Matay]

wow! goodluck!

that should be amazing!

i dream of moving to Paris!

p.s. sorry i have no info for you though

[meta]

wow! goodluck!

that should be amazing!

i dream of moving to Paris!

p.s. sorry i have no info for you though

Haha, well thanks for the encouragement.

[meta]

Bump

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[Tisswat]

Sorry meta, I can't help you out much with your study/career, but I think the rest (shopping, nightlife, restaurants) has been covered extensively in superjetset already.

[yea!]

i'm sorry meta, i've got nothing for you. i just wanted to say that this is inspiring. i'm in school for graphic + interactive communication currently and plan to do the same as you someday. best of luck to you man, i'm curious to see what turns up with this thread.

[Blindfolk]

Hey man the American Church on the Quai d'Orsay is the best resource for Americans while living in Paris. If you ever need some extra money you can go there and post an advert for English tutoring. Also check out the Shakespeare & Company bookstore, it's on the left bank between le petit Pont and Pont au Double and is a decent place to meet other Americans or native-English speakers.

[dnarnya]

i did a month worth of classes at alliance francaise. good stuff. oh yeah and I lived around

Le Marais

its cool. lots of boutiques.

there's two of these, 'breakfast in america' diners and a lot of young american students hang out/work there. but who wants to meet americans in paris anyways?