Six years into living in Paris and I can list the mistakes I made in my first year without thinking. I made all of them. Some cost me money. Some cost me months. A few cost me friendships that I should have built earlier. If you are about to move, or you just landed, this is the list I would hand to my younger self.
I came to Paris in 2018 for the HEC Paris MiM. I was 22, I spoke A1 French, and I assumed Google would solve everything. Google did not.
Renting a flat without a guarantor lined up
The single most expensive mistake. French landlords ask for a garant, a guarantor with a French income who covers your rent if you default. No guarantor, no flat. Foreign parents do not count. A foreign company contract does not count.
I burned three weeks visiting apartments before someone explained that I needed GarantMe or Visale. Visale is free if you qualify. GarantMe charges roughly 3.5 percent of your annual rent as a one-off fee, but they approve foreigners with steady income within a few days. Set this up before you book viewings. The good flats go in 48 hours.
Moving in August or September
Paris empties in August. The bakery on your street closes, your bank advisor is in Brittany, and the prefecture website tells you to come back in two weeks. Then September hits and every student in France is hunting for a flat at the same time.
If you have a choice, target February, March, or April. Less competition, normal admin, and you walk into spring instead of winter.
Skipping the French classes
I had A1 French when I landed. I told myself I would pick it up by osmosis since most of my MiM was taught in English. Three years later I still could not have a serious conversation with my landlord. I had to do a real push to get to B2, and that should have started on day one. If you are thinking about this seriously, I wrote about how I actually learnt French and what worked.
The free or subsidised classes at the Mairie, Alliance Francaise, or your school are not just about language. They are where you meet the other foreigners who become your first real friends here.
Trying to live in the wrong arrondissement
The romantic Paris everyone pictures, the 4e and 6e, costs roughly double what the 11e, 19e, or 20e cost per square meter. If you are new and broke, the answer is the east. The Marais is gorgeous and you can walk through it any weekend. You do not need to pay 35 euros per square meter to sleep there.
I lived in the 15e my first year, which is fine but quiet and far from anything fun on weeknights. I would push anyone in their first job year toward Belleville, Republique, Bastille, or Pigalle. Cheaper, livelier, closer to the people you will spend your evenings with.
Ignoring the metro pass math
A single ticket is 2.15 euros. A Navigo Mois unlimited pass is 88.80 euros and your employer reimburses half. If you take the metro more than twice a day, the pass pays for itself in under a week. I spent my first two months feeding tickets into machines like a tourist before someone took pity on me at a colleague’s lunch.
If your employer is French, ask HR about the forfait mobilites durables too. Many companies top up bike or scooter expenses.
Treating French admin as something you do later
You will need: a French bank account, a numero de securite sociale, a French phone number, a residence permit, a tax number, an electricity contract, and home insurance. Each one blocks the next.
The trap is that none of these feel urgent on day one, but every one of them takes two to six weeks to process. Start them in your first week. Block out one morning a week as your admin morning and chew through the list. The longer you wait, the more compounded the delay.
Building only an expat bubble
Most foreigners I met in my first year only hung out with other foreigners. That felt safe. It also meant I had no real link to the city, and my friend group rotated every six months as people’s contracts ended.
The work to make French friends is real and slow. People here build their close circle by 25 and rarely add to it. But once you are in, you are in for years. Join one French-speaking activity. A choir, a climbing gym, a board game night, an improv class. Pick one and show up weekly for a year. That is the cheat code.
I wrote about this trade-off in more detail in the pros and cons of living in Paris, and I cover what actually feels good about working here in another post.
What I would do differently
If I redid year one, I would book a guarantor before flying, take French classes from week one, live in the 11e or 19e, and treat admin as my Monday morning ritual. The Paris that everyone falls in love with is on the other side of those boring decisions. The rest is just showing up.