How to Find Affordable Housing for TAPIF

One of the first major tasks to accomplish after arriving in France to participate in the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF) is securing housing. Since assistants are responsible for finding their own housing, everyone’s living situation is different. Some assistants are offered free or reduced-cost housing at their school, some live in youth or student housing, some rent an Airbnb for the entirety of the program, some live in houses with roommates, and some rent an apartment. This article will outline how Jalen and I were able to secure our 49m² apartment in downtown Troyes for our year with TAPIF.

Over the summer, once we got our placement situation straightened out, we each immediately contacted our professeur référent (a teacher from one of our assigned schools that is meant to be our point of contact throughout the program) via email. We asked whether our schools offered housing for assistants and inquired about any accommodation recommendations in the area if not. It turned out that Jalen’s school did offer reduced-cost housing and mine did not. We considered living in Bar-sur-Aube, the small town where Jalen was placed, in the school housing, but decided we would be happier living in Troyes, a much livelier city where I was placed. Not long after we had decided to voluntarily undertake the daunting task of apartment hunting in France, I received an email from a teacher at one of my schools. The teacher let us know about an apartment in a nice part of town owned by a trusted landlord. We were very excited at the prospect of living there, and my teacher let the landlord know we were interested.

Just before we left for France, I requested that my teacher ask the landlord to let Jalen and I know whether or not we needed a guarantor. The landlord responded that a guarantor would be preferable, so we set about applying for VISALE. VISALE is a free guarantor whose services are offered to members of the European Union or to people with long stay residence permits, like American TAPIF assistants! Since many assistants struggle to appease French landlords, VISALE is a great way to bolster your dossier (collection of documents required to lease an apartment in France). The application process was simple, and we were quickly approved.

The next step in the process was finding a time to visit the apartment that worked for myself, Jalen, and the landlord. Luckily, we were able to coordinate our apartment visit with the last day of TAPIF orientation, so we left Reims and went straight to Troyes to check out our potential apartment. After a quick tour and rundown of the terms of the short-term lease, we were on board! The apartment was more than we ever hoped for when we imagined what our housing might be like during TAPIF, so we signed the lease, finalized the VISALE process, and got the keys to our first apartment that same evening.

We were so relieved to have had my teacher’s support and felt lucky that we stumbled upon the opportunity to rent a nice apartment from a landlord who gave us no trouble about us being American. If you’d like to see our apartment for yourself, check out this video!

As we mentioned earlier, every assistant will have a different experience finding housing for TAPIF. For some assistants, like us, finding housing is relatively painless. For others, however, finding adequate housing is a serious struggle. If you’re curious to read about some posts from the perspective of other assistants, check these ones out.

1. Finding Accommodation with TAPIF by Kat Teacher
2. Hindsight is 20/20: Looking for Housing as a TAPIF assistant or other expats living in France by She Seeks Adventures
3. TAPIF: Should You Rent an Apartment or Live at School? by So You Think You Can France
4. How to Find Housing in France by Rebecca Goes Rendezvous
5. TAPIF | Finding an Apartment in France by NounConformist
6. TAPIF Housing | Unconventional (and totally normal) ways to find a place to live by Stories by b

We hope you enjoyed learning about how we ended up in our troyen apartment. If you’re currently looking for housing in France, we wish you good luck. Let us know in a comment if you have questions or want to know more!

Check out our video to prepare to participate in TAPIF!

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