i’m considerinng becoming a TAPIF and i’m curious what parts of france you’d say are 1. most cost effective 2. have good public transport 3. pretty denseley populated but not paris level populated ? sorry if this is kind of a vague question i just have no idea where to start :) merci
For starters: very populated areas are obviously in big cities, so while being cost-effective, life will not be cheap.
A TAPIF receives an allowance of €785 a month and gets French social security, i.e. the doctor won’t cost much (ex: a visit to a GP is 25 euros, you can either pay 25 and get back 30 to 70% directly on your bank account or just ask to only pay the tiers payant and pay €7,50 as you’re a student). Meds are pretty cheap, the most expensive things I paid for recently were a muscle relaxer and iron supplements, about €10 each (about €3 for painkillers).
As a student in Lille I got much less than €785 a month and still lived correctly as you get a number of advantages (super cheap public transport, CAF help, discounts in stores, hair salons, theatres; museums are free, etc). In terms of living arrangements, I would suggest you find a roommate (on French Craigslist) as rent for a studio is about €500; then you’ve got internet/mobile (€25ish), energy (€30ish), home insurance (€5ish). And then public transport, food, extra. So living by yourself would be hard.
I found Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, to have great public transport; but in the end, I think you should be thinking about the kind of daily life you’re looking for. Don’t think of France as a smaller version of the US: the country is divided into smaller parts which each have a ‘capital’ but it’s still Paris VS anywhere else. What changes from one city to the other is the architecture, weather, food, local slang, and that’s about it, emphasis on the weather. I’m cold-blooded and have lived my entire life in the North: when I visited Marseille for the first time, in the middle of summer, I nearly caught on fire; send someone from the South in Lille, next to the Belgian border, and they’ll freeze; also, the air is humid, not dry, and that makes a huge difference - in the winter, it’s not as cool as it could be in Minnesota in terms of degrees, but the cold is so wet it feels like your bones are rusting.
Think also about your hobbies: where I live, we don’t have much nature so you wouldn’t like it if you’re a hiker, for example. If you like surfing, go for Bordeaux; if you’re a climber, you’d love Savoie, etc.
Also, I wouldn’t recommend you aim for the South (let’s say under Agen or Montauban) as I’ve heard a number of American students get an accent du sud after spending some time there for school and that’s definitely not standard (and makes you harder to understand).
