[MDFootball]

Bonjour tout le monde....

I am (hopefully) going to get to stay in France for seven months after school - but I'm clueless as to where to go! The program requires me to pick three cities, one from each group -

Group A:
Amiens Besançon Grenoble Limoges Nantes
Reims Rouen Strasbourg (from here itll probably be Rouen)

Group B:

Aix-Marseille Bordeaux Corse Dijon Grenoble Lyon
Montpellier Nice Toulouse Paris region
((Paris/ Créteil /Versailles)(its really between Paris and the southerners Montpellier or Toulouse)

Group C:
Caen Clermont-Fd Lille Nancy-Metz Orléans-Tours
Poitiers Rennes (outta these I'm leanin towards Lille or Rennes, but really have no clue)

So where to go? Where is it cheaper/easier to find an apt? Who's got the best footy culture (obviously Marseille, but beyond there - i know the South is historically more rugby-leaning however)? Arts/culture/nightlife/etc, whats good? Merci...

[FrenchFlair]

well you request some touristic advices...

The most expansive cities are the biggest. Well, the first is Paris (what about Versailles .. glup!!)
Lyon is expansive too... i dont know the rest
But i think there is possibilities to find some cheapest way to find apt for travellers..
For the footy culture, prefer biggest historic name or L1 Club..
I will notice my best choice in each group
but i dont know all cities very well

Group A:

Amiens
Besançon
Grenoble
Limoges

Nantes > Good choice. Very big name of french football. Nice city. Then you got atlantic ocean. Britain fest are well know. Its a student city.

Reims
Rouen

Strasbourg > good choice. Its a big city. Nice country. Nice architecture. Good food. Good wine. Good weather. Club is in L1.


Group B:

Aix-Marseille > Good choice. Footy culture excellent. Marseille is the 2nd biggest french city but not very pretty, i think.
However, Aix is smallest but as a student city, its a very good choice to go out at night (the best?)

Bordeaux > Good choice. Nice city. A lot of history. Good Wine. Atlantic Ocean and superb beaches. A big club of L1. Some says its atmosphere is cold.. well i dont know.

Corse
Dijon
Grenoble

Lyon > Good choice. 3rd biggest french city. 2nd if you count all cities around. You got mountains at 1hour and see at 3hours by car. Excellent food (known as french capital of food) and wine. A lot of things to visit. Its an old gallo-roman city with some italian influence. As a big city, its easier to have fun at night,pubs, restaurants, concerts..... But a lot of places are closed after 3 a.m. (as everywhere lol)
Then very good choice for football.

Montpellier
Nice
Toulouse

Paris > Of course: very good choice. Best for culture, going out, means of transport etc.
Good choice for football too.
But expansive.. try with American student associations?

region Paris/ Créteil /Versailles


Group C: (not the best group lol)

Caen
Clermont-Fd

Lille > Good choice. Big city. You got Losc and RC Lens not far away, then you got a very good footy culture here. Lille is a pretty town. But you have to like north weather and flat countries. However, its a good place to go out.

Nancy-Metz
Orléans-Tours
Poitiers

Rennes > why not.. i dont know very well

[FrenchFlair]

here is some links of selected cities:

http://www.paris.org
http://www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm
http://www.paris-tourism.com/

http://www.mairie-marseille.fr/
http://www.cogito.fr/marseill/marsvisi.htm
http://www.aixenprovencetourism.com/

http://www.strasbourg.com/

http://www.bordeaux-tourisme.com/pag...couvrir/unesco

http://www.nantes.fr/accueil/
http://www.nantes-tourisme.com/jsp/f...23769&LANGUE=1

http://www.lyon-france.com/pages/fr/...os/vuesdelyon/
http://www.rhonealpes-cities.com/cpc/

http://www.lille2004.com/
http://www.mairie-lille.fr/
http://www.lillemetropole.fr/page.php

http://www.ville-rennes.fr/

[magic38]

Originally posted by MDFootball
Bonjour tout le monde....

Group A:
Amiens Besançon Grenoble Limoges Nantes
Reims Rouen Strasbourg (from here itll probably be Rouen)

I lived 2 years in grenoble and it's really cool, many students -> good nightlife, you've got the moutains all around the city. The main pb is that it's cold in winter and really hot in summer. The main club in grenoble (GF38) is playing in ligue 2.
Nantes seems to be nice as well.

Group B:

Aix-Marseille Bordeaux Corse Dijon Grenoble Lyon
Montpellier Nice Toulouse Paris region
((Paris/ Créteil /Versailles)(its really between Paris and the southerners Montpellier or Toulouse)

I live close to Lyon and it's really nice (great food, architecture, quite close to the sea and the mountains, great nightlife).
Montpellier and Toulouse are both student's city their main teams are currently in Ligue 1, but it might not be the case when you'll come!
Paris is really expensive but obviously very nice as well, plenty of stuff to do. Butthey have the worst football team ever...
Corse is really nice but not many things to do there.

Group C:
Caen Clermont-Fd Lille Nancy-Metz Orléans-Tours
Poitiers Rennes (outta these I'm leanin towards Lille or Rennes, but really have no clue)

That group sucks.. it gotta be Rennes which is very nice with lots of students, a good Ligue1 team.
Lille has a good atmosphere to but personally I think Rennes's better although it's smaller.

[drogba]

i live in aix en provence and it is really the best city for students. there is a lot of night life, so sometimes to study properly it' s difficult ...
there are a lot of foreigner people! If you can find a student location in a campus, it would not cost a lot of money, otherwise you re going to loose all your economy, the studio apartement are so expensive here! it would be cheaper at marseille

[KYStriker]

First group: Strasbourg.

Wonderful city, plenty of nightlife, plenty of soccer. As a poster said before, wonderful architecture, and just a fantastic French city. I lived there for 4 months during college, and was the best time of my life. I lived in Strasbourg in 1997 when RC Strasbourg won the League Cup, nothing better then walking around the streets of Paris until 1am singing our team's songs. Magnifique.

Second group: Montpellier

Beautiful little city, ten minutes to the beach, very cosmopolitan. I lived here for three months right after college, and worked with OPAC there. Good night life. Didn't see much soccer while here, as it was during the summer, but they started up near the end. Montpellier's team was bad then and are bad now. But there's always the visitors.

As you can see I lived in both the cities I selected, so if you have any questions feel free to ask. As for the third group, no idea. Rennes sounds good, but I don't really know.

Enjoy.

[panicfc]

I just want to say that all you guys who got to and get to live in France before and after school suck!



I wish it had been me.

[RobtheAggie]

I lived in France for about a year and am biased by the location that I lived. I just had to say that from the outset.

I guess it depends on what you are looking for. Food, nightlife, cultural stuff, outdoors stuff, soccer. Each city will determine has advantages each department, but few have all.

Group 1:
I like Grenoble, but their team is really poor.

Group 2:
I love Dijon. Their team is stuck in CFA but the city is great. It is not a huge city by any means and if you enjoy the outdoors within close proximity to lots of oppourtuinties. Plus Auxerre is not to far away for a quick trip for a match.

Group 3:
I love Clermont-Ferrand. Yes they do have a huge rugby following. The team is middle of Division 2 (or whatever it is called now). You are right in the middle of the country, it is about equil distance from Bordeaux, Marseilles and Paris. There is the Volcano National Park just outside the city. Le Puy de Dome is an old volcano that you can climb or take a bus to the top then parasail down to the base. Just a really neat city.

Those are my impressions. If you stay in a city with a lower division club you will have more affordable tickets. Plus there could be more than one club to see.

[UW2005]

Basically, do you like cold, really cold (i.e. snot freezing etc?) If so, then for group a: Strasbourg. That's saying something because I live in Nantes. But if you don't then, by all means, come to Nantes. Strasbourg may be going down too.
group b: I would choose Lyon. Parisians, notorious for their feeling of superiority (ask any PSG fan) will concede that Lyonnais have better culinary prowess. Hate their football team though.
group c: Tours is a beautiful city, but women's volleyball is probably better supported (there were adverts for women's volley, but none for footie); Rennes is ok, but don't rule out Nancy-Metz. Can't say much about their football culture, but Nancy is beautiful. Unfortunately, in the butt-freezing category like Strasbourg.

Bonnes vacances!

[Zak]

If I were in France for any extended period of time, I'd go with Brittany, preferable Rennes. I am biased though, my grandmother is from there.