Postdoctoral in Paris

An Indian postdoctoral researcher's bookmarks

Archive for the ‘Life in France’ Category

Income Tax for Postdoctorals

Posted by Ira on October 28, 2010

A doubt that often plagues the mind by the time you are nearing the financial year end is what is the tax you have to pay and where.

Though your colleagues and the institute office will help you with this, these are a few points you might be interested in knowing:

1- Find a document on French Tax System here.

2- Unlike in India, the salary is divided by the number of dependents – so that if you have a spouse who is not working, or children, your tax liability will be less.

3- The place you live in is also a deciding factor in tax calculation.

You need to get a form of tax declaration from the office (the tax people come to the institute during this period and are quite helpful) and fill the details and post it. Then you will get a reply after a few weeks, regarding how much you have to pay and in case your salary is not too high, you might end up getting some money back from the government!

Since postdoc salaries are rarely very high, income tax is not a big concern while choosing a position in France.

The website for income tax is this.

Posted in Life in France, Money and Finances | Tagged: , | Comments Off

Trains in Paris

Posted by Ira on October 26, 2010

Paris has one of the best train transport system in the world. Find all the information you need to travel or commute by train at this site:

Paris By Train

The French National Railway Company is SNCF and the official website Transilien.com provides detailed information on all forms of public transport (Train, RER, Metro, Tram, bus) in Paris urban and suburban, routes, maps, journey planner and tickets prices.

The local suburban train system is called the RER and all the information on ticket price, schedules, route planner and even real time schedules can be found at

http://www.ratp.info/

The site also shows news of ongoing disruption of routes due to repair work or any other reason.

The central two zones of Paris are served by Metro trains (named by numbers) and all the 6 zones are served by RER trains, names by alphabets.  It might be suitable to use a combination of both to go to a certain place using the same ticket, as the RER and metro stations are interconnected and the route can be planned using the maps.

It is also possible to subscribe to SNFC news by email or mobile sms, and you will be informed of strikes (very common in France!) in advance.

When the regular Metro and RER trains stop late in night, the RER route is served by the night buses, called Noctilien :

With 42 bus routes, the Noctilien services allow you to travel  throughout
the night anywhere in the Ile-de-France region.

Tourists can find good information about travelling in Paris in this page of RATP: http://www.ratp.info/touristes/

Posted in Life in France, Paris, Travel | Tagged: , , , , , | Comments Off

Maps of Paris

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

A lot of traffic lands at this site with the keyword search “Map Paris” , “Map Bus Paris”, etc. 

A few facts about Maps of Paris and their use:

The RATP site of Paris includes information on local trains, buses, trams and local maps. The site is:

http://www.ratp.info/

The site has been recently updated with a lot of information and easy tools. 

What you can do with the site:

  1. Find out the timings of any method of transport: BUS, TRAM, TRAIN
  2. Find the most optimum itinerary to reach from point A to point B – shortest durations, or least changes of conveyance or least amount of walking!
  3. See the maps of any address or locality
  4. Find out the price of ticket, schemes and special tariffs
  5. Use interactive maps 
  6. Find touristic information
  7. Know the time of the next trains in real time

The next most utile thing in Maps is 

http://www2.mappy.com/

Here you can find the map of any place in France, and I usually search and print the map of the place I am going to- any office, any specific shop, a friend’s house and I never get lost, which is a good thing, as getting lost in these areas means a lot of walking! 

To buy a Paris Map, you can search for good ones in any of the souvenir shops and they have pretty good ones for around 10 Euros. 

It is always good to be armed with a Paris Map and an RER map (available for free at all RER and Metro stations).

RER (local train system) MAP- click to enlarge

rer_paris-map

Posted in Life in France, Paris, Travel | Comments Off

Mobile Phones and Roaming from India

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

Coming from India, roaming services are extremely costly and sometimes charge arbitrarily!

We have been very satisfied with our experience with Matrix Phone, and I would heartily recommend it!

These are the mobile service providers in France:

Posted in France: General, Life in France, Relocation, Travel | Comments Off

Need an apartment?

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

These are links to many relevant agencies and organizations in Paris for accomodation:

This is a list of real estate agencies, you can search for rental apartments and houses on their sites using the various filters available or contact them!

Read the Rules of Renting a House or an Apartment in France Here .

Posted in Housing, Life in France, Paris, Relocation | Comments Off

Absolute Essentials for Newcomers

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

Knowledge is power. There is no need to get overwhelmed with anxiety about a new place, where to go, how to go…

Read these sites, take print outs of Maps and notes you make.

Posted in Life in France, Relocation, Travel | Comments Off

Just arrived? Or planning to move to Paris?

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

A general site for finding information on miscellanous queries is

This Site

It is a great site to get an initial idea of what you need and how you can go about it. 

To give an example of the vast amount of information available on this site:

Metric and Imperial Conversion Charts and Tables

Public and School Holidays in France 2009/2010

French Clothing & Shoe Size Conversion

Driving in France & French Road Driving Rules

French Emergency Numbers and Information Websites

Learn More about France

Regional Weather and Climate Info

The Job Market in France

Table Etiquette and Restaurant Manners

Restaurants in France

French Food, Gastronomy of France

Glossary of the French Regional Food  

The Best French Wine Vintages  

Taxation in France

French Shops & Shopping in France

French Newspapers

Television in France 

Phone in France, Mobile Phones and Operators

Travel and Transport

Accessible/ Disabled Access Holidays

Vacations

Sightseeing in Paris, do a Paris Break!

French Hotels – Accommodation in France

French Riviera

 

===========================================================================

 

These are the best of other miscellaneous information sites

(will be updated regularly)

Posted in France: General, Life in France, Relocation | Comments Off

Interesting and Useful Blogs in France (will keep updating)

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

Posted in France: General, Life in France | Comments Off

Coming to France for Scientific Research?

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

These are essential sites for researchers:

Try to enrol in Kastler Foundation ASAP for a guest researcher card. You can get many helpful information on these sites and actual help for finding a house, opening a bank account, schools for children, etc.

Posted in Life in France, Relocation, Scientists coming to France | Comments Off

News In English!

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

Posted in Life in France | Comments Off

Online Expat Forums

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

Posted in India/ Indians, Life in France, Society | Comments Off

Shopping Links

Posted by Ira on April 20, 2009

  • www.cdiscount.com
  • www.rueducommerce.fr
  • www.laredoute.fr
  • http://www.pixmania.com/
  • Posted in Life in France, Shopping | Comments Off

    Learn French Online at HOME

    Posted by Ira on December 4, 2008

    These are great links! Explore them two in a day, in a week you will know which style or website you are most comfortable to begin with.

    Choose 2 or 3 and stick to them, follow a schedule!

    You dont have to spend a lot of get a preliminary hang of the language!

    Audio-Video, Learning, Pronunciation and Grammar! It’s all there:

    http://www.francaisfacile.com/

    http://www.bonjourdefrance.com/index/indexapp.htm

    http://lexiquefle.free.fr/

    http://www.restena.lu/amifra/exos/

    http://www.frenchspanishonline.com

    http://users.skynet.be/providence/vocabulaire/francais/menu.htm

    http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/index.html

    http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/index.html

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/lj/menu.shtml

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/mafrance/

    http://phonetique.free.fr/

    http://www.lepointdufle.net/

    www.leconjugeur.com

    www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.html

    http://fr.thefreedictionary.com/

    Posted in French language, Life in France | Tagged: , , | Comments Off

    Indian Spices Shop

    Posted by Ira on September 15, 2008

    Click on the map for an enlarged view

    This shop on Rue Cail, near Gare du Nord, sells all sorts of spices and food items from the Indian subcontinent.

    I think the proprieter is Sri Lankan, although every shop selling anything from the Indian subcontiment is called Indian (and not Sri Lankan or Pakistani or Bangladeshi) and all the restaurants are named after monuments, places and emperors of India.

    However, like all things from the subcontinent, you must be alert regarding the quality of food. We had a salesperson of this shop selling us expired food item, when someone noticed the date.

    Also, my serious advice, anything that you can find in a French supermarket will be fresher (if applicable) and cheaper in the French shop. Upto 2-5 euros! But the Indian stuff that you cannot find anywhere else, you can find here.

    Recently they have started selling pressure cookers also. And many other steel utensils.

    Posted in Food, India/ Indians, Life in France | Tagged: , , , , , | Comments Off

     
    Follow

    Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.