Anyone in or around Grenoble, France?

[rschilp]

Just was offered a job there, visiting for the first time in a few weeks.

Looking for any information about living in the area, schools, activities, cost of living and so on..

Also, how easy to find machining equipment and hobby shopspace in the area?

[Fergus OMore]

I have a ski apartement on the other side of the mountains. Fabulous skiing, walkng climbing and canoeing- almost on the doorstep.  I suspect that the prices are are similar to those in the UK. Petrol(gas) and diesel are definitely dearer than the US. Food etc- not a problem. You can Google Aldi.fr or Lidl.fr to get supermarket prices of things. Plenty of other supermarche's in major towns like  Grenoble. e
Education? Well, my mate was Professor of English for the whole of French education. My son did part of his degree there( Bescancon) I would say- better than the UK.

Model engineering- possibly not- I know that my friends were into full size locomotives.

Country itself? Well, tomrrow, is the anniversary of a tremendous car crash 11 years ago  and that my wife was badly injured and the French health people were simply wonderful.
Every meal( free) she had Cotes du Rhone wine-- and made a speedy recovery.
What more can I say?

Norman

[mattinker]

Just was offered a job there, visiting for the first time in a few weeks.

Looking for any information about living in the area, schools, activities, cost of living and so on..

Also, how easy to find machining equipment and hobby shopspace in the area?

Hi,

I don't live very near to Grenoble, but I've lived in Franc for thirty three years.

Machinery is more difficult to find than in the UK. I've bought most of my machines on eBay UK, I'm lucky in that I have a friend who works for an international transporter so I got tings shipped here fairly cheaply!

How's your French? This forum is pretty good, I know that there are people on it in the Grenoble area.
http://www.usinages.com/forum.html

Regards, Matthew (Very near Paris)

[rschilp]

Thanks for the input, just to give a little bit more info.

I'm Dutch (soccer fans amongst you may recognize the Dutch national team jersey in my picture) and both my wife and I have lived in France before, my French skills are rusty, but should come back plenty quick.

Trying to decide if I should take my machine tools (mill & lathe) or sell and buy new (used) ones when I get to the old country.

[Simon0362]

Hi,

I have lived in France for the last 5 years and visited many many times before that. When I moved from the Netherlands I brought all of my machine tools with me - finding ex-industrial machinery is quite easy if you have space and floor strength for 2 ton mills and lathes. The more lightweight end of the market seems to be much more difficult to find (although I did buy a nearly new Emco Compact 5 PC recently). leboncoin.fr is the local bargain site covering France.
Expect to buy your new tools from one of the very few outlets here or back in the NL (Herman Buitilaar...) or the UK and ship them. Materials such as brass and Al are locally available, castings and similar will need to be shipped in.
Drop me a mail to my private address if I can add anything further (I am a bit far from you though for visiting, being based in Aix en Provence)

Regards,

Simon

[DavidA]

..(soccer fans amongst you may recognize the Dutch national team jersey in my picture) ..

Actually, we thought you had just been Tango'd.

Dave.