English Language Assistants in France: Académie de Grenoble and Ville d'Annecy Information

Part 1: General Information | The Application | The Lettre de Présentation | Waiting
Part 2: Figuring out your Arrêté de Nomination | Obtaining your Visa
Part 3: Packing & Bringing Money | Arriving: The Paperwork Nightmare
Part 4: Teaching Tips & Lesson Plans | Vacations: Travelling
Part 5: Before Leaving France | Staying in France: Renewing, PACSing, Unemployment
Académie de Grenoble & Annecy Information
ESL Lesson Plans to Download
Documents & Links for Assistants

For all Expats: Obtaining a Carte de Séjour | Getting PACSed or Married in France

Académie de Grenoble / Ville d'Annecy Specific Information

This section will probably only be useful to those who are assigned to Grenoble and/or to a school in Annecy.

Airports: There are international airports in Lyon, Grenoble, Geneva and even Chambéry. You can also fly into Marseille if you are placed in the départements of Ardèche or Drôme. Lyon has a TGV rail station connected to it, as well as buses that serve many of the larger cities. Grenoble is actually a quite small airport, and mostly serves flights to and from the British Isles. You will have to take a bus from the airport to the rail station in Grenoble proper. Geneva airport is connected to a rail station, where you can catch a train or Bus 10 to the main Cornavin station downtown. From there, you will have to take a bus into France or take Tram 16 over to Eaux-Vives station in order to take a train into France. There are no trains, as of yet, that connect these two rail stations! (But luckily, the ticket that you buy for the train or bus to Cornavin for 3 Francs - buy it at the automated machines at the stops, choose "Tout Genève" - is also valid for the tram to Eaux-Vives, as long as you use it within 60 minutes.) However, as of June 2, 2008, a few buses serve the Geneva airport and go directly into France, so you can bypass taking a train or bus to Cornavin station. The Chambéry airports also mostly serves the British Isles, but there is no public transportation from the airport to the rail station. You will have to take a taxi to the gare. Alternatively, Annecy has a small airport as well, which only serves Paris Orly, and there is a bus connecting the airport to the rail station in downtown Annecy.

Public Transportation in Lyon | Public Transportation in Grenoble | Public Transportation in Geneva
Satobus - Buses from Lyon Airport to Lyon Gares | Satobus-Grenoble - Buses from Lyon Airport to Grenoble Gare
TransIsère - Buses from Grenoble Airport to Grenoble Gare | Frossard - Buses from Geneva Gare to France
Satobus Alpes - Buses from Lyon Airport to Alpine Ski Resorts | Transdev Crolard - From Lyon Airport to Chambery, Aix-les-Bains or Annecy
AltiBus - From Lyon, Grenoble or Geneva Airports to the main Gare Routières and Alpine Ski Resorts

Orientation: The orientation for Grenoble takes place on the last Wednesday, Thursday & Friday of September and begins at the CRDP (Centre Régional de Documéntation Pédagogique), which is located at 11, Avenue Général Champon. To get there, just take the Tramway A (a single ride costs 1.30 €) in the direction of Echirolles - Dénis Papin and get off at stop Albert 1er de Belgique. When you get off the tram, you will be on Avenue Général Champon and then go down two blocks to your right, and the CRDP will be on your right. You can drop off your luggage and get your folder (which contains a list of all of the assistants in Grenoble and where they will be teaching) and there will be a (long) meeting in the auditorium. Afterwards, you grab your luggage and hop on a bus to go to Autrans where the rest of orientation is. You will get dinner the first night and be put in hostel-style rooms with assistants who are assigned to the same city or region as you. The next two days you will attend workshops that intend to give you some insight into teaching English and designing lesson plans. I didn't find them too helpful since I already have teaching ESL experience, but others seemed to. The long meeting is in French, but some of the workshops are in English (it just depends on the teacher you get for your workshops). You will be separated into groups according to what level you are teaching, so after each breakfast and lunch, you will need to look at the board to see which groups and which rooms you are in.

Autrans is in the mountains (and the drive there may make you sick because of the winding roads) and it gets very cold at night. Remember to bring warm clothes and a towel for the shower (a lot of people forgot this). However, there was no hot water in the building when we were there, so we had to go without showers. You will be fed very well though, and they do have different food options if you are a vegetarian. There's a bar down the road if you get bored at night. Overall, I hated my experience in Autrans because I was always cold and dirty, but mostly because I was really sick and felt awful. After orientation, we were returned to the train station in Grenoble, but as it was a Friday night, it was completely packed. Some of us almost missed our trains because we had to wait so long to buy our tickets. It might be a good idea to buy your ticket before you leave for orientation.

Medical visit: To get to the ANAEM / OMI office for your medical visit in Grenoble, you can take the same tramway from the train station as you did for orientation. Take the blue Tramway A in the direction of Echirolles - Dénis Papin and get off at stop Malherbe. Go towards the big intersection and turn right; this is Rue des Alliés. You will continue down this street until it starts to narrow and you see a big glass building on your right just after you cross Rue Stalingrad. You should see a sign that shows what the numbers are for each building. You are looking for 76, which is just to the left of the big main buildling on the corner. However, the entrance to the ANAEM office is in the back of building 76 so you have to walk towards the parking lot between the buildings and then you will see it on your left. You will need to show your passport and convocation to the receptionist. A nurse will call you back, and do the chest X-ray first. You must take off everything above the waist and you will not be given anything to cover up with. Then another nurse will check your eyes, heigh and weight. Finally, you will see the doctor who will ask you questions about your health and listen to your heart. I never needed to prove any immunizations, but they will most likely give you information on where you can do this in France if you'd like to. You get to keep the chest X-ray and you will receive two "certificat de visite médicale" - one for you to keep and one for you to give to the Préfecture.

Getting to Annecy: There is a small airport near Annecy (located in the suburb of Metz-Tessy) that only serves flights to and from Paris. From the Paris and Lyon airports, it's easy to take the TGV directly to Annecy. You could also take a shuttle bus between Lyon and Annecy, but this is rather expensive. If you arrive at the Geneva (Cointrin) airport, it is easier to reach Annecy by bus than train. There is a train stop connected to the airport, so follow the signs to your left when you exit baggage claim. Take a train to the Cornavin station downtown (one stop away). You can buy a ticket in the automated machines (choose "Tout Genève") for 3 Swiss francs or 3 €. When you exit Cornavin station, go to your left to the large intersection. You need to walk down Rue du Mont Blanc about 800 meters to reach the Gare Routière on your right. (Alternatively, you can also take bus 10 (runs every 10 minutes) from the Geneva airport to the Dorcière station, which is about 200 meters from the Gare Routière.) From there, you can take a Frossard bus into Annecy for 16.50 Swiss francs or 10.50 €. The departure times can be found here. As of June 2, 2008, a few buses will actually go directly to the Geneva airport, so you can skip the train to Cornavin rail station if you time it right. The trip is about 75 minutes and you will arrive at the Gare Routière, connected to the Gare SNCF, in downtown Annecy. The schedule and prices for other destinations from Geneva can be found on the Gare Routière site, under Lignes Régionales Transfrontalières. If you want to take a train from Geneva to Annecy, you will need to get to the Eaux-Vives rail station outside of town. Unfortunately, no trains going to France from Geneva begin at the Cornavin station, and no trains connect Cornavin to Eaux-Vives (at least not for another 3 years...). There is also no direct public transportation from the airport to Eaux-Vives, so you will need to stop at Gare Cornavin (either take bus 10 or a train to get there), and then you can take tram 16 to the Amandolier (SNCF) stop. The ticket that you buy to get from the airport to Cornavin will also be valid for the tram to Eaux-Vives as long as you use it within 60 minutes.

The city of Annecy is not too big so you shouldn't get lost, and the train/bus station is not hard to figure out. The Sibra office (the bus company) is right across the street from the SNCF gare where you can get free maps and schedules. You can pay when you get on the bus (one ride is 1.10 €), and the driver will give you a little ticket that you then need to put into the machine on the bus so it can be validated. There are also weekly and monthly passes available at the main Sibra office (or by mail), as well as a booklet of 10 tickets for 9 € (or 6.40 € if you are a student and under 26.) Remember that you cannot exit the bus through the front doors and you may need to push the red button to make sure the bus actually stops at your stop.

There seem to be a lot of apartments near the station, so that would be the ideal location, but you'll end up paying close to 400 € a month or more for rent. If you do not have internet at your place, there are plenty of internet cafes, but the Courier mall has free wireless internet. Courier is where you will also find a large movie theater, H&M, FNAC, etc. The Office de Tourisme in the Bonlieu Centre has free maps and information about Annecy and the Bureau Information Jeunesse (where you should start your housing search) is just across the hall. There is a Carrefour towards the north end of Annecy on Avenue de Genève (bus 9 in direction Clinique d'Argonay, stop: Colombière) as well as two Monoprixs (one at Courier and one in the vieille ville). There's a big bookstore called Decitre at 19 Rue Sommeiller, and they have books on French as a Second/Foreign language that you might want to buy. There's also an indoor swimming pool in the suburb of Seynod; bus 4 in direction Seynod Neigois, stop: Muraillons. The swimming pool/skating rink that is open all year long is located north of Annecy. There is a large bus stop close by where many bus lines terminate, called Piscine Patinoire. The cheapest place to eat is Chez Barnabé on Rue Sommeiller, near Bonlieu Centre.

In order to get your Carte de Séjour in the Haute-Savoie region, you will need to go to the Préfecture in Annecy and make an appointment if you are living in Annecy or Cran-Gevrier. If you are living in a different suburb, you will need to go the mairie of your town.

• Passport with visa
• Birth certificate that is no more than 3 months old at the time of your appointment
• Certified French translation of birth certificate (the préfecture in Annecy requires it to be certified; if you live in another suburb, your mairie probably won't require this - mine didn't)
• 3 or 4 identity photos in black & white
• Arrêté de Nomination
• Procès-verbal d'installation
• Justificatif de domicile (proof of residence in France) - copy of lease or EDF or France Télécom bill, letter from and copy of identity card of person you are living with
• Attestation de l'ANAEM after your medical visit

Renewing in Grenoble: If you are trying to renew your contract for the following year for the académie of Grenoble, the people to contact (if they haven't contacted you already by the second week of July) are Fabien Rivaux and Virginie Dalla-Rosa at the Rectorat. However, if you receive no response from them, there are some other e-mail addresses you can try.

These addresses can be found in the Premier degré and Second degré information documents that Grenoble sends with the arrêtés.

© 1997 - 2008 Jennifer Wagner | ielanguages [at] gmail [dot] com