Paris Collective Location

From the CouchSurfing Wiki, an informal workspace which anyone can edit.

Paris, France

• For both options : Steeve is thoroughly exploring possibilities to get hosted in a parisian university / engineering or business school. Usually in Paris such places are at the maximum 30 minutes ride from central Paris (Châtelet) with the RER suburban train/ the metro.

• If option 2 is selected we will try to find a member that wouldn’t need his flat at this time and could lend it to us; otherwise a flat will be needed for people to meet during the day and the Parisian CS community could host everyone at night.

Why PARIS ?

• 3rd CS city worldwide by its number of members

• Very active CS community that has already a ‘tradition’ of gathering and organising various events together (monthly meetings, picnics, attending festivals, biking trips, etc.)

• High accessibility from the rest of both Western and Eastern Europe (plus Canada and some Central and South American countries with ZoomAirlines and Air Madrid or Condor) with low cost or reasonably cheap flights and trains (Check Appendix 7 for more details)

• High accessibility of the proposed site from Paris airports and main train stations, easiness to move around the city thanks to a well developed and efficient public transport system.
• From Paris, the rest of France is at reach within usually 2 to 3 hours at a maximum by train for all main cities ; there would be a possibility to organize cheap and nice weekend breaks outside the city too, so as to enjoy French culture, way of life, landscapes… France is one of the only EU countries offering the Alps and Pyrenees, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean all at reach :)
• From Paris, quite a few main European capitals are nearby and can be reached in 2 to 3 hours through relatively cheap connections e.g. the Eurostar to London or the Thalys train to Brussels and Amsterdam, etc. This makes it easy to visit them and hopefully reach and impact on a huge number of CSers.

• Well, PARIS!!! It is the first worldwide destination for tourism... guess there is a reason why and the location would appeal to CSers  :) so they would be interested in combining Parisian vacations AND still giving out one or two whole weeks of their time to the Collective while they are around.

More, tons of CSers keep passing by Paris all the time either to visit or in between flights. If they know a Collective is being held we should be able to convince some of them to stop and give out time to the CSC.

Notes

Obviously it will then be essential to make it clear to people that the CSC is a place to WORK and they are require to stay around and participate during the week.

Paris might initially seem to be a large, uncomfortable and expensive metropolitan city. To disprove that notion, we have gathered some information about living costs (food, transportation, etc.) and visas requirements. Check Appendix 5 and Appendix 6 for details.

There is NO tourist low season in Paris since foreigners visit it all year round. During the summer, Parisians are usually on vacation outside the city which makes it less crowded and more enjoyable. In addition, there are often very interesting summer deals on the Thalys trains to Belgium, the Netherlands and Western Germany.