Elsie2

I do sympathise with you. We had exactly the same problem, and couldn't escape from the night-time noise - again, youths who had been chucked out of school, nothing to do, would sleep till noon and then party in the street all night, drive their noisy motos up and down and rev them outside the house, etc. I got so tired we eventually quit and came back to our (quiet) house in England. Over a period of several months made numerous representations to the mayor and other leading lights, and some efforts were made to get them to behave in a more considerate way, but the mayor said he couldn't evict them. It was a private let, rent presumably paid by social services. The main offender seems to have moved on now, but occasionally shows up, so we're not out of the woods yet. Like you I am desperately sorry for the older folk - they're too scared to complain, but they tell us that their lives are being made hell by these people. Good luck.

This, I'm afraid, was my children's point of view: Better in UK: everything Worse in France: everything Food (yes, it really was) Toilets Getting told to 'degage' by other kids (sadly, just about the first word they learnt) Getting hit by other kids Kids getting hit by teachers Cantine (a kind of boot camp; kids got hit by supervisors) Lessons (boring rote-learning and conjugaison) Being told to bring an English book and read it all day No sport No play space (tiny 'cour'); unsupervised recree (bullies rule) Kid with severe behavioural difficulties and no support assistant (all the kids got hit by him) Perhaps we weren't lucky. The teachers were friendly and well-meaning, but I don't think they had much understanding of the linguistic and emotional needs of foreign children. We're now back in the UK. I can't help but contrast the reception foreign children get at our local primary school with what happened to my children in France.    

30 euros sounds far too much for a student. I don't think you can compare a student and a fully qualified teacher (who may get 30 euros an hour).

Even if your school does not ask to see evidence of BCG vaccination, you could find (if your children don't have BCG) that they have problems taking part in other activities. We had to show BCG certificates to join the local 'centre social', for example, and for ski creche.