Université de Savoie

The mobile phone companies (or at least Orange France) absolutely shaft their users by putting a time-limit on using credit - so 10€ has to be used in 2 weeks. Other than that, my family could call my landline for 2p/min (that's because they had a good deal in the UK). The university's computer service made me decide to buy a laptop (which took 2 months to arrive from Britain). I now think I could have lived without it, but the combination of inaccessible opening hours at campus (no evenings or weekends), French keyboards ("AZERTY"? WTF?) and mooching off friends meant that I decided it was the best option. Banking and stuff was OK, I was with BNP Paribas and didn't have any problems (except for with their dodgy name). I arranged my house and Responsibilité Civile insurance through them, and could use the account free throughout the Euro-zone. The Erasmus grand was a great help (about 2000€), and covered the cost of the expensive student accommodation, although the grand came a bit later than I'd have liked (November & March).

V difficult to speak french outside of university as lived with english people. French students were not very friendly and therefore did not speak with them either