Hi Everybody,
in September I'll come to Basel with my family .We would like to live in France close to the border.
Can you give me any advice about bilingual primary schools?Should I contact them now?Would they accept my kids?What are the costsmore or less ?Hoe does it work?
I'am looking also for the house un Huningge or nearby.
THanks a lot for your help
Georgette

depends what you mean by bilingual. I don't know of any English/French schools, whereas there are french/german schools; for this you have to ask at your mairi/town hall. They are public. There are lots of threads related to living in France, working in Basel, if you do a search you may get some more useful info. Good luck. Huningue is lovely but it is tough to find a place to live there.

Dear Irish Lorraine,
thanksa lot.yes,i mean french- germn schools...so,the best thing is to go directly to the town hall?and wht about living in france and going to the school in switzerland§?is it possible to have a health insurance in switzerland and live in france?sorry for beeing so ignorant...thanks a lot
georgette

There are definitely expat famillies living on the French side of the border, with their children coming across to the International school sin Basel every day. I don't know whether it is possible to do the same with the stadt schools though.

Does the school have to be a Swiss one? A lot of French villages around the border have bilingual schools.

If you live in France and work in Switzerland, you would get a so-called frontalier health insurance - there are many different options available, google helps. It's a lot cheaper than the Swiss one and the coverage is better. If you want to be treated in Switzerland then that's also an option with this kind of insurance, but of course the price goes up then.

I believe the ecole primaire in Hesingue is bi-lingual - French/German. I think that the one in Hegenheim may be now - my daughter left 2 years ago and they said that they were starting bi-lingual classes but I really don't know about that one! Good luck

THank you very much for te quick response.I can't find anywhere e-mail adresses of the schools,only normal adresses.Looks incredible....
Another question...What about a dog if I want to bring it with me int the Switzerland?
Thank you so much!!!
Georgette

Hi
With regards to a dog - we live in Hegenheim with our dog and I regularly take her across the border to walk in the forest near Oberwill. You have to carry the dogs' "passport" but I have been taking her for 3 years now and have never been stopped.
Hope this helps!

to import the dog, you need to have the passport and chip, but also rabies vaccination. You probably won't be checked at the border, but when we moved from Switzerland to France, the French vet said she cannot register the pets in France unless they have had the vaccinations in Switzerland before officially moving across the border.

Hi ,
thanks a lot for the information.
Another question is about taxes.I will be in france with my 2 kids and my mum,my husband will remain in italy commuting on weekends.I will work in Basel.How can I find out about taxes :how much I have to pay what is deductible etc?
is there any office for this in france or in basel?
thanks a lot
georgette

Hi Georgette. For taxes etc, there is a centre for trans-border cooperation information in Village Neuf, France. The website is infobest.eu, they should be able to help with a lot of types of info. It will be difficult for you to decide where to live until you actually come and look, and unless you are willing to be patient, or not at all fussy about accomodation, you may not always get the village you want, as there are a limited amount of houses for rent.

Not all towns have bilingual schools. I did a search and found this list; http://www.alsace-lorraine.org/pdf/e...ilingues68.pdf

You should also see if there is a cantine or periscolaire (after school) as not all towns/schools have them. To be honest, this information is hard to come by, but the best thing would be to contact the townhalls in towns that interest you, as it is they who have the information on that. I don't think you will be able to email many schools. For a start, they don't have any administration staff.

As for going to school in Switzerland, in general, most people do that only if they want to send their children to the international school (see lots of related threads).

Dear Irish Lorraine,
THank you so much for the info!!!
It's very interesting that people usually send children to swiss schools only if they want international ones.I thaught that for the integration of children to swiss life is maybe better to send them to swiss public schools also because I read that swiss schools are really great compared to french schools.By the way is the school cost deductible from the taxes?
Thank you so much again
!Georgette

Maybe I wasn't clear about the schools. If you want to integrate your children into Swiss life, then you should be living in Switzerland. If you are living in France, why would you want to integrate them into Swiss life? If you feel Swiss schools are a lot better than French ones, then it would be an obvious choice to live in Switzerland. Good luck

Why not simply choose to live in Switzerland, if you want your children to attend Swiss schools.
About 8 million people do so, thus it should be feasible.

Of course life is cheaper in France, but if you have a Swiss salary then you should afford living in Switzerland, otherwise there's a problem.

You can't have your cake and eat it.

What's the point of having cake? As a work of art?

Hi Everybody,
my problem is not abot expenses in Switzerland,altough I will come with philippine nanny who will not get permit of work (as far as I know9 in Switzerland,but having the permit of work in italy,it sholud be easier to get it in France.....Do you know anything about work permits that can help?
Thanks for your help!!!!

Hi!
does anybody have an experience about italian school in Basel "Sandro Pertini"?
THank you very much
Georgette