Hello all,

I've just finished my physics PhD at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, and have accepted a young post-doc job at EPFL in Lausanne, starting the first or second week of next year. Today my contract arrived Because of all this, I've been gradually doing some research online to figure out just what I'll need to do when I land regarding all sorts of things, as well as trying to puzzle out what sort of level of comfort I could expect on my salary in Lausanne. You'll probably see me asking around to arm myself with the knowledge.

I'm a 26 year-old Kiwi without dependents, hoping that I'll be able to find somewhere to live near to Lausanne large enough that I can have friends crash on the couch - I'm sure many others of you here have had friends promise to visit and avail themselves of your hospitality once they heard about your move! I'm fairly active, playing (field) hockey in winter and summer in NZ, and am hoping to find a club in Lausanne. I have studied Spanish and French at Uni, and although my French is a little rusty, it was good enough to survive for a week each in both Montreal and Marseille recently, so I hope to hone that further when I arrive. I enjoy a good night out too, be it at the movies or watching a play, at a friends' party, or in town at a bar/bars, and I hope to meet plenty of Swiss and non-Swiss when I get to Lausanne. I've lived overseas (Malaysia) when I was a kid, and have done a fair amount of travelling (Oz, Japan, Europe, the US and Canada for conference) during my PhD, so I hope I will not find Switzerland too much of a shock.

That's probably enough (too much?) about me for post #1. Thanks in advance for any help/advice I can get here, and I'd welcome any emails/MSN messages etc from people wishing to chat about NZ, life in Switzerland etc, and especially from people in/nearby to Lausanne who I could meet in January.

Cheerio for now.

Welcome to the forum.

I've been living in Lausanne for a bit over a year now and it's great. If you're at all into doing things outdoors, you'll probably find it to your liking. The Alps are just across/up the lake, and there is no shortage of skiing/biking/hiking in the area. There is some field hockey played here as well, although the Swiss are much more into "proper" hockey. You might have to invest in some skates and give it a try while you're here. (I mean, really, you don't need all your teeth anyway. )

With regards to your French, if you were able to survive in Montreal and Marseille, you'll have no problems here. I grew up in Canada and still can't decipher Canadian French. Swiss French is much easier to understand.

The one bit of advice I'll give you is to make sure you secure some form of temporary accommodation for when you arrive. I think EPFL/UNIL (the university) maintains a list of short-term accommodation available in the area, so ask your future supervisor or the departmental secretary.

Apart from that, you'll find lots of information in the forum. Check out the various categories in the forum index, or do a search for specific words. You're welcome to come along to one our our Lausanne social nights once you arrive.

HeatherM

Hello Heather,

cheers for the welcome. I'm looking forward to having the time, once I've settled in a bit, to explore around Lausanne. I've heard many Europeans describe NZ landscape as 'Switzerland with beaches', so I take it for granted that Switzerland will be as I'm used to. Just withOUT beaches. A bit of a bugger I'm leaving NZ just as summer starts to go straight into Europe's winter, but I can handle.

Fortunately, apart from a contract and a work permit (which should be in the works or done), the one thing that IS arranged is temp accomodation. I'm in the Jeunotel for a while - I take it from the name that's a kind of youth hostel? Won't be the greatest, but I'm sure I'll live until I can sort myself out, and it might well be a way to meeting some other étrangers to band together with for a time to lessen the culture shock.

The few times I've tried ice skating I've left the rink very very sore, quite wet, and more than a little embarrassed. And I'm an NZer - we play our sports with a minimum of padded protection, so I don't know what it would be like playing a sport wearing all that! 'Proper' hockey, eh? All I know is NZ is ranked in the top 6 in the other form, and somewhere near the bottom in that one!

Thanks for the advice about the forum - I've already been looking around at the insurance, TV and internet sections. I'm a big fan of a BBC series called Doctor Who, and have been acquiring it in NZ however I can. But the chance to possibly see it live in Europe when it starts again next April fills me with joy, and I might well be exploring the various options in time.

Anyway, getting late here, 12 hours into the future. Until later.

Welcome to the forum!
I'm also working as a post-doc in Lausanne; I'm at Uni' Lausanne rather than at EPFL. I'll try to give you a few pointers, feel free to ask more detailed questions (although they may warrant their own thread). In fact, I just applied for a faculty job in New Zealand (at the University of Otago), so if I get lucky there then maybe I'll have some questions for you .

Regarding accomodation, upon my arrival I stayed in a temporary furnished apartment for 6 weeks before I found permanent lodgings. The place to find out about those places is on the Lausanne tourism website, go to that page and click on "List of furnished houses and flats for rent" to get the pdf document. Expect it to take from 2 to 8 weeks to find a permanent place to live (this length depends partly on luck and partly on how quickly you master the rental application system). If you just want one bedroom and a reasonably-sized living room, you'll probably be looking for a place listed as "2.0 pieces" and you should be able to get something half decent for about 1000 CHF per month.

You asked about the level of comfort you could expect on your salary. In my department, the standard post-doc salary is 72k CHF per year, or 6k per month. After tax and pension reductions, this results in a take-home of about 4,500 CHF per month. After paying for health insurance, apartment, and other monthly bills, you should still have about 3k CHF to play with, which will allow for a pretty comfortable standard of living (especially compared to being a grad' student in NZ).

As for the friends who'll be crashing on your couch, I started this thread to help people advise visitors about travel pass options, so this may then be useful. Basically, I can answer most questions on public transport and cycling in Switzerland, and the other folks on this forum should be able to help you out on anything more complex (but please search the forum for the answer before repeating somebody else's question).

My French was pretty bad when I arrived a year ago, and it is still not good, but I've been able to survive. You should have an even easier time than me because English is much more standard at EPFL than it is at Uni' Lausanne. As for getting to know Swiss people - good luck! Most people I've met who are in grad' school or doing post-docs here are from other parts of Europe or the world, but there are a few true Swiss dotted about.

Anyway, all the best with the preparations and I'll look forward to meeting you once you arrive.
Chris

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Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

I've now read your follow-up message, and had one more thing to say in response to that:
You've come to the right place in Switzerland if you want beaches! There are nice beaches in almost every community along Lake Geneva. They are all pretty popular in the summer and the water gets pretty warm. Nearest to Lausanne are the ones in Vidy (between Ouchy and the EPFL campus) and Lutry (just east of Lausanne). There is no surfing, but also no sharks . Sailing and rowing are both pretty popular and you can easily arrange lessons or join a club.

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Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

Hi!
I was just searching through google.. fretting quite a lot...I have just been offered a post-doc at EPFL too..well, it's actually a research institute affiliated with it, which is actually based in Martigny.. but, I decided I would live in Lausanne.
I have just bought my ticket to Geneva for mid January and I'm just looking for some temporary accomodation before I find my feet. Do many people do flat shares? I have no idea how to find out where to look..
Maybe see you guys when I arrive!

I have a friend who is in a flat in Lausanne shared with two other students. He said that you can find out about such places through this website.

For regular rentals in the Lausanne region, check out zannonces.ch, which may occasionally list sub-lets, etc.

Good luck!

Hi Hayley,

Just out of curiosity, will you be working in Martigny on a regular basis? It's a fair train ride to get there (50 mins or so), and you'd have to add on extra transit time on the Lausanne end. One hour plus on the train/bus each way every day might get to you after awhile (it would certainly get to me!).

If you're going to be working at both EPFL and Martigny, then living in Lausanne is definitely a good idea. Your social circle will be much bigger, and you're much closer to Geneva (which makes a huge difference if you have to catch a flight at 7:30 in the morning!) Check out all of ChrisW's suggestions for finding accommodation (including the Lausanne tourism website for short-term accommodation).

Good luck, and maybe I'll bump into you on campus after you arrive...

Hi guys,
Thanks for the info! I did have to spend some time thinking about whether to live in Martigny or Lausanne. I am living in London at the moment so I know I'm definitely going to miss a lot of the cultural action if I live in a small town.. my boss actually lives in Lausanne and commutes to Martigny most days so I figured I would do the same. I'm already used to an hour commute everyday in London anyway..besides, train time is thinking time...
besides, I want to meet people and do fun things! I think that Lausanne may be a bit more lively for that.
I did come over to Lausanne last month and I tried out the commute. I think it will be ok as long as I can live close to the train station, which shouldn't be too much of a problem...
Hopefully I'll bump into you guys when I get there!
Hayley

Hi,
I used to live in Lausanne and moving back next year.
I worked at the CHUV and all the expat nurses shared flats there. We also used to hire chalets for the whole ski season together in Verbier, Villars etc.Great fun. dead cheap too if you can find a bunch to share with.
Jo

Around the train station is certainly not the easiest part of town to find a place to live in, but if you look long and hard enough then it should be possible. The whole area just to the south of the train station will probably be your best bet as it is nearly all residential - look for places listed as being in the region of "sous-gare", which is quite nice. There's not many options just north of the train station because that's where the city centre is. I believe bus routes 1, 3, and 5 all stop right outside the station, here is a link to a map of all the bus lines. Plus, once the new "m2" metro line is finished, that will stop at the station, but I don't think that's expected to happen until 2008.

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Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the info. How are the buses in Lausanne? around the centre, are they quite frequent? I'm used to buses running every 2-3 minutes round where I am in London.. but I have no idea what it would be like elsewhere.
Cheers
Hayley

The buses in Lausanne are pretty good. On most of the routes, they run every 10 minutes for most of the day. At rush hour, this increases to every 6 or 7 minutes on the busier routes. Later in the evenings and on Sundays, expect it to be more like every 15 or 20 minutes. The full schedules are available here.

Greetings again, everyone. As it's finally getting near time for me to leave NZ's horrible summer for the depths of Continental European winter, I hope to be poking around here a little more in the coming week-and-a-half.

My contract is signed and sent, I have my tickets (flying Emirates to Zurich), and I think I can get myself the train to Lausanne the afternoon I arrive (the 10th) - to experience the seeming wonders of the Swiss public transport system straight off the bat.

ChrisW - I didn't reply to your last message to me, but thank you belatedly for that, and I will certainly be happy to answer any questions you have about life in NZ. I've never lived in Otago, but I have visited Dunedin where the university is, and NZ is small enough that I can claim to know daily life and the culture of living in any of the main cities.

And greetings too to hayleyickle - I wish you all the luck for when you get to Lausanne, and perhaps we can combine our efforts to berate the helpful netizens of this forum for all the advice we need on moving to and settling into the place.

Hello again, all (if anyone still reads this thread). I am in Lausanne now, and am typing this in my office at EPFL. I´ve finally, after a week, found someone who told me what I needed to get done (register at the Contrôle des Habitants, get an EPFL CAMIPRO card, apply for the 1/2 card), and I am well on the way. My main concern at the moment, apart from the occasional moment of language-shock, is finding accommodation.

I´ll post this elsewhere perhaps more appropriate as well, but I have signed up to a couple of online search sites like homegate.ch and immogate.ch, asking for them to send me daily emails of the new places. Everyone I´ve spoken to is pretty downbeat about how long it will take me to find an apartment - even a 1.5 room one (my aim is for 2-2.5). I have been told not to even bother calling for ones that are already listed, and instead to concentrate entirely on apartments that appear in my mail in the morning. Is this really the best way to go? Will I be wasting my time if I do call these places I see online?

Second is WHERE to live. I know transport is great here, but I´d really prefer to live somewhere that at least has somewhere to buy groceries nearby. Second priority is to live somewhere with 15-25 minutes travel of EPFL. I can certainly find where on the map any particular place is, but it doesn´t tell me whether there are any shops nearby. Can anyone help me out by identifying where the centres commercials are?

I´ve got questions about buying a cellphone SIMcard and other things too, but that´ll do for now. I´m certainly looking forward to having the time to meet some of the Lausanne-based speakers on the board here sometime.

Glad to hear that you made it here; Welcome to Lausanne!

Yep, finding a place to stay will not be as easy as you are probably used to. Until a couple of months ago, www.zannonces.ch was certainly the best site to look for a place, but now it seems that they have joined with homegate and it is all the same thing. It therefore sounds like you are already doing the right thing by looking at that. Your advice is correct about only paying attention to things posted within the last one to three days, as all others have probably already been taken.

One important tip is that when looking online, forget about using search criteria as it tends to then miss a reasonable amount of places that do meet your criteria. For example, if you just tell it to show you all places between 2.0 and 3.0 rooms, thien you will only receive places that meet this criterion, but it is likely that it will miss other places in the directory that do meet this criterion. I therefore recommend using no search criteria and sifting thru all of the listings manually to find those that are appropriate for you.

Aside from looking online, also check for postings around campus. At the University of Lausanne, there is no central place for these postings, they are just in the main hallways and communal areas of the buildings; I do not know how it is at EPFL. Although we took a look at many of the apartments that we found thru the web, both apartments that we have ended up taking were through postings I found in the first floor of the Internef building at the University of Lausanne. A major advantage of this source is that not nearly as many people know about these places, and so there is far less competition if you decide that you do want the place.

One more tip, in our experience the places that are run by private individuals, instead of large rental agencies, are often easier to get, and they may well take pity on you when you tell them that you just moved here from overseas and have nowhere to live.

As for the question of where to live, map.search.ch is an invaluable tool. Type in the address and it will show you exactly where any apartment that you are considering is located with a satellite map of the region. Click on the check box on the side that says "Shopping/Services" and you will find which major stores are near you (the main grocery stores will mostly be listed as Migros, Coop, or Denner). You can also see what transport stops there are nearby, and the frequency of the service; for more info on city transit, go to the transit Lausanne website.

You asked more specifically about where the commercial centres are. On the university side of town, there is a reasonable selection of shops in the centre of Prilly and Renens, and some shops in Ecublens. The BIG box stores are mostly out in Crissier. Anywhere near the centre of the city will also have a reasonable grocery store within walking distance.

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Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

Hiya ChrisW, thanks for all of that, and thanks for the welcome. I will start wandering around campus more to find where these advertisement sites are now rather than just rely on the online ones, ta. And a good piece of advice there about the search engine limitations - I must remember that. I have already been exposed to the wonders of map.search.ch, and it really is an invaluable tool I wish every country had. I´ve been surprised at the scarcity of small grocery stores compared with what I am used to, but perhaps that is just a sign of the wonderful transport system.

Every bit of information I´m given, every new map I see, I get some way closer to understanding life here. I´m starting to understand which suburbs aren´t too far away for me (Ecublens, Renens..).

Hey, a fellow kiwi. Welcome on board. You're gonna have a great time in Switzerland. There's not many kiwis in CH at all - you'll probably see 10 aussies for every kiwi. A tricky part to living here might be the accent... a lot of people (including native english speakers) struggle to understand a kiwi accent. So as a southlander, I need subtitles here People try to guess where I'm from and at various times I've been told I'm from: all parts of the UK and Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Switzerland, Canada, ...

cheers
Sam
ps - I hope you're not expecting any snow...

Good timing for you!

My friend is moving and has a flat inthe centre of town available for CHF1400 per month. Available from 1 Feb. Let me know if interested...

So, how is your accommodation search going? I´m planning to move to Lausanne in the next months and am looking for a 3-3.5 room place - is it possible to update us on what you´ve experienced? Quality, prices etc - I´ve looked on the websites people have suggested (e.g. www.zannonces.ch) but without decent pictures I really have no idea whether the apartments are decent or not for their respective prices. You can PM me if you prefer. Hope all is going well for you and that you´ve settled in!