Renting In France

[Quoi]

Has anybody rented a house in France for a 6 month to 12 month period who could tell me the procedure & what traps to look out for?

[coccinelle]

I live in France and let a house out here so know some of the procedures. Are you wanting to rent a furnished or unfurnished house? The contracts are not the same.

[Quoi]

Thanks Coccinelle - this is what I wanted to know. I can choose either depending on the difficulty/costs.
So is there a website or something I could have a look through to get the practicalities sorted from someone who has done it before.
Kind of thought i would move around a few times (6 months at a time) before I decided on what i wanted to do.

[coccinelle]

If your aim is to move around I'd suggest a furnished place. This kind of contract means you can leave whenever you want whereas if you're renting an unfurnished place you sign a 'bail' which covers both you and the owner for 3 years. if you want to leave you must give 3 months notice (or 1 month if you can show you're moving for employment reasons). Finding unfurnished accomodation isn't always quick and quite honestly if I had a candidate who had only stayed in his last accomodation for a few months especially non-French (on the move?) I might prefer to let to someone else. All depending on the accomodation and region you're looking at will depend on choice and rental. Example; rental in tourist areas is costly but you have more of a choice. I'm sure if you google 'locations meublés' with name of town or area something will pop up.