Housing and Housing-related Matters
HOUSING INFORMATION
Detailed housing information can be found in the Aix Housing Guide.
Student Life
Extracurricular Activities
You can join sport centers (for a fee) where you will have access to many types of sport opportunities (karate, aerobics, weights, etc). The university sports center allows registering only for one activity, once a week. You can also join teams, which is a great way of meeting French students. Past participants strongly recommend this.
You should make sure to read the bulletin boards at the university as well as in town to find out about interesting lectures, internship possibilities, study sessions, and other events that may be of interest to you.
Shopping
Stores in Aix-en-Provence are open from Monday afternoon to Saturday evening from 9:00 am until 12:00 noon and from 2:30 pm until 7:00 pm. Larger stores and supermarkets do not close during lunch and more and more are open on Sunday.
Excursions
The Program pays for transportation and guide as well as entrance to any museums for program- sponsored excursions. Meals are not usually covered. Students who choose not to participate are not given any refund. If space allows, visiting family members (but not friends) are allowed to accompany the group, but they must pay their own entrance fees and any meal costs. The Program may also arrange visits to theaters.
For each absence from one or more of these activities, you will lose 2 points on your final grade (out of 20) of the intensive course.
Transportation
Since Aix-en-Provence is a small city, most of the students prefer to walk. You can also use the city buses, but note that most of the buses stop running at 8:00 pm. Students who wish to have a bicycle can buy a used one in a second-hand store in Aix.
You will have ample opportunities to travel during your stay in Aix. We advise you, however, not to let travel plans interfere with your study. For all trips lasting overnight or longer, for safety reasons, you must fill out a form with Patricia Reffay in the Program Office, indicating the approximate itinerary, dates, and addresses.
Safety
You are strongly discouraged from traveling to areas both in the country and in the surrounding areas that the U.S. State Department has designated as hazardous or has advised against travel. Make sure to check the U.S. State Department website for Travel Advisories and Consular Information Sheets for any country you are considering traveling to or through (http://travel.state.gov/index.html) before you make any travel plans.
In addition, make sure to leave your travel itinerary with the APA program as well as with a family or friend in the U.S. in case someone needs to reach you in a hurry, as well as for your own protection.
Communication Telephones
Time zone information: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock
Country and city codes: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/dialing.html
Calling from France to the U.S.:
(00) + (1) + (area code) + (local number)
Calling from the U.S. to France:
(011) + (33) + (city code) + (local number)
[*omit the first zero in the ten-digit French phone number only when calling from the U.S.]
It is much more expensive to make a call from France to the U.S. than vice versa.
With a smart-phone or a laptop + Wifi connections, you may be able to easily communicate with friends and family in the US via different applications such as Facebook, iMessaging, WhatsApp, or Skype.
Upon arrival in France, you may wish to open a French mobile phone account at a very low rate (around 20 euros/month) that includes free, unlimited phone calls and inexpensive texts to the US. You can either purchase a phone in Aix (around 30 euros/month) or arrange to have your personal smartphone unlocked before you depart. If you do not wish to do this, you will want to check the international rates of your current plan. Be sure to have contacts in the US check their phone plans, as well.
Airmail is the only mailing option from France, priced in increments of 20 grams (equivalent to a little less than 2 sheets of 20-weight typing paper). Letters take from one week to ten days to reach the States. UPS and Federal Express services are available but expect to pay nearly twice as much as in the U.S. and to pay, in certain cases, very high customs charges.
Have your mail sent to the Program address, rather than your personal address. You will have a mailbox in the Program office, and it will be easy for you to retrieve your mail. By using the Program address, your mail will not be lost if you are traveling and out of town. Be sure to include your name and the program name (APA or Academic Program in Aix) in the address.