moving to Luxembourg

[nikki73]

Has anyone done this? Any tips? Best way to find a place to live? Agency fees are crazy, rents too. Our school will be in mamer.that's outside town so looking at Western and bonnevoie areas.any tips would be fab.

[landsberger]

I'm a regular visitor to this part of the world, and it's an intriguing mixture of the cultures of all the area - and, if you play it right, one of the friendliest places in that locality. Yes, rents and purchase costs are unbelievable. This has a number of knock on effects. Over 50% of the workforce do not actually come from Lux (mainly, though not exclusively from Luxembourg province in Belgium and Lorraine in France, both economically depressed areas). This has the effect of making much of the commercial area - shops, restaurants, hotels and the service industries Francophone, so brush up on your French if you want to go shopping ! If you speak German, you will understand the local lingo, which isn't a million miles away, and most native Luxembourgers (with the caveat above) can understand and speak perfect German (and French, and sometimes English).

Reading the local newspapers (which are mainly in German, with a few columns in French!), you would think almost nowhere was safe, whereas the truth is that, compared to London, there are very, very few edgy or difficult areas (the only areas I wouldn't live would be the Quartier around the Gare Centrale, and Hollerich - which *are* a bit edgy), and the area around Grund, because you have very little in the way of facilities there. Bonnevoie is quite a big area, it gets nicer the further you are from the station. Velorenkost and Limpertsberg are the same, the latter is quite exclusive, as is Belair. Lots of people want to live in Clausen, which is heading west. If you can find somewhere reasonable to rent Kohlenberg and Gasperich are also very pleasant, although they are South West rather than West.

Any questions, let me know.