I simply wanted to share our Oz experience with everyone. Those who are tempted, planning, working on or going to immigrate here.

We arrive on the 5th of october 2003 and we have done a lot since.

First impression on arrival, the space ... the coolness of the people in the street, all is so different from Paris! and we love it !

The people are kind and also very curious. I believe our accent is not helping that much ... Some even think that we should never have left Paris, the city of Love !

After 3 weeks staying at our friend's place, we started looking for a unit for rent near the airport (Rockdale, Kogorah, Arncliff, Tempe ...) as the prices are affordable and the location pretty good! You ve got the beaches not far and also the city next to you!

Things got complicated due to the fact that we were jobless but the Real Estate Agent felt better when they had a look at the bank statement. All is about money guys !

So after the flat, we decided to focus on the car! My partner wanted his 4X4 car so we visited Mazda, Nissan, Toyota and much more ... At the end only Mazda and Nissan seemed serious and willing to make business! After 3 hours of bargaining, we finally picked a Mazda Tribute Classic (around 40 000 $ all included).

Next step, the insurance. You ve got a lot of choice here, NRMA, GIO, AAMI ... They all offer the pretty same price so we chose NRMA for the car and the house. We ll check next year for a better price ... once we get comfortable here!

We did not bring any furnitures from France so we went to all the furnitures shops all over Sydney (IKEA - Fantastic Furniture - Freedom - Domayne - Harvey Norman ...). Some are too expensive, just too long to deliver or just don t want to bargain.
Regarding the electric appliances, I suggest Good Guys and Bing Lee. As they hate eachother, you can easily get the price you want with a bit of lie of course. Cash prefered though!

Last step, the health insurance ... that is complicated! Nothing to do with the french system where you get everything refunded up to your aspirin (Panadol here). After hours of trying to understand all the different option from Basic to Gold + Hospital + ... I finally picked up NIB, but don t ask me why ! I believe that you need to be gruaduated in this field to get thru it!

So we ve got it all ... TIme to get to work now! We both work in the IT Field and as many of you heard, things are not that good here ... After modifying, improving our resumes we starting to get calls from jobs agencies and companies. Don t bother buying the news paper, it is empty! Simply focus on the web :
- Jobnet
- SeekIt
- CarrerOne
- Michael Page
- ...

Email you resume and call the next day! Don t expect them to call you as they receive 100 resumes for one application! Also always mention that you have a visa as they receive tons of queries from people without visas. Since I have amended that, my phone rings more!

Of course your major negative point will be your lack of local experience ... But with a tough argumention and a strong motivation you should be able to go over that problem. Australia has been made by the migrants !

The Tv is crap and full of ads but unfortunately you ll get used to it!

I love the food variety here and the cheap prices!

What I miss ... The french bakery and patisserie and the lack of customer service here! You ve got to fight for everything otherwise you will be forgotten.

Voila ... I cannot anything to add !

If anyone needs more info ... don t hesitate

G day mates!

Djamel

hello Djamel,

What a detailed and informative post, you have certainly been busy, I hope you are lucky with your job search it would be nice if you could get a great job and start just after the christmas holidays.

Look forward to hearing more from you.


Donna

Very interesting post. I am in France, and the local vet stopped to have a coffee with us yesterday, full of news about Australia. She has just returned from a 2 month holiday, travelling from east to west. The lack of time meant we were unable to talk about many things, and I hope to see her again some time.

I asked how she found the food in Australia. Having just drooled my way through a month of Australian food shows on the Travel Channel, I was expecting a good report. She said that while they didn't have enough money to go to restaurants very often, she found the food in French restaurants disappointing.

I would be interested to know if others have found the same thing. I'm wondering if the cuisine has been adapted for local tastes, in the same way that Chinese food elsewhere tastes different to that in China, ditto Indian food and probably others as well.

Thanks for that, interesting stuff! How easy was it to sort out your driving licence??

Very simple ... Here are the steps :
1/ You must have your licence for more than 1.5 years
2/ Get it translated at the Community Relations Commission in Sydney (cost 63.8 Aus $ in express - around 7 days)
3/ Train yourself a lot on :
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/...est/index.html

Questions are pretty easy and even sometimes ridiculous but you cannot make more than 2 or 3 mistakes. There is also 3 different themes if I am not wrong ... Check it out!

When you feel ready, go to the RTA (Road and Traffic Authority) and sit for the test. It takes up to 30 mn and the computer stops you if you make more than 2 mistakes. Then the lady takes a picture of you and gives you your Oz licence! Easy ...

Nothing to do with the middle age French system

Dj

Good post - keep 'em coming!!!!

French restaurants are normally expensive and there are not that many French people here setting up cafes.

If you want modern Oz, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Lebanese or Spanish then Sydney is your Oyster. There are bad versions of all the food but local knowledge will soon set you straight.

A decent curry can be had but again you have to search them out.

Have you tried the Vietnames bakers, especially down in Cabramata. They tend to bake the French way.

There used to be a great French cafe in Rose bay, going back a few years now, did the best breakfasts for hangovers.

Paris Patisserie Francaise ... sweet nothings galore

I will go ........... Merci Megalania!

Claude's french restaurant in Paddington is supposed to be one of Sydney's top restaurants but it is not cheap. Not been there myself. For a better selection of French wine try either David Jones (the Bondi Junction food hall looks good now it has been refurbished) or Kemmeny's on Bondi Road on the way to Bondi Beach. Kemmeny's is probably the best bottle shop in Sydney.