My family of 6, 4 children and parents are looking at the possiblilty of relocating to Annecy area from the states. Can anyone tell me a little about expensives. What will we pay to rent a 4BR home in a nice area for instance. How about utilities? Any other major expensives. Is mass transport good? It is terrible in the US. Thanks. Tom

Hi Tom,
Difficult question. My wife and me moved to Annecy in Feb this year after having lived in London for some years. Annecy is cheaper than London but compared to most other places in France rather expensive. For a 4 bedroom flat you probably will start looking at > 1200€/month excluding utilities and the price will increase significantly as you look at properties closer to the lake. There are no "dodgy neighbourhoods" around thus most places are quite nice to live at.
Renting can be a bit of a challenge as long as you don't have a French payslip and bankaccount to present...
Martin