CommunityFrench-speaking
Francophone
What actually constrains the decision
- Lycée Français de Shanghai is the hard constraint. The Former French Concession is the emotional one. They pull in opposite directions
- Cheese, butter, real croissants — City'super and the small importers
- CCI France is on Changshu Road, inside the corridor these families want to live in
- Old garden houses: sound insulation, heating and damp are the three things to check
What agents get wrong
Settle the school-versus-neighbourhood question before you sign, not after.
Where these households live
Official links
Consulate
Chamber
School
Chambers and business networks
Business bodies, not consular services. Useful for the information flow your employer’s HR is already reading.
French Chamber of Commerce (CCI France Chine) ↗
The business network, separate from the consulate — consular matters still go through the consulate.
On Changshu Road, at the edge of the Former French Concession.
European Chamber of Commerce in China ↗
The pan-European body. Useful if your country has no chamber of its own here — but it does business, not consular services.
Faith and Sunday life
Where a community gathers on Sunday is often a harder housing constraint than people expect. Times and addresses change — these link to the official entry, not to a list that will go stale.
Catholic and Protestant services in other languages ↗
The city government publishes which churches are open to foreign nationals and in which languages — English, French, German, Korean, Spanish and Cantonese are listed.
Which church, what time, which phone number: all of it changes. Open the official page rather than an old list.
Who to follow in Shanghai
The formal network for French-speaking families and companies here.
Official Alliance. Classes and culture — not the Qingpu school gate.
Official French consulate. Rules, not a Concession romance.