I had heard that Belgium was a fairly inexpensive alternative to Paris and was doing some research at: www.expatica.com . Housing for a family the size of mine (4 kids) would run from 1800 to 3000 Euros/month (for renting an unfurnished house) then from 3,000 to 10,000 euros a year per kid for school. It's expensive over there!! Just thought that I would throw this info out for consumption.