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My knowledge is that you cannot rent a flat in France if you don't have job there, tax bill and other weird stuff which indicates that you are more french than Charles de Gaulle. Is it true?

I'm looking for a flat for 1 person for about 1-2 months in central France (in Cahors in particular).

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    There is nothing particularly weird about this, it's the case elsewhere in Western Europe as well. You won't get cheap long-term rates if you are renting for one month (and, in fact, landlords targeting this market typically don't want the trouble of renting for such a short time anyway so it's moot).
    – Relaxed
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 10:47
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    I would like to point that there are in fact small-duration rentals in France; in general it takes the form of "meublés" (ie, appartments already furnished) and it is expected that the rent will only last for a month or a couple of months. Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 14:12
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    @MatthieuM. Where? In the places I know, furnished flats are often rented by students for a full year, landlords do not particularly expect or welcome people who would rent only for a month.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 15:12
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    @Relaxed: It is not specifically restricted to anywhere, as far as I know, I know students in medicine who (in their last 3 years) only stayed 6 months at a time and used this option in Perpignan, Montpellier and Nimes and I had a neighbour family for only a month when they were "between flats" close to Nice. It might not always be an owner's first choice, of course, to rent month to month, but between a one-month lease and an empty flat... Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 15:35

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Renting Accomodation

Long-term rentals everywhere around the world typically require the tenant to prove the ability to pay the current and every future month rent. This is done by showing salary slips (usually the last 3 in France), payment receipts from previous rental agreements, a reference letter, and/or binding someone else to be your guarantor to cover any missed payments (this person too will have to show proofs). The paperwork required hence has nothing to do with citizenship or nationalism. Rather it's simply pure business.

Short-Term Rentals

This explains why short-term rental services such as airbnb have become widely popular recently: the tenant pays the money upfront upon booking, and the landlord receives it 24h after the tenant moves in. Therefore I would suggest you looked into airbnb listings for Cahors to get a rough idea of the prices. Keep in mind that they will inevitably be more expensive than those of long-term rentals.

Holiday Rentals

There's another interesting category of short-term rentals, namely holiday rentals. These are usually spare houses in locations which might attract tourists (seaside, mountains, etc). More recently, people have started renting their own house in the months they won't be using it. In French this service would be known as Location Vacances. You can use Roomlala (previously known as Chambre à Louer) to find such type of accomodation in Cahors (see here for some listings).

Flat-Shares

Since you don't mention whether you want an entire flat or a flat share (Colocation in French) here is another suggestion. For the latter, have a look at leboncoin listings for Cahors (leboncoin is a French version of Gumtree). Note that you can also find long-term rentals there. It might be worth contacting landlords anyway to ask for short-term (listings from particuliers (= privates) as opposed to professionels (= agencies), is what you want).

Student Sublets

Last but not least, another way to find short-term rental flats is to lookout for students. Usually these pay for 12-months rent and end up using less since they eventually leave for summer holidays. I imagine they would be happy to sublet the months they wouldn't be using so as to not lose any money. You might be in luck since there's a university in Cahors. Unfortunately, the only way to find these offers is either via leboncoin listings, or by checking the various bulletin boards spread across universities, supermarkers, bakeries, etc.

Rent a Room

Should you be unable to find a flat, you can also think about renting a room in a house. In France this would be a Chambre chez l'Habitant. Roomlala can also be used to look for such type of accomodation in Cahors (see here for some listings).

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Renting in Cahors is likely to be easier than in many places, it's not unpleasant but it's not a very hip or economically successful town. So you might just ask if you can pay upfront for one month instead of providing all the documentation.

Beyond that, landlords do typically ask for pay stubs (“bulletins de salaire” or “fiches de paie”) over several months for long-term rentals but those would not be available to you anyway. Instead, you would mostly be looking at short-term holiday lets (e.g. though websites like abritel or airbnb), which will obviously be pricier.

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I know here in Antwerp/Brussels in Belgium there are huge Facebook group communities where people are putting their flats for rent or asking for a flat. Most of these Facebook groups I know are usually for co-housing (living together in a flat) and I guess it's easier to find such a flat for only 1-2 months. You could try searching for these groups and see what they offer.

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