Help: which area is better for families, Georgetown or Bethesda (downtown)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are your kids doing the French school? If so and you want to live in Georgetown, put them in WIS. And see if Ballston could work for figure skating/hockey. If you insist on Rochambeau, please live in Bethesda. We had French friends in Palisades sending their kid on the bus and she really struggled. They moved her to Key (the local public) after a year.

OP again: WIS isn’t AEFE unfortunately otherwise that would have been the easy choice. We need to stay in the AEFE network. Switching out, whether to another private school or local public, makes it harder to get into and be at the appropriate level for an AEFE school during our next move.

Sounds like Bethesda it is!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are your kids doing the French school? If so and you want to live in Georgetown, put them in WIS. And see if Ballston could work for figure skating/hockey. If you insist on Rochambeau, please live in Bethesda. We had French friends in Palisades sending their kid on the bus and she really struggled. They moved her to Key (the local public) after a year.

OP again: WIS isn’t AEFE unfortunately otherwise that would have been the easy choice. We need to stay in the AEFE network. Switching out, whether to another private school or local public, makes it harder to get into and be at the appropriate level for an AEFE school during our next move.

Sounds like Bethesda it is!

If you are French I can totally see the appeal of living in Georgetown. We are European too and it is the only part of the DMV that remotely reminds us of the lifestyle we had back home. But you would really make your kids’ life miserable and the US suburbia could be an interesting experience in itself . But to be fair Bethesda has many foreigners too and everyone we know is content living there.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are your kids doing the French school? If so and you want to live in Georgetown, put them in WIS. And see if Ballston could work for figure skating/hockey. If you insist on Rochambeau, please live in Bethesda. We had French friends in Palisades sending their kid on the bus and she really struggled. They moved her to Key (the local public) after a year.

OP again: WIS isn’t AEFE unfortunately otherwise that would have been the easy choice. We need to stay in the AEFE network. Switching out, whether to another private school or local public, makes it harder to get into and be at the appropriate level for an AEFE school during our next move.

Sounds like Bethesda it is!

If you are French I can totally see the appeal of living in Georgetown. We are European too and it is the only part of the DMV that remotely reminds us of the lifestyle we had back home. But you would really make your kids’ life miserable and the US suburbia could be an interesting experience in itself . But to be fair Bethesda has many foreigners too and everyone we know is content living there.

Our area in bethesda has so many Europeans. For rochambeau, You might want to look at the Alta vista neighborhood, as your kid could walk to school and you could walk to medical center metro. But it will feel suburban for your husband.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to think about is whether your kids are likely to do any sports. All the sports teams practice in the exurbs. I am not a sports person and never thought my kids would be doing travel anything but it turns out that it’s basically expected if you want to play on school teams. I don’t know what the families in Georgetown are doing about this.

The families in Georgetown, like ours, do sports with practices close by. Our DC has most practices in Tenleytown and Palisades. It is absolutely not true that all sports are in the exurbs.

I’m surprised because we know lots of families from tenleytown and palisades that are doing the trek out to MoCo with us.

[Anonymous]

I live in Rockville and work in dc. If your kids are for sure going to a school in Bethesda, just live in Bethesda, close (if you can, walking distance) to the Bethesda metro. There’s single family homes near it for sale, albeit pricey.
Doing that drive from Georgetown to Bethesda to pick up kids is worse than you commuting on metro.

[Anonymous]

If you're living in Bethesda and working for IMF/WB/embassy, look into getting a membership at Bretton Woods Country Club. Lots of your colleagues are members and spend a good chunk of the spring, summer, and fall at the club for swimming, golf, tennis, summer camp, and social activities.