Madrid

The Lycée français de Madrid, directly managed by the AEFE, is in high demand: file the application as soon as the move is confirmed, and also look at Saint-Chaumond, the Molière, Saint-Louis and Pomme d'Api. State school is free, and many schools follow the Comunidad's bilingual programme, with at least 30% of lessons in English. Our Schools and School fees pages detail both systems: /en/cities/madrid/school-fees/.

The ordinary admission round takes place in March for September, with up to six schools ranked by preference and points for living nearby. Outside that calendar, you apply directly to a school with places, or to the Servicio de Apoyo a la Escolarización (SAE) for your area, which assigns a place. Do the empadronamiento first: your address matters.

Not if one parent works and pays contributions: the INSS then recognises the right to care for the spouse and children under 26, and each receives a health card, with an assigned paediatrician at the centro de salud up to age 14. Many families add affordable private insurance for direct access to specialists. It is all explained on our Health page: /en/cities/madrid/health/.

In the public system, a paediatrician is assigned at the centro de salud for your address, and free choice lets you change at any time, without giving a reason. Privately, the consulate publishes a notoriety list of French-speaking practitioners in Madrid, including three medical advisers who make home visits; we list them, with lepetitjournal.com's list, on /en/cities/madrid/health/.

112 for any emergency, in French if needed: the Madrid 112 centre answers in more than 80 languages and dispatches SUMMA 112. For something less serious, the out-of-hospital urgent care centre shown on your health card is open evenings, nights and weekends. The reference paediatric emergency departments are Niño Jesús (24 hours, under-18s), La Paz, Gregorio Marañón and 12 de Octubre.

French families follow the schools: Hortaleza and Conde de Orgaz around the Lycée français, the district where about one in five French residents of Madrid live, La Moraleja for the Saint-Exupéry campus, Chamartín for Saint-Chaumond, Salamanca and Chamberí for city-centre living, Pozuelo and the west for houses and the Molière. Our Settling in page reviews the neighbourhoods: /en/cities/madrid/settling-in/.

In order: apply in person for each adult's EU citizen registration certificate (and so the NIE), within three months of arrival; register the whole family on the padrón as soon as you have a lease; request the Social Security number online, then each person's health card at the centro de salud; open a bank account; and join the register of French nationals, online, free and valid for 5 years. Details on /en/cities/madrid/settling-in/.

Not up to age 14, on all public transport in the Comunidad de Madrid: under-4s travel without a ticket, 4 to 6 year olds with the free Tarjeta Transporte Público Infantil, and 7 to 14 year olds with the free pass loaded on their personal card. From 15 to 25, the Abono Joven is half price in 2026. Allow a few weeks to receive the cards.

Public escuelas infantiles and casas de niños take children aged 0 to 3 with no tuition fees since 2019 (meals are still charged); admission takes place in spring, with an extraordinary round from July for remaining places, and demand often exceeds supply. Private nurseries fill the gap, at a higher cost. For a nanny, word of mouth at the French schools and Madrid Accueil works well.

Very well, and faster than you: Spanish comes in the playground, at the park and at the sports club, especially for younger children. To keep French going if your child attends a Spanish school, the Institut français runs classes for French-speaking children aged 4 to 11, and its médiathèque lends books and comics: see /en/cities/madrid/family-outings/.

Mainly for one item: housing, highly sought after near the French schools and in the centre. The rest balances out: public nursery with no tuition fees, free state school, public healthcare with nothing upfront, free transport up to 14, set lunch menus and groceries comparable to or cheaper than in France. Our Settling in page breaks the budget down: /en/cities/madrid/settling-in/.

Madrid Accueil, one of the oldest Accueils in the FIAFE network, holds drop-ins on the first and third Thursdays of the month near Colón and organises neighbourhood coffees, visits, activities in Spanish and a professional network. School gates at the Lycée français, Liceo Francés rugby, the Institut français, La Librairie in Hortaleza, UFE Espagne and Français du monde do the rest; lepetitjournal.com Madrid and Équinox list the events.