International Living Postcards– Sunday Edition
Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006
Paris, France
Tiny white lights in long strands have been strung from one side of rue St. Honoré to the other. Down at street level, shop fronts along rue du Bac have been outlined with pine roping…and their windows glow with more white lights amidst gold baubles and red ribbon, "snow"-covered evergreens and silver beading. Walking home from the office in Paris each evening, we’ve no doubt: The Christmas season is well upon us. We take the long way home, around the Tuileries gardens, to savor it.
I appreciate Paris perhaps more every December than at any other time of the year. Appearances are important in this city, which goes to great lengths to put on a festive face for the holiday.
Lief and I spend a lot of time in the Americas…where we enjoy the sun and the sea, the comfortable pace of life and the on-the-edge-of-the-frontier opportunities…but, for me, no place compares with Paris…or Florence…Barcelona or Dubrovnik… These grande-dame cities of the Old World are living museums, where you’re treated to great works of art and architecture and colossal monuments to the accomplishments and foibles of our Western Civilization at nearly every turn.
From the sunflower and lavender fields in Provence…to the olive groves and grape vines of Istria…from the medieval white hill towns in Italy…to the long, sunny costas of Spain…the Continent offers a way of life that’s hard to beat.
A friend in Ireland asked last week if we’re still enjoying our time in Paris. Others ask regularly why we don’t, once and for all, settle in Central America, where much of our business is centered.
Sure, we tire of the back-to-back trans-Atlantic crossings…and we miss the regular Latin sunshine. Lief laments the higher cost of living on this side of the Pond.
But if the "romance factor" is anywhere near the top of your personal priority list, as it is mine, you’ll understand. The flavor of life in this part of the world (literally as well as metaphorically) is unmatched in any other.
For us, that’s enough to compensate for the downsides and the hassles.
Furthermore, though Paris certainly doesn’t qualify as an emerging market…other Continental spots do. The opportunities to make money buying and selling real estate are not restricted to those countries on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean that we report on so often. Lief bought a building in Bucharest two years ago…then resold it a year later for twice the price. Our little tumbledown stone farmhouse on the side of a mountain in Croatia’s Istrian peninsula is worth at least 30% more than we paid for it fewer than 12 months ago.
No doubt, you could make money in property in this part of the world, if that’s your agenda.
You could start over here, too…reinvent yourself, as it were–become a painter or a poet…study Italian or French cooking…open a country gite or a chateau-hotel…
Life is good in this part of the world. Sometimes, though, you need a little help to get the most from it.
Which brings me to my point: I’m writing today to announce the launch of our newest free e-letter service, "The European." This new weekly e-letter will cover all things Continental–the good, the bad, and the nerve-wracking. No, life in the Old World isn’t always easy. But it is reliably romantic and charming…pleasing to the eye and delightful to the imagination…and, at the end of every day, especially the seriously frustrating ones, there’s always a better-than-average meal and a quaffable vintage for solace. (Good wine, by the way, is one thing that need never be costly in these parts…)
"The European" is penned each week by Senior Euro-editor Leigh Fergus, installed in our Paris office. From this base, Leigh directs a Europe-wide team of contributors. Restaurant reviews and property buys…tax tips and visa laws…rental rates and the ins and outs of opening a bank account…all is fair game. Leigh’s driving editorial agenda is balance–fun with profit…travel with lifestyle…romance with bureaucracy.
Leigh will be joined regularly by our Roving Euro-editor Steenie Harvey, who will continue to contribute to International Living in her usual ways otherwise…but who will also share special tips and discoveries with readers of "The European." Plus, Amber Garrison, former editor of our "Postcards from Paris" e-letters will make guest appearances, too.
The first issue is out this week. Sign up here to get yourself on the list. Remember: It’s free.
Kathleen Peddicord
Publisher, International Living
[Don't miss out. Get your free IL Postcards subscription today.]
P.S. Leigh and the rest of our Euro-staff share a small office with Lief and me at 11 rue du Chevalier de St. George in Paris’ 11th arrondissement. If you find yourself in the city, please stop by. I know they’d enjoy meeting you.
