I’ve noticed lately that a lot of my expat friends seem to be in a slang word time warp. Do slang words learned before moving abroad stay through the years in one’s expat life? Does slang stand still over time? Je pense que oui. It seems to be the case in La Mom’s entourage. Here’s [...]
My visa expired towards the end of November. For months, I’d been dreaming up schemes that would help me to stay. The option that held the most appeal, but would be by far the hardest to get, was to try again for the Competences et Talents visa. There are a few different ways to get [...]
One of our most important holidays is Thanksgiving Day, known in France as le Jour de Merci Donnant . Le Jour de Merci Donnant was first started by a group of Pilgrims ( Pelerins ) who fled froml’Angleterre before the McCarran Act to found a colony in the New World ( le Nouveau Monde ) where they could [...]
Each year since 1970 the Women of the American Church host Bloom Where You’re Planted, a program designed to help anglophones settle into life in Paris. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, October 1st. The program begins at 9:00AM with a continental breakfast and chance to meet other participants as you take a [...]
Created by expat graphic designer Lesley Feldman after a run-in with her concierge.
A fashion professional from NYC is coming to town for Paris Fashion Week and is seeking an apartment rental September 17 through October 4, preferably under $100 a night. Please email me if you have a furnished flat available (pics, fee, and name of metro stop or street name and arrondissement). I have rented to [...]
Americans abroad tend to take BHHs (Back-Home Holidays) pretty seriously. That’s why I found myself at a gorgeous 19th-century mansion in the suburbs for a Fourth of July bash with all the trimmings. But in between the baked beans and burgers, a little Old World vs. New World tension was playing out: La Mom (whispering): [...]
Despite several highly publicized fires in the City of Light, it was only recently that French legislators passed a lawmandating smoke detector installation. By January 2016 all living facilities in France are required to have smoke detectors (détecteur de fumée). Paris’s beauty makes it easy to forget that Haussmann didn’t have safety codes in mind when renovating [...]
So, you’ve done it! You’ve moved to France and by some miracle, landed a job that will give your life meaning and line your pockets cash! Yay, good for you! That, already, is some feat. Before you get too excited, be prepared for some cultural differences, good and bad, that will make this experience unlike [...]
Many, if not most, apartments in France come with a basement space for storage. They are called caves. I discovered last week that someone was squatting in my cave. Not in person, but with their junk. How did someone get into the nook, which was locked with an industrial-strength serrure? She simply ripped the hardware [...]
