Planning Your Week in Paris

Being relegated to bed with a cold and flu is never much fun, but when it happens to you in Paris during your favorite month (October) which has been experiencing all time glorious weather — it’s sheer torture. I’m just now surfacing after begging my doctor (the best on the planet) for antibiotics, the symptoms are clearing up and life is starting to come back to “normal.”

“Normal” life in Paris, however, is not like normal life in most places. When we were living on three acres of wooded property in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, where even the neighbors were not visible (and naturally bored to tears), I joked that if I never saw another tree in my life, I could be happy. Well…contrary to that statement, trees in Paris are more than tolerable, especially when suddenly you find that two of them (and only two of them) along your local shopping street are lit as if it’s already Christmas, but for no good reason at all. Go figure!

This week will be doubly busy to make up for the lost time of last week’s “séjour” in bed and I hope you will take in some of the events along with me. Tomorrow (October 13th) is of course our monthly coffee gathering, “Parler Paris Après Midi,” which is held the second Tuesday of every month (except August) from 3 to 5 p.m. at La Pierre du Marais, a café on the corner of rue de Bretagne and rue des Archives (3rd district).

This is an opportunity for you readers to meet one another and exchange ideas and interests. It’s free to attend except for the beverage you order and it is always, without a doubt, fun! So many wonderful relationships have resulted from these two short hours every month, that it could (almost) rival Facebook!

We’ve reported on the meetings since October 2003, although the gatherings began long before that. And if you attend, just know that you must be willing to have your photograph taken and disclose a brief description about yourself for publishing in Parler Paris. That’s the only ‘rule!’

Next month, the meeting will take place one week late as I’ll be traveling on a special vacation, so mark your calendar for November 17th instead of Tuesday the 10th. For more information and to peruse past meetings, visit
www.parlerparis.com/apresmidi.html and then plan on coming tomorrow to celebrate my birthday along with all the other “Balances” (Libras).

The rest of the week (besides getting used to being one year older), I’ll be gearing up for the “Money Matters for Women Conference” on Saturday, October 17th. Presented by WICE, hosted by The American University of Paris and with the support of “Smart Women Products,” the annual event is designed to help women address the unique goals and challenges they face in order to reach their financial goals.

I was asked to speak at the conference on my favorite subject: “Property Investment in France.” It’s just a half-day, so it’s power packed, with speakers well versed on the topics of finance: