Talk About Jealous! Missing Nice and Paris!

Special Note: Photos of Paris From the Sky by Erica Simone
Photos of Nice by Lisa Anselmo

While I was in New Orleans all last week, Lisa Anselmo was in Nice at Le Matisse soaking up the sun and the surf. She didn’t want to go on her own, but I talked her into it.

“Here are the keys. You already have lunch and dinner booked with friends. Go. You’ll have a great time. You’ll love Nice. You’ll love Le Matisse.”

And she did. “On a Beach in Nice — Against My Will” is her recent blog post about her three days in Nice, against her will, with great photos of what she would have missed if she hadn’t gone.

Talk about jealous! She had three days on the gorgeous Riviera exploring it for the first time and discovering that there’s more to France than just Paris. Americans tend to be Paris-centric — as if nothing else in France exists, unlike the British who barely know Paris exists! (They prefer the French countryside.) It wouldn’t be surprising of one of these days I’d give up “Gray Paree” and head for the “Blue Coast,” the sun and surf and a more relaxed lifestyle.

If you haven’t explored the Riviera, just as Lisa hadn’t, then it’s high time you did. For those interested in property, Nice apartments are half the price of Paris, rental rates are about 75% of Paris rates and the city isn’t enforcing the short-term rental laws, so it’s an even better investment than Paris and with it comes a few perks…such as an international airport, immediate access to Corsica and Italy and only a short drive to the Alps. Living on the Riviera is “class” with a Capital “C” and is the perfect antidote to the stressful urban living of Paris. You may even discover that as a vacation destination, it is NOT just like the American beach communities you already know such as Florida or California. The Côte d’Azur is very much France, very much Europe and very rich in culture.

Also while I was in New Orleans last week, my daughter, Erica Simone traveled to Paris and saw the city from a very different perspective. She and a group of visiting friends took a ride in a helicopter provided by HeliParis.fr for a tour of Versailles. It turns out that a ride over Paris by helicopter isn’t as expensive as one might think and there are several companies that provide the service. Since being a tourist was as long ago as 21 years, I hadn’t even realized so much was available to the tourists of today.

Erica purposely didn’t tell me in advance of the trip, lest I worry like any mother might do, but landed safely and couldn’t wait to share her experience and her photos. Talk about jealous!

“I want your life,” I told her. The ‘child’ is blessed, somehow managing to meet the most interesting people and experience things I might never have dared or thought of.

Being ‘blessed’ is a result of growing up in Europe which afforded advantages most American kids don’t have…such as learning to speak several languages, traveling to many different countries at an early age (often independently) and meeting people from all over the world. This is an education that no school can provide and instills a level of confidence that allows a young person to accomplish just about anything…especially a young person with an American foundation who believes she can be anyone she wants to be — the President of the United States or the Secretary-General of the United Nations…or just herself.

A la prochaine,

Adrian Leeds
The Adrian Leeds Group

(Photo by Erica Simone)

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P.S. For those of you in the New York City area, who would like to know more about investing in France, I will be available for private consultations on July 8th and 9th. Consultations are typically two hours, and I will be offering my usual euro fee at the same rate, but in U.S. dollars. Email me personally to make your appointment: [email protected]