It’s a quick and easy fantasy.
Move to France, become an expatriate, live in Paris. Add some details. Live on the Left Bank, hang out in cafes, drink absinthe, write the great American novel. Being a writer and having recently spent two and a half glorious weeks in Paris, I’m particularly keen on this fantasy. It’s as old as the Lost Generation of American artists (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, Eliot, Stein, Duncan, Pierce, Seeger, et al) who exiled themselves to Paris in particular, and France generally, after the First World War. Perhaps older.
But, alas, I get homesick easily. I’ve been to Paris three times now, and after several weeks, I start missing the United States, even while I dislike some aspects of this country intensely. When I spent six months living on kibbutz in Israel with my Jewish girlfriend, I was seriously homesick. So a prolonged life as an expatriate American residing in Paris is truly a flight of fancy for me, one I would never really fulfill.
Nevertheless, there are a few details that might help one live out such an expatriate fantasy in Paris, if one should so desire.
Paris through Expatriate Eyes. My wife and I attended events sponsored by Terrance Gelenter in the US, and then met him while in Paris this last vacation. A raconteur, a flaneur, and a charming man who wears his Brooklyn Jewishness on his sleeve.
WHSmith. One of the biggest English-language bookstores in Paris. Modern, filled with latest books and magazines on every subject, which hosts English-language events.
Shakespeare and Company. One of the oldest English-language bookstores in Paris, proud as a center of English expatriate literary history, full mostly of used books and memories now. It also hosts English-language events, tours, a newsletter, etc.
San Francisco Book Company. Founded by the owner of San Francisco Carroll’s Books, who seems to have moved the bookstore lock, stock and barrel to the 6th Arrondissemont. San Francisco Book Company is part of over 200 bookstores in that Arrondissemont alone.
AngloInfo. A self-proclaimed, global expat network centered in Paris and the Ile-de-Paris, replete with event listings, discussions and blogs, directories of businesses and services, and classifieds.
WICE. Anglophone association providing cultural, educational & social activities to the international community in Paris. They are a membership organization with programs, events, and instruction.
FUSAC. An English-language magazine distributed throughout Paris offering classifieds and other advertising covering a variety of categories that has cohered a community of interest around it.
TimeOut Paris. “Your critical guide to the arts, culture and going out in Paris.”
US Embassy in Paris. And if you’re really serious about becoming an expatriate…
playing for keeps 