Here we are déjà, in the year 2024.

 

The year now expired has not been what most of us hoped. It started with the Doomsday clock being set at 90 seconds to midnight: “a time of unprecedented danger”. The experts who set the clock have not yet convened to reset it for 2024. They'll need to ponder their superlatives.

 

Should we go on hoping? I’ll suggest a French word to rescue us from despair, and that word is espérance. Read all about it on the “Finer French” page.

 

Each of us is like a star in that vast starry vault of the heavens above. There are countless stars but each one counts. It counts that each of us shines. It counts that we do not despair. To remind you of the number of stars, I'll take you to a place of bright-night skies, in the wilds of France. 

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The year 2024 will mark my 30th year living in France. It was not so common to emigrate from the USA in the early 1990s. I certainly wasn’t following any crowd, having come to France only for a love of its culture (incarnated by a French girl as you might suspect). These days, Americans seem to be moving to France in a great wave, impelled by their search for a better quality of life. For some, the American dream is now to leave America. If you’re pondering this leap, maybe I'll have my role to play in making your new life in France déjà as good as real!

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On the “Peek inside” page I relate the experience of a recent client to demonstrate how it is still possible to find a two-bedroom apartment in Paris for under a million. I’ll also provide some practical guidance on price negotiation in the current buyer’s market.

 

I do not advise moving to France only for more affordable health care or superior food. That could be interpreted as profiteering, and will ultimately backfire. 

Come to France for the love of something French, and if you seek you will surely find things to love. 

The things I love about France require an entire book, of which I’ll offer you an excerpt on the page “L’Heure Exquise”. 

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I bid you all a year of bonne-espérance.