March 2, 2010
Paris, France
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Dear Live and Invest Overseas Reader,
During a recent visit to Paris, while our own apartment was rented to a nice Japanese banker, we decided to see the City of Light from another angle. Rather than in the 7th
arrondissement, where we normally call home when in this part of the world, we opted to stay across town, in the 10th.
"Embrace the bohemian experience," Lief urged as we made our way down Boulevard Sebastopol our first afternoon residing in our furnishings-by-IKEA digs.
Indeed, we did, in our rented apartment situated between the 9th and 10th
arrondissements (or, as Kaitlin explained to a French friend on the phone, "My parents are in an apartment near St. Denis of all places!").
Prostitution is legal in France, and rue St. Denis is one of the places where the industry thrives. I've never walked the business blocks of the street myself, but I'm told they're lined at all hours with ladies of every description and to accommodate every budget.
The big business on the street where we stayed was food. Within a two- or three-minute walk in any direction were vegetable stands and butchers, spice stalls and bakeries, glass-encased rotisseries on the street offering fresh-roasted chickens and restaurants serving up specialties from Vietnam or Thailand, Morocco or Pakistan, China or India. The air was alive early 'til late with the smells of good and exotic things to eat.
Food...and hair. There were 27 hair salons, spas, and shops in the blocks surrounding us. We counted.
Our adopted neighborhood was short on cute and long on urban. Particular stretches are known as "Little Bombay" or "Little Jaffna" (for its Sri Lankan community).
These rues and boulevards are certainly ethnic and sometimes gritty, but they're not unsafe or even unclean. The area is charming in its way.
In fact, it's being called "up-and-coming"...like the Marais a decade ago. Today, the Marais, the city's former marshland, former Jewish district, is one of its trendiest, with the art galleries, studios, young, eclectic population, and, as well, prices to prove it. If you can no longer afford the Marais...look over in the workingman's Paris instead.
Over in the 10th, beneath the grit, especially around the Canal Saint-Martin, you catch glimpses of Belle Epoque. During our walks around the neighborhood, we noticed, mixed in among the vegetable stands and the hairdressers, a Baccarat crystal shop and a high-end furrier. The nearby Gare de l'Est train station has undergone a major refurbishment, and the area around
Boulevard Magenta, which runs past the station and south to République, is said to be the place to shop for an investment these days.
To buy today in Paris' 7th
arrondissement, the historic and tourist center of the city and its most expensive district, you could spend 10,000 euro per square meter or more (meaning a 100-square-meter apartment could set you back 1 million euro). On the other hand, over here in the 10th, the average price per square meter is about 6,000 euro, meaning a 100-square-meter apartment might go for 600,000 euro.
Fifty square meters would cost half as much in each case, of course. Apartments in Paris (as in Europe in general), certainly apartments in the older historic districts, are typically small. Most single people and many couples live in one-bedroom apartments of about 50 to 75 square meters.
You could rent a one-bedroom apartment in the 7th for as little as 1,500 euro per month, while a one-bedroom in the 10th could be rented monthly for as little as half that right now.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. This is the kind of comparative thinking and analysis we'll do live and in person during our
Live & Invest in France Conference in Paris this summer. We've set the dates: July 22-23. Full program details forthcoming.
Register your early interest now to be eligible for special pre-registration discounts.
Editor's Note: France is one of the 14 overseas retirement havens featured in Kathleen Peddicord's new book,
How To Retire Overseas--Everything You Need To Know To Live Well (For Less) Abroad, being published this month by Penguin Books.
Today, we launch the official countdown to the advent of the hard-cover edition on bookstore shelves March 18. Mark your calendar, therefore, as follows:
To Do Thursday, March 18: Go to my nearest Borders or Barnes & Noble and snatch up my first-edition copy of How To Retire Overseas, the definitive guide to retiring in style in the world's top havens!
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"Kathleen, our subscription to your newsletter has been an excellent source of information. With help from you, we have narrowed our focus to four places we'd like to check out.
"As part of our research, we'll be visiting
Belize in April and are trying to figure out the best travel arrangements. We think now that the best route is to fly from Las Vegas, Nevada, where we live, to Cancun and then to travel by bus or air to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye.
"Does that sound right to you?"
-- Simon and Sue R., United States
Belize Correspondent Ann Kuffner replies:
"Yes, Cancun is your cheapest flight option, as Mexico subsidizes flights from the United States to this city, and this is how I typically travel between Belize and the States.
"Then, from Cancun or Playa del Carmen (about an hour from Cancun), you could take a very comfortable bus to Chetumal and then a boat directly to San Pedro on Ambergris.
"Or you could book a flight on Maya Regional Air from Cancun to Belize City and then take a regional Belize flight to San Pedro. This approach is costlier, and Maya sometimes cancels these flights. The bus and boat strategy is less expensive but makes for a long day...
"Personally, when I come and go between Belize and the States, I overnight in Playa del Carmen. I really enjoy it there. There are very reasonably priced hotels in Playa, and it is a fun place to have dinner and hang out."
Editor's Note: Correspondent Ann Kuffner will be a key participant in our upcoming
Live & Invest in Belize Conference, scheduled for June 21-22. We're holding the event on Ann's adopted island home of Ambergris Caye, where we'll convene not only Ann, but all our key Belize contacts and experts at a tropical beachside resort. What better way to get to know all the benefits and advantages of expat life in this English-speaking Caribbean haven than by spending a few days among the palms (and some very good company)?
We'll publish full details of the program we're planning next week. Meantime,
get your name on the list for special pre-registration discounts here now.
