• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result
Home Retirement/Living

While Away Your Days In Paris

Why Kathleen Peddicord Chose Panama

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Apr 26, 2022
in Retirement/Living
0 0
0
The Eiffel tower in Paris from a tiny street

Adobe Stock/AA+W

222
SHARES
3.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

In 2007, I left the publishing company where I’d been working since the age of 21.

I thought I was taking early retirement.

I was 44-years-old, and we were living in Paris. Our 18-year-old daughter was in college in the States, and our 8-year-old son was attending the local French primary school.

I’d worked every day of the 23 years since I’d finished school, hard.

I’d moved up the ladder from copy editor to publisher, from employee to partner. I’d done breakfast meetings, dinner meetings, board meetings, conference calls, and red-eye flights. I’d opened new offices in new countries, moved entire businesses across continents, launched new divisions, turned around failing ones, hired, fired, and managed growth.

I was ready for a break.

If you’re going to do nothing, Paris is the place to do it, I figured, and I thought I was ready to do nothing for a while.

I developed a routine. I’d rise early, with young Jackson, ready him for his day, and then walk him the 10 blocks from our apartment to his school. I’d kiss Jackson on the cheek, wave goodbye as I backed out the door of his classroom, then continue out of the building and on down the street for another two blocks to the bistro on the corner.

One of the greatest delights of Paris is sitting at a bistro table street side, sipping, reading, and watching. I’d choose a table with a view of the park across the way, and I’d order a pot of tea and a tartine with jam. I’d drink the tea, eat my breakfast, read my newspaper, and watch as this corner of Paris got about its day.

It was autumn. A walk through the heart of historic Paris is one of the best ways in the world to pass your time any time of year; however, exploring this part of this city on foot in autumn, the temperature crisp, leaves crunchy under foot, can be particularly pleasing.

Although we’d been living in Paris nearly four years and I’d been traveling to this city for more than two decades, I’d had little opportunity in all that time to be a tourist. This was my chance.

I bought a guidebook, and, each morning, after I’d finished my breakfast, I’d flip through it to find a new destination. Some days, I’d walk all morning, stop for lunch, then continue on until 4 in the afternoon when it was time to collect Jackson from school.

Other days I’d choose a park or a courtyard or a bench alongside the river and settle in to contemplate.

Sunny morning and Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
Adobe Stock/Iakov Kalinin

I’d watch the city gardeners as they trimmed the hedges and collected the crunchy leaves from the sidewalks… the restaurant staff as they dumped the previous evening’s cases of empty wine bottles into oversized garbage bins, sending out reverberating clatters… the building guardiennes as they polished giant brass door knockers and scrubbed ancient courtyard cobblestones…

Central Paris is always tidying and sprucing itself up.

Is France Your Dream Destination?

​​​Learn more about ​France ​​​and other countries in our FREE, daily Overseas Opportunity Letter​​​​​​​​​. Simply enter your email address below and we’ll send you our FREE REPORT – ​​​France: More Affordable Than You Think…



One afternoon, about 3 o’clock, I was sitting in the park behind Jackson’s school, face turned up and eyes closed to enjoy the afternoon sun while I waited for the 4 o’clock bell telling me it was time to walk around the corner to meet Jackson for the walk home. Toddlers ran all around me, calling out to each other and laughing.

I was in a half-asleep state with the warm sun full on my face, so I couldn’t say how long my friend was there before I realized it, but, finally, I heard my name called out sharply and opened my eyes.

Emanuela’s face was just in front of mine, and she was looking at me as though I’d gone daft.

“Kathleen, what in the world are you doing here?” she asked.

“Waiting for Jackson to finish school,” I replied.

Emanuela’s daughter Emma was in Jackson’s class. That’s how we’d become friends.

“But it will be another hour before they’re out for the day,” Emanuela said.

“You’re just going to sit here and wait for an hour? How long have you been sitting here? Why aren’t you at work?”

In the four years since we’d met, Emanuela had never known me to while away my time. I was the full-time working mother who missed school meetings and had a full-time au pair who collected my child from school at the end of each day because I never had time to do it myself. I wasn’t a pass-the-afternoon-in-the-park mom. I hadn’t spoken with Emanuela since I’d opted out of the working-mother role and transitioned, overnight, to this hang-out-in-the-park one.

“But why?” she asked incredulously when I explained that I’d retired from my post. “Why would you quit? You loved your job. What have you been doing since you stopped working? You haven’t been sitting here in this park every day, have you?”

Sitting in a Left Bank park, just off Boulevard St. Germain, is one of the most enjoyable pastimes I can imagine. Still, Emanuela had a point. How many afternoons was I going to fill this way?

I continued doing nothing in Paris for a few more months… five in total. I remember this as one of the sweetest phases of my life—nothing to do all day and all historic Paris to do it in.

I traversed the heart of this city on foot, seeing every major and many minor monuments, indulging my interest in classic architecture by inspecting some of the best of it anywhere in the world up-close, and learning, finally, to speak French.

Then, one afternoon, I returned home with Jackson and walked straight into Lief’s home office where he was at work.

“I’d like to start a publishing group,” I informed my husband. “I think I’ve done nothing long enough.”

Five months later, Lief, Jackson, and I arrived in Panama City with six overstuffed suitcases and installed ourselves in our Avenida Balboa apartment, the one we’d been renting out but that now, until we could find a bigger place, we’d call home.

Two weeks after that, my first employee arrived on the scene. Harry took up his place alongside me at the single desk in our little loft space. I began writing daily dispatches like this one… which Harry emailed out to interested readers.

Live And Invest Overseas was born.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Peddicord
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher,Overseas Opportunity Letter

Tags: 'retirement'architecturebusinessleisureParissight-seeTravel
Share91Tweet55
Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

Related Posts

Small fisherman boats at the bay and the houses in El Rompio village near town of Chitre in Panama
Retirement/Living

Where To Retire Abroad In 2023

by Sophia Titley
January 30, 2023
0

Where's the best place in the world to reposition yourself overseas in 2023? The answers are found in our just-released...

Read more
Cyprus: Better Than Your Neighbor’s Retirement To Florida

A Retire Overseas Challenge No One Talks About

January 24, 2023
Picturesque lane with flowers in an Italian hill town

5 More Things To Check Before You Move Overseas

January 11, 2023
View of Valletta, Malta old town skyline from Sliema city on the other side of Marsans harbor 

The 10 Best Places To Live Or Retire In Europe In 2023

January 3, 2023
Beautiful Coimbra town in Portugal

Portugal: The Best Place To Live Is Also One Of The Safest

December 27, 2022
Street in Cuenca, Ecuador

Adventure Travel In Ecuador

December 7, 2022
Cuenca, Ecuador

Retire To Cuenca, Ecuador

December 6, 2022

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we’ll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.







LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2023

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

The World’s Best Places To Be In 2023?

Discover Them Here…

Sign up for FREE and learn how to live the good life on a modest budget, find bargain property, and more. Plus, check out our free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE.

RETIRE OVERSEAS AND LIVE LIKE ROYALTY