I’ve always emphasized that this is a Paris blog first and foremost, but that picture of Paris is incomplete if it doesn’t include the day and weekend trips I take around this beautiful country. I always tell Americans that France … Continue reading
Author: Stephen Heiner
Why So Serious: French Advertising
More and more American audiences are getting used to something that has happened in French movie theaters for some years now: advertising that has nothing to do with movies, but is cinematic (and often quite serious) in scope. The challenge … Continue reading
The Airbnb Wars Continue in Paris
I wrote some time back rather passionately about forces conspiring to stifle Airbnb and Uber in Paris. The City of Paris recently upped the ante by publishing a website that shows all the properties that are “properly registered” as an Airbnb … Continue reading
Book Club: Paris to the Moon, by Adam Gopnik
My favorite book written about Paris from the expat perspective is the series of essays written for The New Yorker by Adam Gopnik that was later compiled into a book called Paris to the Moon. As the book’s magical title promises, it … Continue reading
You Have to File Taxes as a Fiscal Resident of France
So in France you receive a tax bill for the current year based on what you were assessed the previous year. You then pay that bill in payments so that by the time that year’s taxes are due, you will ostensibly be … Continue reading
OFII for Prof Lib
It was 07h40. “I’m early,” I thought, and decided to stop in for a quick breakfast. It was a patisserie on rue de la roquette, halfway between Bastille and my 08h00 appointment that morning. My thoughts flashed back to my … Continue reading
Profession Liberale Visa: Part 2 (90 Days Later)
Ninety days after you obtain your profession libérale visa, assuming you have done everything correctly after that momentous day at the prefecture, you will have a number of new documents to present to the Prefecture for your follow-up visit. Chief … Continue reading
Don’t Buy the Paris Pass
I really think that Americans in particular don’t leave enough unscheduled, unstructured “white space” in their European travels. They run around, convinced that they will never return, and so they have to see everything. I know. I get it. That … Continue reading
Book Club: Eiffel’s Tower, by Jill Jonnes
“But there’s no such thing as Paris without the Eiffel Tower,” said my friend Florence the other day. Locals have complicated views about the tower of iron, but perhaps she is right. But the beginning of pondering that question should … Continue reading
The Kind of Afternoon You Want to Lose
Matt was standing outside — about to message me — but I spotted him through the window. I was working at Le Poncelet, my favorite cafe in the 17th, the arrondissement I spent my first year in Paris in. I … Continue reading