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Paris Update: Landlord Fined for Short Term Vacation Rental

original Article:

http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/paris-un-loueur-de-meubles-touristiques-condamne-a-15-000-euros-d-amende-13-04-2012-1451300_23.php

English Google Translation of Point.fr Article: Please inquire if you require further clarifications.

A Paris Landlord was condemned at the beginning of April some referred to two fines of a total of 15 000 Euros to have rented to Paris as "tourist furnished" four apartments intend for the dwelling, one has learn Friday of judicial source.  It was equally constrained, by the president of the high court of ruling Paris in referred April 5, to reestablish the usage of foreseen dwelling for these apartments in the two months, under penalty of to have to pour 200 Euros of fine a day of delay and by apartment. 

A trial of strength opposes for several months the city Hall of Paris that wishes, in the name of the equitable access to the lodging, put the holà to the explosion of the housings of furnishings in the capital, to real estate agencies and special.  The law foresees that to Paris any transformation of a local one of dwelling for another usage must obtain the authorization of the city hall and is subordinated to compensations, under form for example transformation in dwelling of a local other in the concerned zone. 

20% of the rental offer

For two years, the floor of Paris and the city hall undertook, by judicial way, to prevent the misappropriations of their usage of dwelling of situated apartments in the center of the capital and rented by way of "tourist furnished" to the passage tourists.  According to the city Hall of Paris, in five years, close to 20 000 lodgings have "summer subtract to the traditional rental market" and "in certain districts the housings of tourist furnishings represent until 20% of the rental offer". 

The city hall considers that the practiced prices for the furnishings oscillate between the double and the triple one of the prices for the traditional housings and that this phenomenon "provokes a decrease of the rental traditional private offer and an increase of the cost of the lodgings". 

French Version:

Un bailleur a été condamné début avril en référé à deux amendes d'un total de 15 000 euros pour avoir loué à Paris comme "meublés touristiques" quatre appartements destinés à l'habitation, a-t-on appris vendredi de source judiciaire. Il a également été contraint, par le président du tribunal de grande instance de Paris statuant en référé le 5 avril, à rétablir l'usage d'habitation prévu pour ces appartements dans les deux mois, sous peine de devoir verser 200 euros d'amende par jour de retard et par appartement.

Un bras de fer oppose depuis plusieurs mois la Mairie de Paris qui souhaite, au nom de l'accès équitable au logement, mettre le holà à l'explosion des locations de meublés dans la capitale, à des agences immobilières et des particuliers. La loi prévoit qu'à Paris toute transformation d'un local d'habitation pour un autre usage doit obtenir l'autorisation de la mairie et est subordonnée à des compensations, sous forme par exemple de la transformation en habitation d'un autre local dans la zone concernée.

20 % de l'offre locative

Depuis deux ans, le parquet de Paris et la mairie ont entrepris, par voie judiciaire, d'empêcher les détournements de leur usage d'habitation d'appartements situés dans le centre de la capitale et loués à titre de "meublés touristiques" aux touristes de passage. Selon la Mairie de Paris, en cinq ans, près de 20 000 logements ont "été soustraits au marché locatif traditionnel" et "dans certains arrondissements les locations de meublés touristiques représentent jusqu'à 20 % de l'offre locative".

La mairie estime que les prix pratiqués pour les meublés oscillent entre le double et le triple des prix pour les locations traditionnelles et que ce phénomène "provoque une diminution de l'offre locative privée traditionnelle et une hausse du coût des logements".

Where Are the Best Places to Live in France?

Where Are the Best Places to Live in France?

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According to International Living Magazine, there is nowhere better to live in the world than France. Earlier this year the influential publication examined 194 countries on 9 specific criteria such as culture, climate and crime, and France came out on top -- for the fifth year running! For us Britons that's fortunate, because France is on our doorstep and it's therefore an easy country to escape to. . .

. . .and it's a good thing that we can so easily access beautiful France for a better quality of more affordable life! However, a more in-depth study of what it's like to live specifically in France reveals that there is a great deal of difference between the various departments and regions.

So, where are the best places to live in France? The answer is of course 'it depends' -- i.e., it depends what you're looking for from life. France's L'Express magazine has taken it upon itself to examine the whole of France based on a range of criteria that determine quality of life, and it's findings are invaluable if you are thinking of living in France.

Where to Live in France if You're Moving with Children in Tow

Based on where there are the best schools and educational facilities, the best shopping and also employment prospects, L'Express has rated the following department as the top three for families: -

1 - Haute-Garonne in the Midi Pyrenees
2 - Pyrénées-Atlantiques in Aquitaine
3 -- Vendée in Pays de la Loire

Each department scored well on average for the type of criteria families typically place on a destination. . .and so these are recommended spots for you to explore if you're thinking of relocating to France with children in tow.

Where to Live in France if You're Thinking of Retiring

For those aged 50+, schools and employment prospects will be less important of course, whereas health care facilities, where residents are healthiest and live longest, where the quality of the environment and the climate are favourable and where crime is less will be important factors. As a result L'Express rated the following departments as the top three for would-be retirees: -

1 - Hautes-Alpes in Provence Alpes -- Cote D'Azur
2 -- Corrèze in Limousin
3 -- Aveyron in the Midi-Pyrenes

Where is the Best Place in France for Affordable Property?

If you're looking to move to France and the one thing driving your desire is the fact that you can hopefully afford a beautiful home then the following departments should be considered by you: -

1 - Indre in the Centre region
2 - Nièvre in Burgundy
3 - Meuse in Lorraine

Although Creuse, the Correze and the Haute Loire are all also worth a look if you're after an affordable place to live.

Where To Live in France for the Best Weather

When it comes to the weather, we usually think the hotter the better, but the French think it's important to look at climate as a whole when thinking about the best environment in which to live -- as a result it's probably unsurprising that the Mediterranean region came out on top. It offers stunning summer weather as we well know, but at the same time the winters are far less harsh as well, meaning that Var and Bouches-du-Rhône from the Provence Alpes -- Cote D'Azur region took joint first place for their climate.

The Best Place to Live in France for the Good of Your Health

If you're looking to move abroad to escape the stresses of everyday life and you're concerned about your health and accessing the best healthcare on offer across the Channel then the following are L'Express's top 3 destinations for health tourists!

1 -- Paris
2 - Bouches-du-Rhône in the Provence Alpes -- Cote D'Azur region
3 - Gironde in Aquitaine

The Overall Top 20 Places to Live in France

L'Express magazine looked at a whole host of criteria from where the climate is better to where the natural environment has been well preserved, (Lozère, Ariège and then the Pyrénées-Orientales in case you were wondering), and ultimately it placed the 96 departments in one long ordered list. The overall top 20 places to live in France from their detailed analysis are therefore as follows: -

1 - Haute-Garonne
2 - Pyrénées-Atlantiques
3 - Ille-et-Vilaine
4 - Isère
5 - Gironde
6 - Hérault
7 - Maine-et-Loire
8 - Rhône
9 - Vienne
10 - Vendée
11 - Loire-Atlantique
12 - Côte-d'Or
13 - Corrèze
14 - Alpes-Maritimes
15 - Indre-et-Loire
16 - Bas-Rhin
17 - Savoie
18 - Doubs
19 - Haute-Savoie
20 - Puy-de-Dôme

Maybe you have a comment on this article or we can be of assistance in your search?

Thanks for reading!

G R O U P E - M D G
Acquisition - Financing - Management
http://www.Paris-Propriete-Recherche.com
+33 (0)6 21 21 13 55

Paris is now the biggest real estate investment destination in Europe

Paris is now the biggest real estate investment destination in Europe, having overtaken London in the second half of last year according to new data released by CB Richard Ellis.

In its survey of European capital markets, CBRE reports that investment volumes in Paris hit 7.9 billion Euros in 2H 2011, up from 3.6 billion Euros in the first half of the year. With this Paris pipped London at the post with its 7.8 billion Euros investment volume.

The office sector drove the surge in Paris investment according to the report, with a mixture of single-asset and large portfolio transactions. With turnover up 30.7% in the second half of 2011, Paris now accounts for over 14% of the European real estate investment market according to CBRE.

The report also highlights a recovery in Moscow real estate investment. With 2.6 billion Euros invested in the second half, compared to 1.9 bn in the first half, Moscow overtook Berlin to become the sixth biggest real estate investment market in Europe.

CBRE believes investment in Moscow will continue to grow. 'Domestic investors account for the majority of commercial real estate investment in Russia. Once foreign investors recover their appetite for Russia, we can expect Russia to rise further, not least as it is one of Europe's three megapolises,' said Christopher Peters, CBRE research director for Russia.

The report's market by market analysis shows strong year on year growth in real estate investment for 2011 as a whole in France and Germany, while investment shrank in Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the UK. In fact, in Ireland only 8 deals were done in 2011 almost every one following a repossession, and in Portugal only 15 deals were done. This shows that while bond investors may have eased up of late, property investors are still shaky when it comes to the sovereign debt crisis.

Hotel Trends: Tending to the Loyalists

By JULIE WEED

Published: January 2, 2012

With airplanes flying so full these days, it’s not easy to find a seat using frequent flier miles. But hotel loyalty programs are a different story.

Paul J. Bereswill/AP Images for SPG

At the Open in September, the tennis pro James Blake, right, gave lessons to select Starwood guests.

Hotel programs generally do not have blackout dates, do not charge travelers to book a reward stay and do not assess a fee if customers’ plans change and they need to rebook the room.

But hotel chains have more inventory than airlines because their occupancy rate is usually lower than an air carrier’s. Customers who redeem points for a free stay “aren’t usually taking a room away from a paying customer, the way an airline traveler redeeming a free seat might be,” said Brian Kelly, who manages a travel blog called The Points Guy.

Hotel rewards programs are not all alike, however. Some erase points if an account shows no activity in a year, while other programs’ points never expire.

Customers in the Hilton HHonors program, for example, need to fulfill annual qualification requirements or they may be downgraded to a lower rewards tier. The points remain active as long as the program member stays in a Hilton Worldwide hotel, or earns or redeems any HHonors points within a 12-month period. Otherwise, they expire. “We want to focus more on the people who are still engaged with us,” said Jeff Diskin, senior vice president for global customer marketing at Hilton Worldwide. “We are stratifying who we invest in.”

In the Starwood Preferred Guest program, which includes the W, Westin, Sheraton and St. Regis chains, customers at the basic level also have their accounts closed and points forfeited if they have no activity in their account in a year. E-mails to rewards program members suggest ways to keep the account open short of a hotel stay, like dining at a hotel in the chain or spending $12.50 to buy 1,000 Starpoints.

At the elite levels, the program is more forgiving, particularly for the highest tier, Platinum. “Each year a member is inactive, they are placed in a lower level so you can go years at the Platinum status without any activity before an account is closed,” said Chris Holdren, senior vice president for Starwood Preferred Guest.

Hyatt Hotels also closes accounts and erases points after 12 months. The Marriott Rewards policy says the company reserves the right to close accounts after two years of inactivity, but a spokeswoman, Laurie Goldstein, said, “So far, we have never done it.”

Michael McCall, the chairman of the marketing and law department at Ithaca College’s School of Business, pointed out that guests redeeming points for a free stay cost the hotel money, so promises of future free stays can take away from future profits.

Still, demoting customers who stay infrequently or canceling their points can be dicey, Mr. McCall said. “It saves money, but can engender ill will.”

Clay Voorhees, a marketing professor at the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, says hotels must focus on top customers because they are the most profitable. “Someone who only stays a few nights per year but just explodes money on conference facilities and meals is more valuable to the hotel than a value seeker who stays more often, but always at a discount,” he said.

Hotels are offering more choices to customers in redeeming their points. Frequent travelers who already spend many nights on the road may not value a free night in a hotel. They can choose instead to participate in hotel-sponsored events. The Fairmont offers a visit to a Zulu village in South Africa, where guests are accompanied by a photographer and served a traditional meal. At the W hotel in Hong Kong last October, Starwood Preferred Guest members could redeem points for a private concert with a pop star, Khalil Fong. Hilton and others allow members to buy merchandise, combine with airline miles or donate points to charity.

Those on the lower rungs of hotel rewards systems can inexpensively reset the expiration clock, Mr. Kelly, the blogger, said. He pointed to free mileage management services like Usingmiles.com and Awardwallet.com that will notify the user when points are due to expire. “Letting points expire is like putting money in a trash can,” he said.

Points never expire for members of the Priority Club, which is run by the InterContinental Hotels Group and includes Holiday Inn, InterContinental Hotels and Crowne Plaza. Don Berg, vice president for loyalty programs and partnerships at IHG, said his company’s program was created in 1983, and 50,000 original customers were still in the program, even though “there were periods of time along the way when we didn’t see some of them for a while.”

“Our research tells us the No. 1 feature of a rewards system is no point expiration,” Mr. Berg said. “It would be like looking at your checking account one day and seeing your money is all gone.”

Mr. Berg said there sometimes was a natural ebb and flow in travel habits. Customers cycle in and out of jobs that require heavy travel, he said, or may have circumstances like the birth of a baby or a family illness that dictate the amount of time they can spend away from home. “If you are sick, and we don’t see you for a year, we’re not going to cut you off,” he said.

There are a number of ways to compare hotel rewards programs other than how quickly points expire. Travelers can compare the number of points they receive for each dollar spent, as well as how many points they need to earn a free night at a luxury property. They can also see the point total to qualify for elite status, which offers benefits like free room upgrades and late checkout.

And then there are the hotels that eschew points-based reward systems. At the Kimpton hotel chain, seven stays earn customers a free room night. Staying at 10 different hotels earns two nights. “We wanted to encourage travelers to try different Kimpton hotels, perhaps in the same city,” said Niki Leondakis, president of Kimpton Hotels. “We also wanted our free stays to be uncomplicated, so customers don’t have to worry about acquiring different numbers of points for different stays or redeem different amounts of points to stay at different hotels.”

Mr. Kelly agreed that hotel rewards systems “can be complicated, confusing and annoying.” But, he added, “It’s worth investing time in figuring out how to earn and keep them.”

Lost in Paris

By MATT GROSS

Published: October 7, 2011

FOUR days after I arrived in Paris, I bought an umbrella. It had been raining on and off the entire time, and during my daily walks I’d been carrying a lightweight waterproof shell — bright green — which at the first sign of precipitation I’d unroll from its bundle and zip up, often removing it just minutes later, when the skies temporarily cleared. This was silly, I kept telling myself. There had to be a better way.

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Still, I never set out specifically to buy the umbrella. It was only when, one Monday morning, I had decided to stroll the streets of St.-Germain-des-Près, the tony Left Bank neighborhood, that the urge struck me. It happened, appropriately enough, in front of an umbrella store on the Boulevard St.-Germain.

This was no mere umbrella store. This was Alexandra Sojfer, and its windows were dazzling displays of parasols, frilly and bright and elaborate and not exactly my style — but umbrellas nonetheless. Inside, I asked about the wares, and the shopkeeper, a refreshingly friendly blond woman, who I later realized was Ms. Sojfer herself, explained that the company had been in the umbrella business since 1834 and that yes, they did carry more masculine, utilitarian rain gear. She showed me two models, a long one and a short one, both with fine carved-wood handles.

“But you know,” I said, “I come from New York, where the wind is strong and the streets are littered with the skeletons of dead umbrellas.”

Not to worry, she said. If any of the metal struts were damaged, I could simply return it to the shop to be fixed.

“O.K.,” I said, hefting a short, gray one, “I’ll take it.”

Then she carried the umbrella behind the counter and asked me for 240 euros.

I handed her a credit card.

For the next 10 minutes, as I sipped an espresso she’d made me and filled out the French tax-rebate form, I tried to understand what had just happened. Had I really spent 240 euros (about $320 at $1.33 to the euro) on an umbrella, one that, albeit sturdy, was not significantly different from a 24-euro umbrella? With the V.A.T. rebate, of course, the total would be reduced by 39 euros, and surely this coffee was worth at least 1 euro, so really I’d spent only 200 euros. Only.

One thing was for sure, I thought as I walked out of the shop into a suddenly sunny and rain-free morning: This was something I’d never done in Paris before — had never even imagined doing — and that was exactly why I was here, to see what new experiences could be wrung out of a city I’ve visited every two or three years since 1994. I’ve been here in the frigidity of December, in the full baking heat of August, on glorious late-spring and early-autumn days when the city is at the height of its considerable beauty. I’ve come alone and with family, to visit the woman I later married and to try to survive on dollars a day as the Frugal Traveler for this newspaper. Paris was where I tasted sweetbreads for the first time, where I bought my first suit, where I learned it’s O.K. to walk out of a restaurant that’s treating you poorly. I know Paris, not perfectly, but well.

In recent years, my activities increasingly centered on a relatively constrained area, the Right Bank neighborhoods stretching from the Marais, the old Jewish quarter turned fashionable outdoor mall, up to Montmartre, across the trendy, bourgeois-bohemian Canal St.-Martin and down to the immigrant quarter of Belleville and the riot of bars and cafes surrounding Bastille. At the same time, my group of Parisian friends had expanded and crystallized; I had a ready-to-go posse whenever I stepped out of the Métro.

But as I prepared for a weeklong visit in early September, I didn’t want to just return to my favorite places and wallow in nostalgia. I wanted to see if it was possible to re-experience Paris as if for the first time, to be amazed by the reality of the place instead of comforted by its familiarity. Because seeking out the “new” in Paris is problematic in a city where change comes grudgingly, if at all, I set my sights on the yet-unfamiliar. How could there not be delightful restaurants, art galleries, little-known immigrant pockets and underground jazz clubs I’d never discovered?

Page 2 of 4)

 

This would certainly be a quixotic, self-contradictory mission, but it was a mission nonetheless, and on my first day, I almost completely failed. Arriving across the Seine from Notre-Dame cathedral — just about the geographic center of the city — I was surrounded by neighborhoods I already knew: the Marais, the Latin Quarter, Bastille. And as I walked (and walked and walked) to escape them, jet lag, fatigue and the gray skies’ miserable drizzle conspired to drain my energy. Lunch on the quiet Île St.-Louis was a find — Gillardeau oysters and free-range chicken at the low-key Auberge de la Reine Blanche — but it went by like a blip. And that evening it took me five tries to find an available, affordable hotel room. At sunset, as I took my first shower of the day, I wondered how I could keep this up.

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But the next day I figured it out. My legs rested (if still restless), I marched north up to Montmartre, the hilltop 18th Arrondissement neighborhood famous for windmills, cabarets and the Sacré-Coeur basilica. The sun was out and the air was cool, and though I thought I knew Montmartre, I kept finding minor-key surprises, like the high, serene walls around the Cimetière Montmartre and the plaques identifying the former homes of famous composers (here Berlioz, there Satie). When I rounded a corner onto the Rue St.-Vincent, a peaceful lane that ran up past the Clos de Montmartre vineyard, I had a flash: This is the street from that Yves Montand song I love! (I’m no scholar of postwar chansons; I heard it on the “Rushmore” soundtrack.)

So when, a few minutes later, I spied a storefront called Studios Paris advertising short-term rentals, I made a decision. Wandering Paris was fun; carrying all my belongings with me, rain or shine, was less so. But an apartment would be more than a glorified storage locker or a spot for an afternoon nap — it would be a little corner of Paris to claim as my own. Into Studios Paris I walked.

ONE hour later, I was looking out from the sole window of the Eagle’s Nest, my newly renovated seventh-floor garret, at what might be the best view of Paris in Paris. From Montreuil in the east to the Bois de Boulogne, it was unobstructed: the towers, the domes, the mansard rooftops, the slight sinuous suggestion of the Seine. For the next six days, I would look at this view every morning as I drank my coffee. I’d look at this view at sunset, after returning from my wanderings for a shower, a rest and a glass of wine. I’d watch it in the driving rain, and at midnight, when searchlights spun around the Eiffel Tower. The apartment itself might be only 150 square feet, with a private toilet out in the hall, but my living room was all of Paris.

And in my backyard, Montmartre, which I realized I didn’t know well at all. That first night, at the sloping corner where the Rue Garreau merges with the Rue Durantin, I watched a woman with impressively curly hair sit on a step, rolling a cigarette with utmost concentration. Just above her, in the tall and narrow second-story window of a flatiron-style building, another woman danced in front of a mirror, testing her outfit for the evening. And across the cobbled street, the lights of La Part des Anges — a cozy restaurant with outdoor tables where a mother rocked an infant — bathed the scene in a golden glow.

I stood there taking it in: the angles of the buildings, the contrast of the darkening sky and the soft electric lights, the energy and anticipation swelling here and everywhere across Paris. It was all the more thrilling for the fact that I had been here, at this precise intersection, who knows how many times before, but had never quite seen it this way, so alive, so pulsing with potential. Tourists, I knew, lurked nearby, and Parisian scenesters were massing outside bars down the street, too, but the magic of a great neighborhood in this city is that it feels as though it exists for you alone.

Of course, I was not yet ready to be in an exclusive relationship with Montmartre, and since this was Paris, what’s a little flirting between neighborhoods? Perhaps I could find the same happiness, or better, in a place like the 15th Arrondissement, a mostly residential area in southwest Paris that has, as far as I can tell, not a single tourist attraction — no monuments, no cultural institutions (unless you count the Cordon Bleu).

What it does have is real, normal life, which can be as appealing as the “Winged Victory” in the Louvre. For an afternoon I zigzagged among eminently pleasant squares and small parks, resting here to eat a ham sandwich (procured from a boulangerie that placed ninth in last year’s best baguette competition), pausing there to observe the goings-on. Well-dressed friends posing for wedding pictures. A 3-year-old riding a scooter under the supervision of his parents and grandparents. Joggers and sunbathers and teenagers speaking indecipherably slangy French. The sun shone warmly, and I drank an Orangina.

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Every once in a while, though, I got a brief glimpse behind this idyllic curtain. As I walked up near the Seine, I passed an old brick high school, glanced down the road to my left and stopped in my tracks. There, hidden until now at the end of the street, was a modernist skyscraper, the Tour Evasion 2000, rising awfully, dejectedly, above its surroundings. And yet it charmed me — so rundown, so out of place in what we think of as a grand, pristine belle époque city. Beyond the tower, stuck between a busy road and the quais of the Seine, was a narrow strip of parkland, a group of homeless immigrants encamped at one end, a nearly naked woman sunbathing at the other.

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From there I turned back east, where suddenly the landscape became oddly familiar. Right! Here, still in the 15th, was 47, rue Fondary, where 13 years ago my then-girlfriend, now-wife, Jean, had lived as a student, and down the street the Hôtel Fondary, where we’d spent a night after locking ourselves out of her apartment. That was the first in what would be a long series of travel-related near-disasters — our calamitous Mexican road trip, our jet-lagged toddler’s miserable Taiwan visit — and while I remembered it now fondly, I also felt strange. I’d been whipsawed back and forth between the new and the nostalgic — and I kind of liked it.

This disconcerting though pleasurable phenomenon — the past inserting itself into the present — happened again and again. Another day, back on the Right Bank, in a part of the 12th Arrondissement I would’ve sworn I’d never visited, I stopped for lunch at a cafe, Au Va et Vient, and at one of the outdoor tables enjoyed a hearty bowl of duck confit with sweet carrots while the man next to me distractedly tried to read a Paul Theroux book. Nothing I could see on the broad boulevard — trees, fountains, people strutting purposefully into the Métro — gelled into memory. But afterward, I walked a half-block and found myself at Raimo, an ice cream shop founded in 1947 that also sells sacks of toasted almonds, a lesser-known delicacy that a friend turned me on to in 2009.

Then, just around the corner, I found a mysterious parklike path that led who knows where. Actually, I realized after a few minutes of following it, I knew exactly where. This was the Chemin Vert, the green highway that wends surreptitiously across the 12th, sometimes below street level, sometimes over an old viaduct and occasionally cutting right through buildings. And I’d certainly walked it before. In fact, Jean and I had dined beneath it, at Le Viaduc Café, a trendy spot (or so we thought) back in 1998. And I’d probably ordered duck confit then, too.

Before I had a chance to process this stumbled-upon memory, however, it began to rain. I opened my expensive umbrella and kept on walking.

Almost everywhere I looked in Paris I found this tug between the past and present engulfing me. The novel I’d picked up in a Marais bookstore — Haruki Murakami’s “1Q84” — turned out to be a story of the past creepily inserting itself into the present. Of course. And Lars von Trier’s provocative “Melancholia,” which I caught in Montmartre, was about a dysfunctional family facing the ultimate eradication of their past (and present and future). It was as if Paris itself knew why I had come. Or maybe I was finally seeing Paris for what it really was: a marvelous open-air cinema where the filmstrips of our memories flicker ceaselessly, even as we shoot new scenes.

Any angst I had about the success or failure of my mission was fast evaporating as I was enjoying myself too much to care, and coming to realize that whatever I was doing, I was still participating in distinctly Parisian endeavors. Reminiscing at meaningful corners, indulging in highbrow culture available nowhere else, eating more duck than one should eat — this is why we come to Paris in the first place. This is why I’d come to Paris, and why I’d kept coming back.

That said, one day’s excursion, to the busy but overlooked 13th Arrondissement, got me more excited than every other, because it was entirely new. Following a vague tip from a Drew Barrymore look-alike I met in a bar, I took the Métro to the Bibliothèque Nationale Française and hunted for Les Frigos, an artists’ collective. Frankly, it wasn’t a hunt. Les Frigos, housed in a craggy, turreted cold-storage warehouse built in 1921, instantly stood out in this new neighborhood of glass and steel. Inside, the walls had been decorated floor to ceiling by the generations of sculptors, painters and photographers who’ve worked here since the mid-’80s. Nothing was going on that day, but I didn’t care. The building itself was worth witnessing, particularly because I’d never heard of it before.

To the west, the neighborhood was older, full of businesses like Le Cristal, a grotty, busy brasserie where a creaky-voiced waitress served me roast lamb in a flood of flageolets. But it also included a whole Little Saigon that I hadn’t known about — street after street of Vietnamese noodle shops and vendors of cheap souvenirs. There was even some quirky history, like the Square Henri-Rousselle, where the first hot-air-balloon flight landed in 1783.

And right nearby, La Butte aux Cailles. How had I missed this neighborhood all these years? With its narrow lanes, clever street art and relaxed cafe-bars, it felt like a village in the middle of Paris — like the Marais minus the boutiques or Montmartre pre-“Amélie.” I walked up and down the streets, then into the offices of Les Amis de la Commune de Paris, a group dedicated to preserving the memory of the few months in 1871 when a workers’ movement took control of the capital.

“It’s not taught in schools,” lamented Françoise Bazire, Les Amis’ secretary general. That bit of the past was fading.

AS was I. It was early evening, and I needed a shower and a nap. Back to Montmartre I went, though with the knowledge that, one day, I’d return to La Butte aux Cailles, and remember having been there before.

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When I emerged from the Métro at Les Abbesses, I popped into Au Levain d’Antan, a boulangerie that got the top place in this year’s best baguette competition, and bought a demi-baguette, still warm from the oven. Then I raced down the street and up seven flights of stairs to my garret, where I sliced open the bread, slathered it with good Échiré butter, cracked open a bottle of ice-cold Sancerre and consumed my snack while watching the setting sun cast shadows across the City of Light. Forget the past, the present, the future, my expectations and my memories — this was living, no matter where or when I was.

When at last the morning came to check out of the Eagle’s Nest, I took one more look at the sunlit view and could see almost nowhere I hadn’t set foot. No doubt secrets remained, but they would be revealed in time.

It was 11:30. The rental agency’s rep would be downstairs, waiting for me to let her in. I patted my back pocket, heard the reassuring clink of my keys and walked into the hall, closing the door behind me. Then I froze. That clink was not keys but coins. I was locked out, just as my wife and I had been 13 years before.

This was only a minor emergency. The apartment’s owner would be located in a few hours, the keys reproduced, my belongings recovered. But until then, there was nothing to do but walk out — as I’d done a hundred times before, as I hope to do a thousand times more — into the streets of Paris, with no clear idea of where I was going, or what I would do when I got there.

TIME AND AGAIN

While I discovered a lot of new places on this trip, there are several old favorites I wish I’d gotten back to.

OLD FAVORITES

Fondation Cartier, 261, boulevard Raspail, 14th Arrondissement; (33-1) 42-18-56-50; fondation.cartier.com. There’s always something thought-provoking at this contemporary art space, like “Mathematics: A Beautiful Elsewhere,” opening Oct. 21.

Kulte, two locations; kulte.fr. This Marseille-based men’s wear label strikes a nice balance between street style and formality, and at a fair price.

Le Bistrot du Peintre, 116, avenue Ledru-Rollin, 11th; (33-1) 47-00-34-39; bistrotdupeintre.com. I’ve never eaten here, but it’s my favorite building in Paris, with a stunning Art Nouveau interior that’s perfect for afternoon coffee.

Librairie Ulysse, 26 Rue-St.-Louis-en-l’Île, Fourth; (33-1) 43-25-17-35; www.ulysse.fr. A travel bookstore jammed with novels, histories, maps and photography.

NEW DISCOVERIES

Au Levain d’Antan, 6, rue des Abbesses, 18th; (33-1) 42-64-97-83.

Auberge de la Reine Blanche, 30, rue St.-Louis-en-l’Île, Fourth; (33-1)-46-33-07-87.

Les Amis de la Commune de Paris, 46, rue des Cinq-Diamants, 13th; (33-1) 45-81-60-54; commune-paris.lu.

Les Frigos, 19, rue des Frigos, 13th; les-frigos.com

Studios Paris, 4, rue Androuet, 18th; (33-977) 219-888, paris-apartment-rent.com.

Action Christine, 4, rue Christine, Sixth; (33-1) 43-25-85-78; actioncinemas.com. Tucked away down a St.-Germain alleyway, this tiny repertory cinema runs series devoted to, say, Humphrey Bogart or Hollywood westerns.

Prohibido, 34, rue Durantin, 18th. In the early evening, the down-to-earth crowds at this Brazilian-ish bar overflow onto the street — a free-form party.

In France, a Home Nestled in Nature

By KEITH MULVIHILL

Published: April 27, 2011

LA CELLE-SAINT-CLOUD, France — On a bright spring day a few years ago, Franck Besnard found himself striding up a gently sloping hill in this suburb about 10 miles west of Paris. Perched atop the hill next to an orchard of pear and apple trees was a quaint 19th-century stone-and-glass structure, a gardener’s residence with a second-floor greenhouse covered with tiny windowpanes.

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“I remember I walked up the hill and I said, ‘Wow, I want to live here,’ ” said Mr. Besnard, 40, recalling a landscape that included lush greenery and in the distance the Marly-le-Roi aqueduct, an old conduit that brought water from the Seine River to the Chateau de Versailles.

Mr. Besnard and his wife, Julie, had been longing for some time to leave their three-bedroom loft in the Parisian suburb Levallois-Perret. “We wanted to be in the green,” said Ms. Besnard, a stay-at-home mother of two sons, ages 5 and 7.

And Mr. Besnard said it was a dream to be surrounded by nature and only 30 minutes from the Concorde metro stop near his office in Paris where he is a brand manager for Clinique, the American cosmetic company.

Their rustic residence, which sits on about an acre, was constructed in the 1870s as an outbuilding to a larger estate that had been divided up long ago. A beautiful, rough-hewn stone retaining wall framed the eastern edge of the property, adding a nice touch of Old World charm. The building is nestled between the fruit orchard and a thicket of chestnut, oak and beech trees.

Although the old stone building was immensely appealing with its wrap-around balcony and buff-colored stonework, it was a tight squeeze for a family of four. But Mr. Besnard said he was brimming with all sorts of ideas on how to renovate and expand the roughly 900- square- foot structure.

Ms. Besnard, 35, recalled that her husband came home that day in 2007 and told her excitedly that he had found the perfect place, but there was a complication: it might be unbuildable. A chat with the seller had dashed cold water on Mr. Besnard’s plans.

The property sat within a protected zone of both natural and historical significance — any alterations to the old structure and grounds would need the approval of a government board that oversees such matters. The property owner, who lives nearby, had recalled two previous deals involving enthusiastic buyers coming to an abrupt end when building plans were rejected.

“He didn’t know if it would be possible to do anything with the property,” Mr. Besnard said.

The Besnards forged ahead anyway, hoping to devise a plan that would satisfy the government and create an idyllic home for their family. “We had a really nice flat and we didn’t want to leave it for a house that was just so-so,” Ms. Besnard said. “This was a rare and fantastic place.”

Friends put them in touch with Philippe Barbier and Henry Barton, partners in an architectural firm based in Paris. Since they were obliged to keep the original structure intact, the architects looked to the old greenhouse for inspiration.

“The guideline was to make it very natural, it needed to be inspired by the area, and integrated into the existing environment,” Mr. Barton said.

It took about eight months to obtain the much-coveted building permit — a welcome relief to the Besnards, who bought the property in the fall of 2008 for 700,000 euros (about $1 million) only weeks before they received the final go-ahead to build. “It was risky,” Mr. Besnard said, “but it meant that we had to succeed.

Construction started the following spring: the new L-shaped footprint of the home expanded the existing rectangular-shaped structure, creating 2,500 square feet of living space. But the project came to a halt the day the digging crew, hard at work on the foundation, struck a natural spring; it was an expensive surprise that required the use of long, concrete pilings to stabilize the ground. All told, the restoration of the old structure and the new construction came to about 550,000 euros (about $700,000).

Today passing through the property’s ivy-covered fence has the feeling of entering a sanctuary, and the airy home seems to be embraced by the landscape rather than set apart from it. The warm, tawny-hue of larch planks — both inside and out— complement the original light-brown stonework, creating a cohesive flow between old and new.

The house is filled with glass panels, large and small, paying homage to the old greenhouse and adding a sense of nature light throughout the house. This is especially evident upstairs in the master bedroom, a bright lofty space with large windows looking out onto treetops and squirrels scampering through them. On one side of the bedroom are two wash basins and a spacious glass shower shaped like a cube.

“In Paris flats you are stuck with small bathrooms,” Mr. Besnard said. “I wanted a large shower.”

Elements of the original stone building have become striking design features on the first floor. A large entryway, soaring two stories high with a glass-paneled ceiling, uses an exterior stone wall from the gardener’s residence. The stone wall is now adorned with a white-resin, moose head lamp by a Norwegian design company. A doorway, carved from the old wall, leads to the adjoining children’s bedrooms. The entryway also opens up to a large kitchen, where a portion of stonewall is now the base of a kitchen countertop.

Off the kitchen, the living and dining area is sleek and sparsely decorated, highlighted by a futuristic black metal fireplace, by Focus, suspended from the ceiling. The floors are a soothing light-gray concrete. Once again, nature gets the spotlight. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors open onto a wrap-around wooden deck overlooking the lawn and orchard. Surveying the home and property with a mix of relief and satisfaction Mr. Besnard said: “Now we don’t need to go away for the weekend — we just want to stay here.”

Paris Home Prices Surge as City Shrugs off Financial Crisis

March 15, 2011, 2:57 AM EDT

By Simon Packard

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Paris property broker Kerstin Bachmann warned clients two years ago that the global financial crisis would trigger a slump in home prices. Last year, they rose at the fastest pace since at least 1991.

Residential values increased by almost 18 percent in 2010 after a 4 percent decline a year earlier, according to Paris Chamber of Notaries data based on prices per square meter. By the same measure, London had a 1 percent increase.

“All that happened was a small dip” after the financial crisis hit, said Bachmann, a partner at Paris Property Group, which handled 25 deals last year worth 40 million euros ($55 million). “Paris proved itself even more as a safe and sustainable investment option.”

French investors are putting more money into Paris real estate, shunning stock and bond markets, at a time when fewer owners are selling properties and insufficient homes are being built to meet demand. Transactions last year were 9 percent below the average for the past decade, Chamber of Notaries research shows. Prices in the city are rising at their fastest rate relative to disposable incomes since World War I, according to data compiled by government economist Jacques Friggit.

Real estate values in Paris, France’s administrative, financial and political center, have become disconnected from the rest of France. That mirrors London’s premium over the rest of the U.K. and New York’s stronger performance than the U.S. as a whole.

Paris property prices have risen 40 percent since 2005, while values across France are little changed in the same period, according to the national residential real estate brokers’ lobby, FNAIM.

‘World of Difference’

“There’s a world of difference between Paris and the rest of France,” said Roger Abecassis, president of the Consultants Immobilier Group, a chain of 10 brokerages covering the more affluent western half of Paris. “It’s a myth that overseas buyers are driving the market. It’s a French market.”

Construction companies broke ground on just 2,785 new homes in Paris’s 20 districts, or arrondissements, last year and new- home sales totaled only 510 in a city with a population of 2.23 million. That contrasts with the 39,255 of housing starts in the surrounding Ile-de-France region with 11.7 million people.

Transactions fell more sharply in Paris’s most expensive neighborhoods, where wealthy foreigners compete for space in a market dominated by French buyers. The number of properties for sale at Consultants Immobilier fell to 320 from about 700 two years ago, according to Abecassis.

“I’m working with half the inventory, but my revenue has doubled,” he said in an interview at his office in Passy, a neighborhood in the 16th arrondissement.

Trading Up

Most purchases are by existing owners looking to trade up or investors purchasing a rental property, said Sebastien Kuperfis, a director of his family’s Junot Investissements brokerage chain.

“We have lots of investors buying at ridiculously low income yields, but people want security,” he said. “We have reached prices that are so high that there are no first-time buyers.”

The biggest gains were in the “Triangle d’Or” neighborhood in the 8th arrondissement, which lies south of Avenue des Champs-Elysees. Prices advanced 38 percent and have doubled in five years, according to the notaries’ chamber.

The most expensive arrondissement is the 6th on the Left Bank of the River Seine, where the average is 14,105 euros a square meter ($1,829 a square foot), according to Databiens, which compiles its estimates from sales reported by brokers.

Top End

Homes in the district, which incorporates the Luxembourg Gardens, cost more than twice as much as in the 19th arrondissement in the northeast corner of the city, it said.

“The better the location, the less stock there is,” said Laurent Lakatos, the head of Databiens.

The most expensive Paris properties fetch 30,000 euros a square meter, according to Philippe Menager, co-founder of the luxury property brokerage of the same name. He and his associate Nicolas Hug sold two apartments overlooking the River Seine near the Musee d’Orsay for 50,000 euros a square meter and another near the Bois de Boulogne for a similar price, he said.

French “myopia” in choosing property over stocks and bonds is behind the increase, according to government economist Friggit.

“What sticks in their minds is the poor performance of the stock markets over the past 10 years, when there were two crashes, and they expect it to happen again,” Friggit said.

Record-low interest rates and the increased willingness of banks to grant longer-term loans have made purchasing a home more affordable, contributing to the price increases, he said.

Retreat Predicted

Friggit said home prices across the country will likely decline in the next five to eight years as they return to their values relative to incomes. In Paris, that happened in the 1990s after prices surged in the late 1980s, he said.

Paris Chamber of Notaries data show it took almost 11 years for average prices to return to the levels reached in the first quarter of 1991.

A lack of public information on prices is also driving the surge in values, according to Lakatos at Databiens.

Property title deeds aren’t public documents and data compiled by notaries, who handle the legal paperwork in all real estate transactions in France, are as much as six months out of date and distorted by small probate sales of undesirable properties, he said.

France lacks a multiple listing service to provide an accurate view of the market, said Bachmann at Paris Property Group.

Avoiding Brokers

More owners advertise properties themselves to avoid paying brokers the average 5 percent sales commission and profit more from the surge in prices. About half of sales don’t involve a broker, compared with about 30 percent two years ago, she said.

This results in price swings, a significant number of sales falling through and sometimes litigation, she said, because individual owners lack the overview of the market and aren’t bound by the legal constraints that apply to brokers.

“It’s the Wild West, where there are no rules,” she said, referring to sales that don’t involve a broker with a professional licence.

The high prices and limited supply are forcing less affluent buyers to look for properties in lower-cost neighborhoods in the northeast of the city or the inner suburbs, pushing up average values across the city, according to the Chamber of Paris Notaries.

“I like to think that Paris’s uniqueness and the fact that the French have healthy finances will support the market,” said Kuperfis at Junot Investissements. “Naturally I’m getting a bit worried,” about the price increases “because trees can’t keep growing to the sky.”

--Editors: Ross Larsen, Andrew Blackman.

36 Hours in Paris

By GISELA WILLIAMS

Published: December 16, 2010

HAS Paris lost its edge? Mais non! The city’s bohemians are just harder to find. The artsy denizens and creative tastemakers, always on the hunt for cheaper rents, have migrated to the city’s fringes, like Belleville and the former red-light district of Pigalle. There are even fashion-forward hangouts in the postcard-perfect center — a pop-up restaurant here, a taxidermy-stuffed speakeasy there. And, of course, a modern take on the classic Parisian bistro or boulangerie will never go out of style.

 

Friday

4 p.m.
1) GALLERY GHETTO

The ghosts of Paris’s master artists are everywhere, but if you want to dive into the city’s contemporary art scene, head to Belleville, where the steep hilltop streets are dotted with upstart galleries and cozy wine bars. Among the earliest galleries was Bugada & Cargnel (7-9, rue de l’Équerre; 33-1-42-71-72-73; bugadacargnel.com), which specializes in both French and international emerging artists. Newer arrivals include Gaudel de Stampa (3, rue de Vaucouleurs; 33-1-40-21-37-38; gaudeldestampa.fr) and Marcelle Alix (4, rue Jouye-Rouve; 33-9-50-04-16-80; marcellealix.com). For a mix of art and fashion, swing by Andrea Crews (25, rue de Vaucouleurs; 33-1-45-26-36-68; andreacrews.com), where vintage duds are transformed into fast fashion.

6 p.m.
2) LA BOHèME WINE BAR

Perched above the Belleville park, Le Baratin (3, rue Jouye-Rouve; 33-1-43-49-39-70 ) is an unpretentious and intimate wine bar with antique tile floors and worn wood tables. Despite the local buzz, it has managed to stay low-key, so it’s still possible to walk in at an odd hour, sans reservations, and join the bohemian crowd as they sample the dozen or so small-production wines, scratched on the chalkboard.

8:30 p.m.
3) CHIC BISTRONOMIQUE

Here’s the trick to getting a table at always-packed Le Chateaubriand (129, avenue Parmentier; 33-1-43-57-45-95). Park yourself at the bar around 8:30 p.m. the day of, and fortify yourself with wine and snacks — and people watching — while you wait for a table. It’s first come first served for the 9:30 seating. (Otherwise, you have to make reservations at least two weeks in advance for the 7:30 seating.) The young Basque chef, Iñaki Aizpitarte, serves a five-course menu that changes daily. Recent meals included a foie gras served in miso soup, and a sea bass served with red chicory and lemon crème fraîche. Prix fixe: only 50 euros, or $65 at $1.31 to the euro.

Midnight
4) RED LIGHT SPECIAL

In recent years, the area around Pigalle has drawn Parisian tastemakers looking for a good time — with their clothes on. Start with a drink at Hôtel Amour (8, rue de Navarin; 33-1-48-78-31-80; hotelamourparis.fr), an artsy hotel decorated with disco balls and Terry Richardson photographs that is partly owned by the reigning king of Paris night life, André Saraiva. Then continue to Chez Moune (54, rue Jean Baptiste Pigalle; 33-1-45-26-64-64; chezmoune.fr), a former lesbian cabaret that is now a popular hangout for the city’s polysexual fashionistas.

Saturday

11 a.m.
5) WHERE LADY GAGA SHOPS

By now, you can pretty much find those Lanvin flats and Céline bags back home. But Bambi-shaped shoes? Or a Kermit the Frog jacket? The aristocrat fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac has a new boutique in St.-Germain (61, rue des St.-Pères; 33-9-64-48-48-54; jc-de-castelbajac.com) where fashion inspiration comes from unexpected places, like “Paradise Lost” and Donald Duck.

Noon
6) POP-UP BISTRO

Even jaded Parisians have waited weeks for one of the 12 seats at the pop-up restaurant Nomiya (13, avenue du Président Wilson; online reservations at art-home-electrolux.com), a glass box that floats on the rooftop of the Palais de Tokyo. Instead of dinner, come for lunch, when seatings are easier to come by, and the views are more spectacular. The five-course meal cooked up by Gilles Stassart might include foie gras with eggplant confit and scorpion fish served with a vegetable medley (80 euros for lunch and 100 euros for dinner). Nomiya’s run has been extended until spring 2011.

2 p.m.
7) SHOP THE CANAL

On sunny weekends, stylish young families and boho-chic couples stroll the gentrified Canal St.-Martin — fast becoming a charming little shopping hood of indie boutiques. Dupleks (83, quai de Valmy; 33-1-42-06-15-08; dupleks.fr) sells eco-friendly fashions, Espace Beaurepaire (28, rue Beaurepaire; 33-1-42-45-59-64; espacebeaurepaire.com) carries street-art prints, and La Piñata (25, rue des Vinaigriers; 33-1-40-35-01-45; lapinata.fr) has wooden children’s toys. Style hounds especially like Sweat Shop (13, rue Lucien Sampaix; 33-9-52-85-47-41; sweatshopparis.com) , a funky D.I.Y. collective and cafe with sewing machines to rent by the hour.

4 p.m.
8) SAVORY AND SWEET

One bite, and you’ll understand why there’s a long line outside Du Pain et Des Idées (34, rue Yves Toudic; 33-1-42-40-44-52; dupainetdesidees.com), a cultish boulangerie in the Canal St.-Martin neighborhood. The escargot chocolat-pistache, a snail-shaped pastry filled with chocolate and pistachio, will shatter the will of any dieter. So will the mini-pavés, savory knots stuffed with spinach and goat cheese.

8 p.m.
9) AMERICAN TRANSPLANTS

Paris-obsessed food bloggers will roll their eyes, but Spring (6 Rue Bailleul; 33-1-45-96-05-72; springparis.blogspot.com), an intimate restaurant that moved this summer to the First Arrondissement, deserves the hype. The French-trained American chef Daniel Rose takes something as simple as eggplant and prepares it four eye-opening ways. Dinner prix-fixe menu: 64 euros. If you can’t make reservations months ahead of time, head to the newly revamped Minipalais (Grand Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill; 33-1-42-56-42-42; minipalais.com), a loft-like brasserie with an American-friendly menu that includes a terrific duck burger with foie gras. Or try the new Ralph’s (173, boulevard St.-Germain; 33-1-44-77-76-00; ralphlaurenstgermain.com), owned by Ralph Lauren in St.-Germain, which, believe it or not, is fashionable with a young Parisian crowd.

Midnight
10) LE CHIC ET LE GEEK

Ever since the legendary Le Montana reopened during last spring’s fashion week, le party hasn’t stopped. Resurrected by André Saraiva (yes, him again) and Olivier Zahm, Le Montana (28, rue St.-Benoît) draws an A-list crowd of models and actors. But be warned: getting past the bouncer is harder than squeezing into jeggings. Fortunately, a 20-minute walk away is the geeky hot spot Curio Parlor (16, rue des Bernardins; 33-1-44-07-12-47; curioparlor.com), a speakeasy-style lounge popular with a chic Parisian crowd that sips single malt whiskey.

Sunday

11 a.m.
11) GRASS IS GREENER

Since the historic dance hall and watering hole Rosa Bonheur reopened in 2008 (2, allée de la Cascade, in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont; 33-1-42-00-00-45; rosabonheur.fr), it has brought the city’s party crowd to the great outdoors. By day, middle-aged hippies strum guitars alongside hungover clubkids. By night, it turns into a full-fledged party complete with velvet rope and D.J. This winter the party continues inside with the restaurant Mimi Cantine overseen by the Michelin-starred chef Armand Arnal.

1 p.m.
12) FANTASTIC MR. FOX

Blame it on Wes Anderson movies or an obsession with the cult taxidermy shop Deyrolle, but nothing gets a Parisian bohemian more excited than a room filled with stuffed animals. Get your fix at the Musée de la Maison de la Chasse et de la Nature (62, rue des Archives; 33-1-53-01-92-40), a quirky museum with an eccentric collection of taxidermy and antique weaponry. There is also a room dedicated to unicorns, which adds just the right amount of je ne sais quoi to the intentionally musty space.

IF YOU GO

Give Philippe Starck two years, a jaw-dropping budget and a grand Parisian shell, and you get the new Raffles Royal Monceau (37, avenue Hoche; 33-1-42-99-88-00; leroyalmonceau.com). Steps from the Arc de Triomphe, the 85-room hotel leaves no detail too small to escape the designer’s touch, with rates from 780 euros, or $1,000.

For a taste of the seedy-cool district of Pigalle, book a room at the Hôtel Amour (8, rue Navarin; 33-1-48-78-31-80; hotelamourparis.fr), the brainchild of the graffiti artist turned nightclub entrepreneur André Saraiva and Thierry Costes of the Costes family. Rooms start at 100 euros.

The year-old Hotel Banke (20, rue La Fayette; 33-1-55-33-22-22; derbyhotels.com/banke-hotel-paris), near the Place Vendôme, combines Belle Époque-style architecture with not overly trendy touches, with 94 rooms starting at 260 euros in December.

Dollar Higher as traders return to Europe

The dollar continued its recent run of good form yesterday pushing GBPUSD and EURUSD throughout the session. The renewed dollar strength is a simple byproduct of market uncertainty of how much quantitative easing the Fed will go for next Wednesday. Some analysts have suggested a straight injection of $500bn, while some are suggesting $100bn in monthly installments for 6 or so months; either way there is uncertainty.

We have also seen a fair bit of strong data from the US in the past few days with yesterday's releases carrying this on. Durable goods orders buoyed the markets as they grew by 3.3% although ex-transport they declined by 0.8%. New home sales were also good although any improvement from the shocking numbers we saw from the US housing market over the summer is a bonus.

Some news that has swooped back on to traders' radars is that of periphery Europe (the PIGS) and their budgetary issues. News from Portugal yesterday was that budget negotiations between the 2 main parties had fallen over due to disagreements over tax increases while Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said reforms must carry on and that voters should vote responsibly in the upcoming local elections so the country can deal with its problems.

These problems combined with comments from the head of the Greek central bank that Greece is still a long way from economic reform and poor Belgian growth numbers caused the euro to weaken against the dollar and sterling for the second day in a row.

GBP has fallen this morning however after house prices from Nationwide showed that buyers are still staying away from the market. The average cost of a house fell by 0.7% with declines expected through the end of the year as austerity measures cause UK consumers to tighten their belts. GBPEUR is still in the 1.14s at the moment and a close above 1.15 should be enough to clear out this short-term downtrend we find ourselves in.

The data calendar is very quiet today with only US jobless claims at 1.30 to worry about. They are expected to show a slight increase from last week’s figure of 452k with a rise to 455k anticipated.

Latest Exchange Rates At Time Of Writing

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Aging Gracefully, the French Way

From left: A. Devlin/Press Association; R. Duvignau/Reuters; Kamel Lahamadi.

Catherine Deneuve, left, Ségolène Royal, center; represent the French approach to aging gracefully, as does the woman on the street.

By ANN M. MORRISON

Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters

The actress Isabelle Huppert, 57.

I OFTEN see an elderly woman in my Paris neighborhood waltzing down the street to her own imagined music, flashing a slightly demented smile at everyone she passes. Anywhere else, I would cross the street to avoid her. But she always wears a matching, if slightly kooky, outfit — like the red print skirt, loose cardigan and scarlet cloche hat she wore one day this spring — has great posture and is beautifully made up.

She clearly loves being herself. And she makes me think that in France, women might forget everything else as they age — but never their sense of style.

If there is a secret to aging well, Frenchwomen must know it. At least that’s what Americans think. We look at actresses like Juliette Binoche, 46, or politicians like Ségolène Royal, 56, or superstars like Catherine Deneuve, 66, and figure that they must have special insights into the “maturation” process.

And even the average Frenchwoman — say, shopping along the Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré or enjoying a leisurely lunch on the Left Bank, or strolling through the Luxembourg Gardens — seems to defy the notion that, as one grows older, you either have to disguise that process with Botox, eye-lifts, lip plumpers and all sorts of procedures that convey a desperate “youthful” look, or else just give up altogether and let the ravages of time take their toll.

But do these women really have the answers when it comes to the aging process?

Women on both sides of the Atlantic realize that the keys to aging well are obvious, but challenging if you have bad genes, spend too much time in the sun or smoke a lot. But while American women, like me at least, approach personal care with practical efficiency, the Frenchwomen I know regard the pampering of the skin, hair and body as an enjoyable, gratifying ritual.

Looking attractive, at any age, is just what Frenchwomen do, especially the urban ones. For Parisiennes, maintaining their image is as natural as tying a perfect scarf or wearing stilettos on cobblestone streets. Beauty is a tradition handed down from generation to generation. “My grandmother always told me, ‘Never neglect yourself, not even in the tiniest details,’ ” my friend Françoise Augier said, with a sweeping head-to-toe gesture. The French actress Leslie Caron, still Gigi-like at 79, told me her mother’s favorite saying: “Women’s skin is too fair to go bare.”

Not that French adolescents are any more likely than their American counterparts to heed their mothers’ advice. My neighborhood esthetician, Martine, is concerned that so many of her young clients (age 12 and up) go outdoors without sunscreen. Maybe she shouldn’t worry. A survey by the market research company Mintel found that 33 percent of French girls between 15 and 19 are already using anti-aging or anti-wrinkle creams.

Though Frenchmen are clearly interested — they shamelessly ogle women on the street — beauty is a female topic. When, over dinner, I asked a grandmother of three how she managed to stay beautiful, she deflected my question, saying, “I never discuss these things in front of my husband.”

The No. 1 response to my informal survey of Frenchwomen about the years of magical aging is not gaining weight. Ever. If a Frenchwoman happens to see an additional kilogram or two on her bathroom scale, she will do whatever is necessary to force the needle back where it belongs. “I keep my weight steady, no ups and downs,” Ms. Caron said. “I avoid all excess.” She claims to eat all kinds of food in small — her friends say minuscule — portions, and she doesn’t drink alcohol. It’s not so much that “French Women Don’t Get Fat,” as the title of Mireille Guiliano’s best seller had it. Rather, Frenchwomen won’t get fat.

Not that they exercise. When my husband and I arrived in Paris and asked our personal banker — everyone has one — for a gym recommendation, her response was: “Why? Gyms are a form of torture.” It seems the only acceptable way to burn calories is to walk.

If Frenchwomen don’t walk enough to stay en forme, there is always a pill, a lotion, a machine or a treatment to do the trick. Pharmacies have counters full of diet and figure-improving remedies. One cream promises “accelerated reduction in the areas resistant to diet” (hips, thighs and buttocks). Capsules assure a flatter stomach in four weeks. A poster recently plastered all over Paris Métro stations advertises a tiny Slendertone “Electronic Muscle Stimulation” belt that claims to provide, in a single session, the equivalent of 120 abdominal crunches. (It’s available in the United States, too.)

Frenchwomen also recommend facials, massages and spa “cures” in their campaign against wrinkles, cellulite and saggy bottoms, bellies and breasts. One spa favorite is thalassotherapy, the seawater-based treatment that originated in France. It involves water jets, seaweed wraps, mud baths and sea-fog inhalation, meant to improve circulation, promote sleep, tone muscles and reduce cellulite. Some women are resourceful enough — or have legitimate medical reasons, like arthritis — to get doctors’ prescriptions for weeks at their favorite spa. That means government health insurance covers much of the bill.

As for makeup, Frenchwomen of almost every age (except those teenagers) regard less as best. Heavy foundation has a tendency to emphasize wrinkles and pores, and most women avoid it in favor of a bit of blush. Those who do use foundation make sure that it blends with the skin, often by applying it just after moisturizing. The idea is to look as natural as possible: a little color on the eyelids, mascara, maybe a bit of eyeliner and lip gloss.

 

Matt Sayles/Associated Press

Ellen Barkin, 56, was smooth-cheeked at Cannes.

 

Francois Guillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Juliette Binoche.

Of course, it’s easy to look natural if your skin is great. And that may be where the French secrets really are. According to a 2008 Mintel report, Frenchwomen spend about $2.2 billion a year on facial skin care — as much as Spanish, German and British women put together. If you happen to use the bathroom in a French home — something that is not considered polite, by the way — you might see a line of skin care products rivaling a shelf at Duane Reade.

There will be day creams (with sunscreen), night creams (without it), re-pulping creams, serums, moisturizers, cleansers, toners and salves for anything from orange-peel skin to varicose veins. But you might not find much soap. Ms. Caron says she doesn’t use it on her face or her body (except for “certain places”). Madame Figaro magazine recently quoted the French actress and TV presenter Léa Drucker as saying, “The day I stopped using soap, my life changed.” Post-transformation, she uses a hydrating cream.

As in America, some women in France turn to dermatologists for their skin care, and their visits are likely to be covered by health insurance. Even the generous French system does not pay for Botox, collagen or hyaluronan injections, nor for “lifting” and most other cosmetic surgery.

That doesn’t stop Frenchwomen from having “something done.”

The objective of plastic surgery in France, according to Dr. Michel Soussaline, a Paris surgeon with more than 30 years of experience, is “to keep the natural beauty and charm of each individual woman, not to fit some current ideal of beauty.” After all, trends change. In the United States, he says, women who spend a lot of money on face-lifts want to show off their investments. (Maybe that explains the pumped-up lips and smooth cheeks that the American actress Ellen Barkin, 56, recently displayed on the Cannes red carpet.)

By contrast, Frenchwomen prefer results that look as natural as possible. (Cannes photos of Isabelle Huppert, 57, show elegant, un-enhanced aging.) In France, I have only one friend who has confessed to having had surgery, a discreet operation to firm up a sagging chin and flabby neck. She is thrilled with the result: no one notices.

Hair rituals come in two kinds: getting rid of the unwanted stuff on legs and underarms (older women tend to prefer depilatories), and making the most of what’s on top of the head. That means a good cut every three to four weeks, and a reasonably natural color. A plethora of beauty salons (50 of them in my arrondissement) and mostly low prices (as little as 18 euros, or about $22, for a cut, shampoo and blow-dry) make frequent hair maintenance easy. Frenchwomen use conditioners and other post-shampoo treatments, followed by a cold-water rinse. “It helps the circulation,” said a friend.

Of course, the whole idea that Frenchwomen age better than Americans is debatable. Obesity rates are rising in France, though they are still far lower than in the United States. And not every movie star or politician remains ageless. The midcentury sex symbol Brigitte Bardot, now 75, is gray, wrinkly and overweight. Martine Aubry, the chubby head of the French Socialist Party and almost 60, is not known for her sense of style. And when I asked Katie Breen, a Frenchwoman who is a former editor at Marie Claire magazine, to name a woman who had aged particularly well, her answer was decidedly un-French: Meryl Streep.

For Frenchwomen, aging seems to be a matter of mind over makeup. If women feel good about themselves, right down to their La Perla 100-euro panties, they look good, too. Françoise Sagan once wrote, “There is a certain age when a woman must be beautiful to be loved, and then there comes a time when she must be loved to be beautiful.” And many Frenchwomen seem to be well loved as they get older — by their tight-knit families, their friends and, perhaps most importantly, themselves. Case in point: my loony neighbor — completely coordinated, perfectly made up, thoroughly French.