Relocating to Paris: Life launched, lessons learned

Icy relations and a weak dollar make Europe a challenge, whether you're staying a week or a year. But gaining a new perspective makes it worth every dust-up and every dime.

By Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:00 AM PST, December 26, 2004

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I moved to Paris in March.

Some would say my timing couldn't have been worse, with the value of the dollar eroding and French-American relations icy.

But I think there was no better time for shaking up the gray matter and seeing things from a different angle, which is one of the great reasons to travel.

For me, 2004 must be written in red letters because it was the year I seized the chance to live out a dream, to get to know this dazzling city up close, to make it my home and travel staging area at the threshold of all Europe. I meant to return to L.A. after seven months but now have extended my stay for how long only the gods can say. I'd hate to be considered an expatriate, though, because that sounds like something to do with treason.

Politics had nothing to do with my move. I think the best travelers are fundamentally apolitical, and I am amused when, sometimes on the same day, I get a letter or an e-mail from a reader taking me to task for being anti-American and another calling me a Francophobe. More and more, I see the strengths, weaknesses and eccentricities of both countries. More and more, I love them both.

Of course, it became almost impossible to ignore politics this fall during the U.S. presidential campaign, which passionately engaged people everywhere — from my French butcher to the Welshman in a Cardiff pub. The U.S. was a hot topic, so we all had something to talk about, though I was privileged to cast an absentee ballot as an American citizen.

The French assumed I would vote Democratic simply because I live in Paris. Given public acrimony toward President Bush here and the pro-John Kerry stance of the French press, I first predicted an easy win for the Democrats. Then, on a visit to Los Angeles in October, I encountered people with compelling reasons for re-electing Bush and realized how easy it would be to get the wrong idea about America from a distance. That helped me better understand French myopia, though I wished I could take a few Bush supporters back to France with me — like some exotic specimen — to make their case in Paris.

They would have been given a respectful hearing here. We sell human nature short by thinking people in the countries we visit can't distinguish between governments and individuals. So when readers ask me how they'll be treated if they take the risk of traveling abroad when American foreign policy is widely debated or even despised, I tell them there's no need to worry if they travel with open hearts and minds, not to mention a sense of humor.

A few months ago, when I asked in French for the Financial Times, an English newspaper, at a Paris newsstand, the proprietor barked, "What country are you from?"

I narrowed my eyes at him and said with mock ferocity, "I'm American and you'd better be nice to me." It gave us both a good laugh.

Warm greetings

One morning last spring, I stood by I.M. Pei's glass Pyramid at the Louvre Museum, trying, unsuccessfully, to find an American tourist who felt uncomfortable in Paris. Hector Black, a tall man from Tennessee in overalls and a baseball cap, said, "I was here during World War II and came back as a student. I love France with no hesitations."

Researching a story on how the rise in anti-Semitic acts in France has affected Jewish American travelers, I was repeatedly told by people I interviewed in the U.S. that the subject was a nonissue for travelers.

And everywhere I traveled in 2004 — from Libya, newly re-opened to American travelers after decades of political isolation, to Dresden in eastern Germany, finally rising from the rubble left by Allied bombers during World War II — I was greeted with warmth and a willingness to listen.

Nor were my experiences unusual. I went to Libya with the first American tour group allowed to visit since the lifting of U.S. travel sanctions in March. Given Libya's record of aiding and abetting terrorists, there was every reason for us to feel uneasy, never mind that our group was accompanied by a government security agent carrying a pistol. But wherever we went, we were received with effervescent surprise and fascination, especially by schoolchildren at the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna, who wanted to practice their English and have their pictures taken with us.

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