Making the move from Washington, DC to Paris was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. But it was also profoundly unsettling. The questions came in waves. In the first days, it was all about getting phone service and finding the eggs in the supermarket. Later, my kids needed an orthodontist and a piano teacher. And when the basics had fallen into place, I was finally ready to ask questions about travel and pursuing personal interests.
The passage from newly arrived to veteran expat goes in the blink of an eye. One minute I was still recovering from jet lag; six months later I was dispensing phone numbers and addresses. Then one day, I had an epiphany. I could keep doing this one e-mail at a time or I could enlist the help of fellow Parisian expats to build a much larger resource that would help new arrivals find the answers to their questions.
Over time, I’d found dozens of Web sites useful for those of us privileged to spend time in the City of Light but no where could I find one site that brought together the practical concerns of everyday living with the fun of discovering what this great city has to offer.
If you don’t find what you’re looking for, if you’ve got advice to share, or if you find a broken link or know of information that is no longer current, leave a comment or send an e-mail to parisplaces@yahoo.com.
Anne Schwartz, Founding Editor
Contributing Authors
Christopher Back, long-time Paris resident and California native, blogs about all you need to know about Paris at Paris-Wise. A true Renaissance man, Christopher studied French art, architecture, and decorative arts at the Sorbonne and Christie’s France, the world renowned auction house, and trained as a chef at the Cordon Bleu and l’école du Ritz-Escoffier in Paris. He is also the founder of Paris Private Guides, a travel company offering private museum, city and walking tours with an additional focus on offering tours for people with reduced mobility.
Alison Benney has been teaching community fitness classes in Paris for over 25 years. She has written articles and presented at expat events, and eight years ago gathered and categorised her accumulated collection of fitness resources into a Web site, ParisFitness.com. It lists almost everything you want to know about keeping in fit in Paris, including where you can find classes, plus a calendar of selected fitness events. Follow her on Twitter.
Ashley M. Benz moved to Paris from the U.S., having spent her previous life in public education working with both middle and high school angels in Washington, DC and Philadelphia. When she is not serving on the board of the American Women’s Group, cooking with Enfants du Monde, teaching English, bootcamping in the Tuileries or volunteering with Gifted in France, she likes to spend her downtime with her adoring beta, Reuilly-Diderot (and occasionally her husband).
Sion Dayson is an American writer living in Paris. Her life is not as clichéd as that statement sounds. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Girls’ Guide to Paris, and a National Book foundation anthology among other venues. She’s currently working on her first novel and blogs about the City of Light’s quirkier side at paris (im)perfect.
Jennifer Greco lives in Normandy with her husband, two dogs and a cat. She is a chef, writer, photographer and French cheese addict. You can follow her adventures at Chez Loulou: A Taste of Life in France.
Mindy Jones is an American who for a time lived in Paris with her husband and two kids. She spent most of her time chasing her kids and documenting her life in Paris on her blog, An American Mom in Paris. Mindy now blogs at Seattle Moxie.
Susan Karp moved to Paris for a year with her husband and children for – as she puts it – “no good reason.” But even this cynical native New Yorker has been wowed by the city of lights. A longtime freelance writer, Susan has contributed to Consumer Reports, USA Today, Newsweek International and is the author of the now-sadly-out-of-print Smart Guide to Profiting from Mutual Funds. She now lives in San Francisco.
Ksam never really had any desire to live in France, but somehow she’s still here. If you catch her on a good day, she may even admit she likes it. (Moving from Brittany to Paris helped). She splits her time between traveling around France for her very-random-yet-enjoyable job and her apartment in the 15th. You can follow her adventures at Totally Frenched Out.
Ann Mah is an author and journalist based in Paris and New York City. She has written for Conde Nast Traveler, the International Herald Tribune and many other publications. Publishers Weekly called her first novel, Kitchen Chinese, ” a great start for a writer of much promise.” Her most recent book , Mastering the Art of French Eating, was named by Amazon as one of the “best books in food writing” for 2013.
Lindsey Passaic is an American living in Paris with her husband. When she’s not going from boulangerie to boulangerie searching for the city’s best pain au chocolat, Lindsey can be found chronicling her adventures living and working abroad on her blog Greetings from the American Girl.
Kimberley Petyt is an American wedding planner living in Paris. Kim has been creating events for almost 10 years, both in the U.S. and in France. Her firm, Parisian Events, caters to the English-speaking community in Paris – people who either live here on a long-term basis, or come to Paris just to celebrate their wedding or special event. The firm’s specialty is combining traditional American elements with classic Parisian elegance- and ending up with fresh, stylish, “oh la la” events that keep guests talking for ages after! Kim also blogs about weddings in France at Parisian Party.
Sedulia Scott is an American who has lived in Paris for a long time. She is from Louisiana, where her grandparents spoke French, so French always seemed familiar, until she got to Paris and discovered a very different culture. She has a large family and loves both sides of the Atlantic. You can read more of her work at Rue Rude.
Karin Bates Snyder never expected to wind up living in a place like Paris after turning 40. She also developed several food intolerances shortly after moving to the City of Light. These events have contributed to her feeling like a duck out of water, like An Alien Parisienne, the name of the blog where she writes to come to terms with being a stranger in a strange land. Karin now blogs occasionally from Denver, Colorado.
Sherry Steiner lived in Paris for four years and since has returned to the U.S.. She misses the excitement and vitality of living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Amy Thomas was powerless to say no when the opportunity arose to come to Paris and work on Louis Vuitton’s digital advertising. Although she currently lives in New York, she left a little piece of her heart in Paris and still blogs about her glory days of sampling viennoiseries, admiring high fashion and eating up the expat lifestyle at God, I Love Paris. Amy’s work has also appeared in the New York Times and National Geographic Traveler among others. Check out her memoir, Paris My Sweet.
Lindsey Tramuta is the creator of Lost In Cheeseland. She is a Paris transplant from Philadelphia, married to a Frenchman and on a permanent quest to understand the idiosyncrasies of the French. In real life, she is in charge of marketing & communications for an online multi-brand boutique. Follow Lindsey on twitter.
Rodney Wines previously worked in computer system support and administration in three large countries for a large multinational corporation. Now retired and living in Paris, he provides technical support on a consulting basis, primarily to home users.
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