Looking for the Answers? Look no further!

About half the e-mails I receive from Secrets of Paris readers are questions about what to see and do in Paris, where to stay and eat, or to wear and say. The other half are questions about living, working or studying in France, from the ins and outs of residency permits to the easiest way to get US prescriptions filled in Paris. Although I've been around the block a few times (especially that block around the Prefecture on Ile de la Cité), but there are still many things that baffle me today, especially the red tape and bureaucracy of the strange French rules and laws. So I send these readers to the one man I know who can most likely answer these questions: M. Jean Taquet. Some of you may remember his Q&A column in the Paris Voice magazine. But others may be wondering how some French guy can help them out with their strange cross-cultural problems. Jean Taquet is a French jurist and associate member of the Delaware Bar Association, and not has lived in the US, but also married an American (so he understands, really he does). I've asked M. Taquet to write a little note to all of you, so here he is:

"I have had this Q/A column for the past 8 years, so the column and I go back a long way! I got married to Paula, an American citizen, in the state of Delaware (USA), in May, 1986, and started my professional life shortly thereafter. When I came to the US, I knew right away that I would have to reshape myself according to the American mold, and quickly earned the reputation of being a hard worker.

Late in 1989, we moved to France. My wife's French has always been better than my English but, during her first years living in here, she found France to be an illogical country. To her American mind, everything was done the wrong way, and I often found myself trying to explain the French way of doing things and show the French logic behind all this. I soon realized that, if someone like my wife had so much trouble adapting, then the vast majority of Americans coming to France must surely be facing the same problems, at the very least. So I decided that writing a column dealing exclusively with people's questions, in the way they see and feel them, could be a valuable help. During the 1993 Thanksgiving dinner at the American Church in Paris, I submitted this idea to the editor of the Paris Free Voice, and he had a very favorable reaction. I used some of the issues my wife and I dealt with to create the first Q/A's, and the first issue was published in March, 1994.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic