CHAPTER 10 - FRANCE
In a nutshell. France is one of the largest nations in Europe both in area and in population. She has 213,009 square miles and some 45 million citizens, and that makes her second only to the Soviet Union in size, and to Great Britain in population, this side of the Iron Curtain.
For probably the majority of Americans, France is the country that first comes to mind when retiring abroad is mentioned. This for many reasons but chief among them is the wide range of offerings France makes to the person wishing the good things of life. Scenically and climatically France rivals or surpasses her neighbors and she is the admitted cultural leader of the world. Paris, her capital, is so widely known and loved that it would be redundant to describe the "City of Light" here. The French Riviera, the Cote d'Azur, probably boasts more retired foreigners than any equal area in the world—and for good reason, of course.
But another cause for so many of us thinking in terms of France when we contemplate retiring abroad is because in the past France was one of the very cheapest countries in Europe. Back in the "seventies" and the "eighties" it was indeed quite possible to live in France, even in Paris, for $250 a week or less. In fact, you could live in comparative luxury on $750 a month and there were tens of thousands of Americans doing it.
Such a reputation did France build between the two World Wars as a land where one could retire on a shoestring, that the memory continues in people's minds until this day, in spite of the fact that it costs 25 times as much to live in Paris now as it did in 1938. Twenty-five times as much!
Paris is, of course, considerably higher than the balance of the country but still the prospective American wishing to escape the work-a-day world should think twice before picking France as his home. That is, of course, unless he has a few gushers bringing him in an income. It is possible to retire in Paris and we'll end thisbluetooth free sex
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