risky. Particularly in Paris, the changers who hang around the vicinity of the American Express office are a vicious gang that will try every trick in the book from short changing you to slipping a few counterfeit bills in with the good ones. In fact don't follow one of these gentlemen down a dark alley to do your business transactions. If you do, there's a good chance that you won't come out again. If you do change any money on the black market in Paris, take along a French friend and preferably deal with someone he knows. WORK PERMISSION. No work permit is needed if you can find yourself a job with an American or other foreign firm. If you want to work for a French concern, it's another matter. You must apply for your work permit to the Services de Main d'Oeuvre du Ministere du Travail, 391 rue de Vaurigard, in Paris. You probably won't get such a permit unless you have a request from your potential French employer, and he'll have to explain why he needs an American and why some deserving Frenchman can't handle the job. And even then you'll find yourself with French wages which are shockingly low by American standards. § PRICES. As we've already pointed out above, prices in France are astronomical. They are the highest in Europe and for the average American it is probably more expensive to live in Paris than it is in New York. The average Frenchman might be another thing, but invariably the American is charged higher prices and he just doesn't know the ropes. The same situation would probably apply if you took the Frenchman to America. Not that he would be deliberately overcharged in our country but he wouldn't know the ropes, wouldn't know where or how to find cheap rooms and the more economical restaurants. Wouldn't know what foods to buy, what shops to frequent. In Paris it is all but impossible to find an apartment for less than $800 a month and even then it would be small, with miserable plumbing facilities. As I write this I have before me a copy of the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune. I have gone through
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