THE current grapevine right now in France is the local elections in March. Every Cabinet minister is gearing up to become mayor and the rationale for this is simple – Cabinet ministers are not elected by the people and to gauge their performance in office, President Nicholas Sarkozy has them run in public office. That’s one noble way to gauge how a public official in France performs. And Mr. Sarkozy is on top of his game with this suggestion. Despite all the personal controversies surrounding him with his very high profile romance with Italian model Carla Bruni right after his divorce with France’s former first lady Cecilia, Mr. Sarkozy just takes those comments astride and remains concentrated to public affairs. One of the nationalistic measures that he has imposed just this 2008 is to ban English-language programming on state-owned television. According to Mr. Sarkozy, it is just a waste of taxpayers’ money to subsidize the spread of a foreign tongue. And now this breakthrough suggestion to unleash Cabinet ministers to run for public office. Those who are poised to run include Labor Minister Xavier Bertrand who wants to be the deputy mayor in St. Quentin, junior minister Andre Santini who is running for reelection as mayor in one of Paris’s 20 arrondisements, junior minister for overseas territories Christian Estrosi, who is running for mayor of Nice, Culture Minister Christine Albanel who is running for mayor in the 4th Arrondisement of Paris, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde who is running for mayor in the 12th Arrondisement of Paris, Justice Minister Rachida Dati who is running for mayor in the 7th Arrondisement of Paris, secretary of state for human rights Rama Yade, secretary of state for the environment Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet and French presidential spokesperson Laurent Vauquiez.
Nicholas Sarkozy’s dance with the press is not limited to his extremely high profile dating with Carla Bruni. He is also quite adept in both the domestic and international stages. For example, Sarkozy has expressed its intention to resume normal diplomatic relations with Syria. The only condition France is demanding from Syria is for it to cooperate in the handling of fair elections in Lebanon whose political future is in limbo following the expiration of the term of the President with no concrete successor. It can be recalled that France last year under Sarkozy’s reign of course has mediated talks between the government of Lebanon and the Hezbollah occupants in the southern part of the country.
And it’s true that Nicholas Sarkozy continues to be popular among his constituents not as a celebrity but as their leader. Even though he is perceived to be a very strict and hot-tempered person among his staff and against the media if negative publicity is directed at him, he is a very able negotiator throughout the country. He can mingle with the environmentalists at the same time, he can also be a charmer among operators of coal-fired power plants in the country.
FOR someone who is new in France, it will be one heck of an exciting ride. The first stopover will be Charles de Gaulle International Airport, the busiest airport in mainland Europe and the second busiest in the entire continent, second only to Heathrow in London. The terminal at Charles de Gaulle is where one person who has no citizenship has lived since the late 1980s until the French Red Cross has decided to adopt him earlier this year. The man’s story served as the inspiration for the box office hit The Terminal starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Spielberg.
From Charles de Gaulle, Paris is called the City of Lights. It is not just during Christmas that landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, the Champs Elysee and the Eiffel Tower are illuminated. Paris is really spending euros every year just to pay for electricity to illuminate the landmarks that are mentioned earlier even though there are no beaches here and River Seine is just for cruising and not for any summer or wintry sport. But occassionally, you will see a daytime fashion show at the River Seine especially during March when top designers show off their bikini and other summer collections for 2008. France is also peopled by the most romantic, the most intellectual and the healthiest people in the planet so their people are naturally adorable. This is especially true in the Mediterranean areas such as Provence where olive trees are abundant and people there only eat the freshest seafood such as redfish, grouper, mollusks and lobsters sauteed in olive oil, the healthiest cooking oil on earth because of its low fat content.
The trend now of properties in the France is to construct a home which is as environmentally friendly as possible. Being environment friendly is after all the trend among the upper middle class wherever you go with the Bali climate conference just concluded. Even the 16-18 demographic are now environmentally conscious with one of their idols, Hayden Panetierre of Heroes as a staunch environmentalist. Even teen beauty queens like Miss Teen Philippines are environmentalists. And the teens are part of the market that real estate investors are trying to capture. So that’s why in France they have made a house which have better recycling systems for garbage which may impress the garbage collectors for lessening their daily load and solar electricity both for household use as well as for the swimming pool. There is also non-toxic gardening as well.
France is also home to some exotic food such as frog’s legs. Those are found in deep regions though which are unlike the hip urban locale that is Paris. Yet even in these areas, real estate investors are sprouting. There are even Italian and German companies that have entered the real estate market here in France. The French real estate market is here to stay. In fact, a new poll has just been released stating that France has beaten Spain and Italy as the number one holidday destination in Europe.
THE answer to this question is your discernment and the willingness to sacrifice something. If you live in a high end subdivision which has a commanding view of the bay some miles away, then you have to sacrifice some luxuries. You cannot indulge in everyday shopping or everyday visits to the spa, the golf course or the casinos. You cannot hold drinking sprees all the time. However, you must spend your investment at home. You must organize barbecue parties at the pool to show yourselves to your friends that you are living like a king. You must have a 50-inch LCD television set so you can indulge yourself in games. Heck, you must have your own home entertainment theater room and system.
There are a few spots in the world that offer spectacular residencies. There’s Valencia, the Beverly Hills in Europe. Many celebrities have either lived there or are living there. There’s Antonio Banderas and wife Melanie Griffith, there’s Joan Collins, there’s Sean Connery and many others. Then we go to Malibu or Hollywood Hills where Grey’s Anatomy and Knocked Up star Katherine Heigl is billeted, having moved here a decade ago from her hometown of New Canaan, Connecticut. That’s some trivia for you huh? You don’t live like a king if you have not earned or accumulated your wealth. That’s something for sure.
But if you want to live like a king without spending anything, then that’s another story. You can still do that too. Here in France for example, particularly in the urban areas, there are lots of condominiums and they are very cramped. Cramped as they are, their security system is perfect and untouchable and invincible. They have their own panic rooms so you don’t need to worry about burglars and robbers. For me, that’s already living like a king.
If you are in some tropical country like the Philippines, then you can still live like a king even if you’re just living in an RV back in the States. The cost of living there is incomparable to the cost of living in the United States. A dollar is equal to 44 Philippine pesos. That’s 44 times the value. That’s how low the cost of living here is so if you cannot stay in a Hilton in New York, you can stay in a Shangri-la there in the Philippines. And if you want to buy a house, you can do so easily and pay it in cash. Although most lands there are admittedly the ones for sale and you have to construct the house yourself. But that’s neither a problem because building costs are still kept at a minimal.
If you go to a place like Japan, it may be relatively expensive to build a house there made of wood because wood is a pretty expensive stuff there. But don’t worry, once you have built a duplex bungalow and there are all amenities associated to it like a fireplace or so, you’re just like living like a king. After all, living like a king is not something physical. It goes with the heart.
