I knew Adrian Leeds from her newsletters. I was going to be in Paris for my friend Olivier’s 30th birthday party. I saw in her newsletter, Parler Paris, that she was hosting a 4th of July BBQ at her friend’s restaurant. I signed up for the event. Once I arrived in Paris, I went to her office to pay for my reservation. Her office turned out to be her apartment on rue de Saintonge, in the 3rd arrondissement. She was having lunch, but invited me up—her apartment is on the top floor of the building, no elevator, 72 steps up. I offered her the check for the event, she offered me some wine. We chatted.
She and her partner were putting together a stable of writers for their series of guides and were looking for someone to write a gay guide—not sure how me being gay came up. It sounded interesting. It would involve doing a lot of on-the-ground research and required updating twice a year. Meaning, I’d be making trips to Paris twice a year. Meaning, I could write off those trips on my taxes. Although, back then, I think I was probably doing just a simple tax filing and not claiming any expenses.
That was the beginning of our 20+ year business/friendship.
In 2002, I think it was, she included a P.S. in Parler Paris that her assistant was leaving, and she was looking for a new one. I jokingly sent her an email asking why she hadn’t asked me if I was interested—I’d been wanting to live in Paris for years. She emailed back asking if I was serious. I emailed back, “are you serious?” A flurry of emails back and forth—and several hours, due to the time difference—she offered me the job.
I had to consult with David, of course. We’d just bought our first house together the year before. He was not thrilled, naturally, but he also didn’t want to be the one to put a kibosh on something I’d wanted to do for so long. I’d have a regular income, which I didn’t have at the time, so there was that. I’d been to Paris enough times to know that I could have a decent lifestyle on the salary. And, we hoped it would give us a foothold and we could figure out a way for David to come over and live there too. So, it was on.
I don’t recall how I found my apartment. It was owned by Anne Boshart, and American. It was located at 71 rue Charlot, one street over from Adrian’s—although, I wasn’t sure that was going to be a good idea. At the time the dollar and euro were about on par. Anne and I agreed on $900 a month for rent. In the year and a half I lived there, this was a good thing I was paying in dollars. The value of the euro continued to rise against the dollar.
I’m pretty sure I secured the apartment before arriving in Paris, so I’d probably only seen photos of it beforehand. I couldn’t have been more pleased, thrilled even, when I saw it that first day. I think Anne and I even passed as she was leaving and I was arriving. It was a 4th floor walkup, no elevator. I entered through the little doorway embedded in one of the two huge wooden, blue doors. Mailboxes were on the wall to the right as well as the concierge’s apartment, garbage bins on the left. There was another secured glass doorway that opened into the small lobby area and a beautiful, winding wooden stairway with black iron railings capped with polished wood, and small landings between each floor leading up to my apartment.
The apartment was 42 square meters—a little over 400 square feet. It had a small entry hall where the closet and storage cabinets were. At the end of that wall was the first of two ornate fireplaces—unfortunately, no longer functional. To the left was the bathroom. This opened up onto the large living room/bedroom area, with the second fireplace on the wall at the south end. To the left of this area was the kitchen—fully equipped, including an all-in-one washer/dryer. There were three nearly floor to ceiling windows. One in the kitchen, two in the living room. My building was one floor taller than those across the street, so I had a view out over the rooftops.
It was furnished with a small dining table and two chairs, two sitting chairs with a couple end tables, and a queen size bed with a nightstand. The sitting chairs were upholstered in an awesome purple fabric. The accent pillows and curtains were a shiny gold fabric. Bedding and towels were also part of the deal. Olivier gave me a small portable tv. I had two photos of me and David in our little house in Greenwood/Phinney Ridge on the mantle of the fireplace.
I was working, so eventually, or maybe not so eventually, the dining table became my desk. I went to Conforama—a we-have-everything kind of department store—and bought a computer, keyboard, CRT monitor, and printer. Fortunately, I was able to convert the computer and keyboard to US mode. The printer never got me.
I settled in. Settled into a new job. Settled into living in a new city. A foreign city. I loved Paris. I’d always wanted to live there since my first visit. One of the things I learned early on was that no matter how fantastic a place is, once you live there, life is pretty much life…no matter where it is.
I got up every morning and had my coffee. Espresso, actually. I had a stovetop espresso maker. I set it all up the night before so I could get up in the morning, turn the stove on, and crawl back in bed until it was ready. Coffee had always been my morning constitutional. Once I pooped, I did my morning workout. I don’t recall ever joining a gym. I didn’t have any equipment to workout with, so I did stretches. I did sit-ups. I did pushups. And I walked a lot—though not first thing in the morning.
My job as Adrian’s assistant had many facets. Initially, until I had my own office equipment, I worked at a little laptop set up on a small table next to her big desk. I managed all her email, forwarding the important ones to her, otherwise responding to others as I could. I helped maintain the content of her website, which back then was pretty basic. I was also tasked with developing the property services which International Living wanted to provide.
I started meeting with and talking to real estate agents. I went to look at apartments. I researched how it works in France. It’s very different from the United States. For one, there is no MLS. Each agent has their own little world of listings they represent. There is no one-stop shopping for real estate in France. We needed to bring all this information to IL’s readers, potential clients.
Thus began the French Property Insider newsletter.
Each week, I was tasked with producing a newsletter about the issues of investing in property in France, primarily Paris. It started as a basic investing in French property 101. Each issue would include some select examples of property for sale. I would write the newsletter, Adrian would review and edit it, I would broadcast it through whatever system we had for that at the time—I don’t recall. At first, subscriptions were free. As it developed, we felt like the information we were providing was so valuable and important that a fee-based model was warranted. That worked well for a while, brought in some additional income, but ultimately, we weren’t gaining enough subscribers. Back to free it was.
Adrian and I developed the idea for Working & Living in France conferences (WLF). She had made connections with other industry professionals through other IL conferences, and we’d developed a few of our own. The idea was a weekend of workshops with various presenters on all the ins and outs of working and living in France…duh…with a dose of investing in real estate thrown in. The first one or two were held in Paris.
Adrian lined up all the speakers. My job was the event coordinator. I secured the venue, negotiated the contracts: room rates, meeting room, cocktails, meals, etc. I worked with all of the presenters to arrange their accommodations, sometimes travel, coordinate their PowerPoints into our workbook, etc. I produced the workbook that every attendee received at check-in. I was onsite to make sure the room was set up properly, check attendees in, and manage the event as the day went along—Adrian always said the room was too cold. I kept the speakers on time.
At some point it became clear that we were not going to be able to create a situation for David to come live with me in Paris. Adrian and I were constantly dealing with Kathy Petticord, the publisher of International Living. She wanted to live and work in Paris, not Ireland, and did everything she could to sabotage what we were doing. We had a few…situations…with her.
After a little more than a year, I was ready to go home. Coincidentally, International Living had decided to eliminate my position—Kathy? I’ll never know. When Adrian told me, I almost laughed, and told her I’d already decided it was time for me to return to the States and was planning to talk with her.
Not long after that, Adrian realized she’d had enough, too. IL needed her more than she needed them. So, with all the knowledge she’d gleaned and the connections she’d made, she left IL and struck out on her own to do essentially what we’d been doing.
Fortunately for me, she wanted to keep me around. I continued to assist with her website content and produce the newsletters for her. And more importantly, to plan and manage the Working and Living In France conferences, which we now called the Living & Investing in France conferences—two in Paris and two in the US a year. While I felt like I’d satisfied my dream to live in Paris, I still wanted to keep my foot in the door to France. David and I continued to look seriously at the possibility of living there.
Adrian’s newsletters kept me in the loop a lot. I don’t recall if I was still updating the Gay Guide, but I was in Paris at least twice a year for the conferences—all expenses paid, plus my fee. All we had to pay for was David’s airfare. He came along to explore and play…while I was working all day. Although, he did take part in the cocktail parties and the final dinners.
The financial crash of 2008 nipped the conferences in the bud. After that, they were scaled back and planned by Adrian’s staff on the ground. I think for a while, I still managed registrations, produced the workbook, and other things that could be handled long distance. During Covid, some were done via Zoom. Adrian always keeps working, always finds a way to keep doing what she’s doing.
Working with her led to other work with other people/companies. A couple of things through International Living, even—updating their France Owner’s Manual, and coordinating a Travel Writer’s conference through Lori Allen, and managing vacation apartment rentals for Paris Sharing, because that’s what I’d been doing for Adrian.
Oh yeah, so, part of Adrian’s business was managing the rentals for the apartments she’d helped her clients buy. I don’t remember how this came to be part of my job for her.
Anyway.
IL produced Owner’s Manuals for several countries, France being one of them. At the time, I think it was written by Steenie Harvey. In 2010, IL contacted Adrian about doing an update to the current France guide. She accepted the offer and contracted me to update things like hyperlinks, information on France, regions, cities, vacation rentals, long-term rentals, real estate, etc. etc. It was a lot of research and verification. A lot of work, but I loved it—I probably should have bargained for a higher fee. But I got a byline out of it! Two years later they asked us to update it again. I think I did negotiate for a higher fee that time.
Lori was the Director and Creator of Great Escape Publishing, formerly the Travel Division at the American Writers & Artists Inc (AWAI). Originally involved with IL and their copy writing courses, she became more interested in travel writing and how one could parley that into a career. She developed the course into a workshop and an online version. She hired me to plan and coordinate one of their conferences in San Antonio.
Adrian met Carsten Sprotte. Carsten was operating Paris Sharing, another vacation rental business/website. He had a great stable of apartments, but not a great setup to manage the rentals. Adrian had the management experience…and me. They joined forces and I took on managing reservations for Paris Sharing as well. We migrated Adrian’s listings to his website while maintaining her listings on her site.
It occurred to me that I could do a better job of recommending particular apartments in response to inquiries if I’d seen the apartments in person. I consulted our accountant, Anne, about a trip like this being a business write-off. As long as it was the purpose of the trip, any related expenses would qualify—my airfare, meals, etc. David, of course, would have to pay his own way. Off we went.
The business trip took place in July of 2015. I know this because of a spreadsheet I came across with the list of apartments that we could possibly visit, titled APARTMENT VIEWING IN PARIS JULY 2015. But I also know it was July because we were walking down the middle of rue de Rivoli toward Bastille. We were walking down the middle of rue de Rivoli because it was le quatorze Juillet, Bastille Day, and the streets were empty. We were walking over toward Bastille to look at one of the apartments when several military jets flew right overhead in formation, streaming blue, white, and red smoke behind them. They were part of the military celebration of the day that parades down the Champs Elysée.
As it happened, Adrian was going to be in the States at the same time we were going to be in Paris, so she graciously allowed us to stay in her apartment on rue de Saintonge—back in my old neighborhood. I think it was the first time I’d met Carston in person. Carsten was a very good looking American (??) who was totally assimilated into French culture and seemed more French than American. He bicycled all over Paris.
It was a very hot summer in Paris. We did our running around and lunching out as early in the day as possible, then back to the apartment for a nap and just relax to try and stay cool. We were able to visit at least six or seven apartments during our stay. And it was very helpful to see the neighborhoods, streets they were on, as well as the apartments in person. After a couple of years, things had changed. Changed between Adrian and Carston’s business relationship, and changed for vacation apartment rentals in Paris. I stopped managing the rentals in 2017 or maybe 2018. My final invoice to Paris Sharing was in 2017, but I think I was still managing Adrian’s rentals.
Neither Paris nor Adrian Leeds was done with me just yet.
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