Black Paris Profiles™II: Yolanda Robins - Part 2

In Part 1 of this Black Paris Profile™, former investment relations and corporate communications executive Yolanda Robins talked about how she came to move to Paris and reinvented herself as a real estate professional. She gives advice on what to expect if you want to succeed as an entrepreneur in Paris. In Part 2, she talks about the lifestyle she enjoys there.

Yolanda was single and in her late 30s when she moved to Paris. As she began navigating the dating scene, she found that being American was an advantage and had little trouble finding companionship. She eventually married a non-French person who decided after a time that he did not want to stay in France. They parted ways as friends and Yolanda found herself "back on the market."

Once again, she did not find it difficult to date. But she did find it difficult to find people that shared her principles and values. She is currently dating an anthropologist and curator at a Paris museum, whom she describes as "an amazing intellectual French person." She met him online through a profile that she uploaded in English and French.

My godson, who is 24 years old and a teacher in the U.S., said, “Put your profile online.” I did and I got tons and tons of responses.

Yolanda's boyfriend speaks English, Spanish, and French. Because she continues to work on her French language skills, she and her boyfriend speak French together. Yolanda feels that when you spend a lot of time with someone in a personal relationship and you're also trying to learn a language, it behooves you to "make that personal time in the language that you're trying to learn. That’s where you're going to make the most progress."

Yolanda currently lives in an apartment in the Marais. This district (located between Bastille and République) is not only convenient for work, but also beneficial from the standpoint of her health. She loves being able to walk or take her bike anywhere since she spends a lot of time with clients who are either purchasing or renovating properties.

While she favors the Marais personally, Yolanda does not try to persuade her clients to purchase property there. She says there are "really no bad neighborhoods" in Paris and allows her clients to decide which area is best for them. Whether they want to come to Paris two or three times a year, be close to tourist destinations, or retire here, they can find everything they need in the quartier they select. This includes green grocers, bakeries and pastry shops, and restaurants.

Speaking of which...

Yolanda and her boyfriend cook in and eat out in roughly equal proportions. They eat French, North African, and vegetarian food throughout the city. So whether it's in the Marais, the 19th arrondissement, or the Latin Quarter, there is always the conundrum of where to eat. Yolanda feels comfortable eating out frequently because she can have very light meals, despite starting dinner as late as 9:00 or 9:30 PM.

When they cook at home, Yolanda and her beau enjoy an embarrassment of riches with regard to the number of open-air markets available to them. For her, shopping for the ingredients to be prepared for their evening meal is part of the attraction of being in Paris.

Another attraction is the beauty of the city that Yolanda experiences while jogging, especially during the early morning hours:

The way the sun hits the façade of the Louvre ... it's absolutely lovely to be to see the rich textures, the history in the quietness of the city ... I'm still in amazement that this is now my home.

Sun on the façade of the Sully Wing, Cour Carrée, Louvre
© Discover Paris!
Yolanda loves the numerous museums that are located in Paris. Her favorites are the Orangerie (which houses Monet's Water Lilies) and the Rodin Museum. The Rodin holds a very special place for her because there's also a Rodin Museum in her hometown of Philadelphia. Indeed, Philly has some very interesting French influences, including the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which is is patterned after the Champs Elysées. Her last home in Philadelphia was on a street where Joseph Bonaparte sought refuge when he left France.

Yet another thing that Yolanda loves about living in the French capital is the ease with which you can travel to other destinations. For business, she has clients who ask for her assistance in purchasing properties in Normandy, Brittany, Provence, and Toulouse. For leisure, she enjoys its proximity to all regions of France as well as countries such as Spain, Italy, Turkey, and the U.K. She is particularly enamored of the Eurostar rail service that whisks Paris travelers to the heart of London in a mere 2.5 hours.

After being in Paris for almost 12 years, Yolanda is undertaking the process of becoming a French citizen. While she takes advantage of a number of groups and social events where she can interface with Americans and is proud of her American heritage, she is also proud to be able to integrate into Parisian and French society without sacrificing that identity. She is ready to embrace the duality of being an American and a Parisian in France.

Becoming a naturalized French citizen is important to Yolanda because she wants to have the right to vote:

... since I had the right to vote at 18 years of age, I have always done so and being in a country where I have invested my time, effort, and emotion for over a decade and to not have the opportunity to hear to have my voice heard from an electoral standpoint is something that was lacking. That's why I'm becoming a French citizen.

For people who want to relocate to Paris for a change in lifestyle, Yolanda has the following advice:

Do your homework. Living here is quite different than visiting ... come [visit] and be prepared to stay for an extended period of time so you can really get a sense of what it would be like to live here.

You don't have to be in the center of Paris to enjoy Paris. There are some neighborhoods that are absolutely lovely and will give you a sense of what it would be like to live here and not have to be in the center of it all. There are beautiful places in the 20th and beautiful places in the 15th ...

Administratively, it's challenging. So all of these things should be considered before you make the move to relocate. But it can be done.

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Black Paris Profiles™II: Yolanda Robins - Part 1

Yolanda Robins is a former investment relations and corporate communications executive turned real estate entrepreneur who has made a life for herself in Paris. She moved to the French capital in 2004 after a careful, three-year selection process during which she investigated living in Rome, London, and Paris.

Yolanda was inspired to change her life on September 11, 2001, when she was on a flight from Hong Kong to New York. She was accumulating wealth from a financial perspective but not growing from a personal perspective. The terrorist attacks on the U.S. were the impetus she needed to decide to make a change. They made her realize that life is very precious and that "you really have to enjoy all aspects of what you're doing."

Yolanda was working at Pegasus Communications when she had this epiphany. She continued to consult with the company for a period of time to help them transition while traveling around the world for eight months to see different kinds of people and experience different cultures. She visited Vietnam, Cambodia, North Africa, and Europe. She returned to the U.S. to work on the then and former Pennsylvania governor's campaign and then made the decision to "test" the idea of living in Rome, London, or Paris.

Though she is a city girl, Yolanda found that the areas of Italy that appealed to her most - Tuscany and Umbria - were not urban centers and therefore would not support her in her professional endeavors. She thought London would represent the "path of least resistance" because there was no language barrier, but she found that it was not the kind of city that interested her.

Then she went to Paris, a place that she had visited many times before in her youth and as an adult. Despite not speaking the language, she felt that the pros outweighed the cons for relocating there. She packed up and moved in January 2004.

Yolanda came to Paris as a student. She attended the Sorbonne for a year and a half, taking French language, French history and art history courses. She found this to be extremely challenging, in part because she was twice the age of her classmates.

The Sorbonne
© Discover Paris!
Being in Paris alone was also a challenge. For the first few months, Yolanda was very isolated. But even though it was "excruciatingly painful" for the people with whom she conversed in her very basic French, she persisted in communicating in French - even when people detected her accent and responded to her in English:

I kept doing it. When they responded to me in English I responded in infinitives, but I kept doing it until they realized she is not going to stop speaking no matter how terrible she is speaking. After I would say probably about, I would say, about six to seven months I made myself understood. I understood things because I watched different films, I watched different television, I went to cafés, I went to performing arts and did everything in the language in the country where I had decided to live.

Yolanda began her career in real estate after attending a seminar organized by a person who was in the process of redefining her focus and creating a practice in real estate. She and Yolanda partnered in the new business venture. Then, after some period of time, Yolanda was approached by the agency that rented her apartment she found when she moved to Paris. They thought she was a dynamic person and though they understood what her level of French was at the time, they wanted to bring her into their company to create a practice that was aimed at helping non-residents purchase property in Paris for investment or personal use.

She spent time interfacing with banks, which was easy because it was part of her financial background. She also worked with French notaries who speak English. (The notary in France is somewhat to an attorney because they oversee the real estate transactions in France.) She worked with builders to renovate the properties as well. Within the agency, she put together a package of services that met any and all client needs. She specialized in properties in the Marais (3rd and 4th arrondissements) and targeted a niche of clients with non-conventional lifestyles - mostly same sex couples. She was the sole Anglophone within the agency and established a loyal, satisfied clientele. Having a financial and communications background and being well versed in Anglophone culture gave her customers a sense of ease and solidarity.

Yolanda started her own real estate business, Paris Mac Immo, in 2010. Once again, a personal defining moment was behind her decision - her mother became very ill and Yolanda spent a lot of time going back and forth to Philadelphia to care for her. She opened her business after her mother died and splits her time between sales and renovations. She works on interior design projects as well and finds it all very rewarding work.

Paris Mac Immo properties and renovations
Images from Paris Mac Immo Web site
When asked what she finds different about working in France compared to the U.S., Yolanda replied that it is challenging because in French culture, lifestyle takes priority over business. She finds that she can work at half the capacity that she did in the U.S. and get far more results because her American work ethic is more determined, more focused. This allows her to get things done quickly and efficiently. Bringing all of those skills, she is able to attract not only not only non-residents clients, but also French clients because they want the same level of service.

Regarding the real estate business itself, Yolanda informs her American clients that the process of purchasing property is completely different than in the U.S. It’s not an intuitive process and you need someone to help you navigate through the challenges. In the U.S. you can see a property, make an offer, and once it is accepted, you can close within two weeks - including the financing. In France, this process takes three months and people are very surprised that there is no prequalification for financing. It can take 90 days or even more from signing an initial offer to closing. Yolanda spends a lot of time notifying her clients of the process here.

Yolanda amassed a good deal of wealth while working in the U.S., so she was able to live off of savings during the three years that she spent traveling and selecting the new city that she would eventually call home. When she decided to move to Paris, she was offered an opportunity to do almost the same work that she had done in Philadelphia. But she had made a conscious decision to reconfigure her life, so she set out to do something different. She started her real estate activities as a consultant with the understanding that she would be able to serve the client base she developed once she created her own business. This allowed her to establish a successful practice quickly.

Running her own business, Yolanda is able to make lifestyle a priority while maintaining a competitive edge through her American work ethic. In her corporate position in the U.S., she wouldn't think anything of working 14- to 15-hour days and she often found herself traveling 15 days a month for work. Her eating habits were extremely poor.

Now she works eight hours a day and only works on weekends when it is necessary. Because she found herself surrounded by physically fit people in Paris, she began to run or work out everyday and has lost 50 pounds because of this new habit. The quality of her life has markedly improved.

For women who are thinking of relocating to France and running a business in Paris, Yolanda has the following advice:

I would say that first of all you have to expect the unexpected. You should not be deterred by the challenges. You should not be deterred by the cultural differences. You should not be deterred by the language. All of these things can be used to your advantage to help you excel at what you want to do because if you have the basic instincts to succeed you can do that just about anywhere.

What's also helpful for women, for Americans in general, is to be a generalist, to be able to do many different things. I am a person who adapts to change very easily and I do that by being a generalist. If you have all of those skills and if you're not deterred, then that’s my advice. Just enjoy the experience because there are things about the city that cannot be experienced anywhere else in the world.

Paris is a place that is full of life, full of happiness, full of joy, full of opportunity. It’s really a great environment or a great backdrop to create a life, to create work, to create just how you want to be.

Read Part 2 of Yolanda's profile, where she talks more about the lifestyle she enjoys in Paris.

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Bob Tomlinson: Fragments of Myth Exhibition in New York

Bob Tomlinson is a Jamaican-American artist, retired French professor, and long-time Paris resident who made the City of Light his home “by accident.” He lived in Paris during the 1968 student uprising, moved away for several years, and then came back and established permanent residency in the city. He and I share a burning passion for investigating the history of African-American Paris, particularly regarding Black Montmartre during the interwar years. His story is one of 24 African-American and Afro-Caribbean expatriate stories that I feature in the Discover Paris! publication Black Paris Profiles.

Bob Tomlinson and Anna Comnena
Image courtesy of Bob Tomlinson
Viridian Artists, a contemporary art gallery in Chelsea, NY, will be hosting an exhibition of Bob's latest works from March 15 - April 6, 2016. Called Fragments of Myth, the show will feature several complex canvases done in Bob's inimitable style.

Josephine Baker: The Myth of Africa
2016 Oil and collage on canvas
Image courtesy of Bob Tomlinson
Bob combines areas painted in oil with elaborately textured and printed papers, as well as digitally manipulated photographs. His work flows uniquely between the figurative and the abstract. Art critic Lawrence Downes writes that:

The subjects of the paintings are echoes of myths, be they ancient, literary, historical or personal. However, both formally and philosophically, they can reach us only as fragments.

The Expulsion from the Garden
2016 Oil and collage on canvas
Image courtesy of Bob Tomlinson
Bob was born in Brooklyn, New York. He has shown widely in Paris, London, Amsterdam and New York and is represented in many international public and private collections, including those of the Clark-Atlanta University Museum, City University of New York, the late Dr. Maya Angelou, Lord and Lady Hirshfield, M. Franco Trecanni di Montichiari, Mme Linda Weil-Curiel, and Herr Frits Bernard. A graduate of Pratt Institute and the CUNY Graduate Center, he is also a scholar of French Literature and Aesthetics and has lectured and published in both disciplines, as well as in Afro-American Studies.

In addition to Black Paris Profiles (2012), Bob figures in the book entitled 100 New York Painters by Cynthia M. Dantzic (Schiffer, 2006) and is one of the artists studied in a recent Masters Thesis by Charlotte Barat entitled "Artistes noirs américains à Paris (1945-1969). Vie de bohème, liberté artistique et négociations identitaires (Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2014)." He is also the subject of a film project by the documentary filmmaker Louis Massiah.

Fragments of Myth opens March 15 with a reception on Thursday March 17 from 5-8 PM. The work will be on view through April 2. Bob will be at the gallery on Saturday, April 2, the final day of the exhibition, for coffee and conversation from 3-4 PM.

Viridian Artists, Inc.
548 West 28th St #632
NY, NY 10001

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12-6 PM
For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Director at 212 414 4040 or

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Black Paris Profiles™ II: Elizabeth Milovidov - Part 2

Last week, I presented Part 1 of this Black Paris Profile™ on Elizabeth Milovidov - an attorney whose passion is protecting the rights of children around the world.

Today, I bring you Part 2 of Elizabeth's profile, which features details of her professional activities in Paris, Brussels, and the European Union at large.

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Elizabeth Milovidov
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Milovidov
When Elizabeth moved to Paris, she had already completed a BA in Economics / International Area Studies at UCLA, an MA in Political Science at UC Davis, and a JD at UC Davis. Her decision to pursue yet another two degrees (MBA and MA in International Trade at European University) was a strategic decision that allowed her to obtain a French visa. Because she has always loved school and the academic environment, this was not burdensome.

The MBA opened several career options for her:

While completing my MBA / MA, I went to the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris and ordered the listings of all the American companies doing business in France. I sent out over 700 resumes. Yes, you read correctly – seven hundred. And I received more than 690 rejection and “we’ll keep your resume on file” letters. But the French subsidiary of one American company, Rockwell Automotive, decided to give me chance. I was hired in October 1997 as Administration Manager in the Paris office, with European responsibility. It was a chance in a lifetime, but I do believe the underlying reason why I was hired was because I was an attorney who was seeking new challenges.

But 5 degrees still were not enough!  She decided to pursue a PhD in International Relations and Diplomacy - in English - at American Graduate School: International Relations in Paris.

When my last position as General Counsel in a French company in the South of France transferred the headquarters to the United States, I knew that I wanted to stay in France. I was newly married and realized that my business and legal skills were more marketable in Paris, so my husband and I moved back to Paris. Once I was laid-off from the company, I enrolled in the PhD program and began my Parisian job search. Within a year of completing my course work, I was offered another position in a French company in Paris as General Counsel – Operations. I then juggled my job, arrival of two sons and completing my thesis – which also explains why it took me so long.

While her law degree proved invaluable by opening doors and providing credibility that her other degrees did not, and her MBA provided a business angle to her legal background, Elizabeth's PhD allowed her to establish herself as a professor in France and teach at several universities. Because her dissertation on International Child Rights was on a subject related to International Law, she is able to teach at top caliber French law schools.

The degree took six years to complete: one year of coursework followed by five years of research and writing. The research and writing was done in spurts and flurries, but by 2011, she had a 4-year old, a 2-year old, and a completed and defended doctoral dissertation. While her French is fluent, she says she had more polished professional French when she was working in French companies. As a child rights consultant and law professor, most of her days are now spent speaking in English.

The combination of her PhD and her JD landed her a position at the University of Geneva this summer, where she taught Child Rights Law and Internet Safety.

Elizabeth became passionate about children's rights in 2003, when she married and began thinking about having a family. She wasn’t quite sure what direction to take, but she kept reading and researching and learning. In 2005, when she started her PhD program, it was clear that she wanted to do my dissertation project on children’s rights.

She began to focus on Internet safety for children when she realized that she loves the law, children, and the Internet and technology. The last two companies that she worked for in France were high-tech Internet companies, so it was easy to combine her interests. Still, it took her 3 years to focus exclusively on Internet safety.

She founded Crossing Guard Consulting because she wanted to work in this burgeoning field that was also her passion. What better way to work on exactly what she wanted to do than to create her own company?

It was a real challenge for Elizabeth to create a digital identity - The Crossing Guard: protecting children on the digital highway - and then become that persona. She used a blog, Facebook and Twitter to help with her outreach. She finds it enriching to see people "liking" something she shared and writing in to request help.

Now she is focused on writing free eBooks to empower parents in the digital age:

So many parents are frustrated and scared of technology, but my purpose is to tell them: "You’ve got this. Use your offline parenting skills online. Don’t panic,  Parent!"  Even with all of this new technology and ever changing social media challenges, parents can do it.

Crossing Guard Consulting is a small, global organization through which Elizabeth is currently providing child rights and internet safety consulting services to the European Commission. She has projects pending with the Council of Europe and the UK. She also guest blogs for Family Online Safety Institute (US) and the OECD while maintaining close contacts with some of the leaders in Internet safety in the US and in Europe. She has staff contributing from the United States and France.

As Facebook and Internet.org target the African market for new clients, Elizabeth anticipates that Crossing Guard Consulting will become active in Africa. She says there is an even greater need to protect children in Africa and that her organization can easily do so with all the lessons learned in the past 10 years.

Elizabeth has already had the pleasure and privilege of utilizing her considerable skills and experience in Africa through the US State Department. A good friend who is also very committed women’s empowerment counseled Elizabeth on social media practices and is a true believer in the Crossing Guard. When the friend learned that Elizabeth was speaking at the American Library of Paris and at French schools on Children’s Rights and Internet Safety, she introduced Elizabeth to Sara Devlin, director of Africa Regional Services (ARS). Devlin immediately proposed some speaking engagements and video series for Elizabeth.

ARS is working under President Obama’s initiative to improve human rights, women’s rights and children’s rights in Africa. Enter the Crossing Guard.

In July, ARS sponsored a trip to Senegal where Elizabeth led two 2-day training session / workshops on Gender, Leadership and Women's Empowerment. These were co-sponsored by the US Embassy and an association of women professors. The first was held in St. Louis (former capital of Senegal when it was a French colony) and the second was in Dakar, the current capital.

Panel discussion at U. S. Embassy event in Dakar, Senegal
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Milovidov
Elizabeth described this as:

... an awesome experience bringing together women professionals from academia, medicine, law and more, but I think I was the one who reaped the most benefits as I noted that women in France, in the US, in Senegal all juggle the same issues: how to create a satisfying balance between family, work and social activities.

Elizabeth still belongs to the California and DC bars. She says there are hundreds of American attorneys in Paris: some practicing law "in-house" at law firms, others in companies, and still others are teaching. She says it's important to note that American attorneys cannot litigate in France unless they take the French bar.

For US and other non-French attorneys who would like to live and work in Paris, Elizabeth has the following advice:

Learn French. Understand the cultural norms. Take the Paris or Versailles Bar. Work in an international law firm in your own country that has offices in France. Attend conferences in Paris. Create your network – used LinkedIn. Create a social media profile that demonstrates your desire to come to France or work internationally. Have a strong support system. Be patient.

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Black Paris Profiles™ II: Elizabeth Milovidov - Part 1

I first met Elizabeth Milovidov in March 2013, when she attended the Discover Paris! Big Bang Boom Bloggers' Meet-up and Tweeps' Tweet-up. She stole the show that evening by winning the prize for naming the "Guess the Fesses" mystery sculpture contest that we hosted.

That evening, I learned that Elizabeth is an attorney and that she has a passion for children's rights and Internet safety for kids. Little did I know how deep that passion ran!

Fast forward to summer 2014, when Elizabeth graciously consented to be interviewed for a Black Paris Profile™. I'm pleased to present her fascinating story to you here. Part 1 addresses how she came to Paris and established a full and successful life here.

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Elizabeth Milovidov
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Milovidov
After graduating from UCLA in 1988, Elizabeth Milovidov and a girlfriend strapped on their backpacks and hit Europe for two months. The trip was a definite eye-opener - full of history, cultural exchange and dreams. Though they visited several European capitals, Paris was the number one place on Elizabeth's list and in her heart.

It was Elizabeth's first trip out of the United States. She and her friend visited England, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg before arriving in France. She was enamored with Paris from the start:

We had planned the trip so that we would spend my summer birthday in Paris and we did. Champagne and nibbles on a picnic blanket under the Eiffel Tower. It really was amazing!

My inspiration for visiting Paris was the Paris lifestyle. The stereotypical ideals of Paris: chic women, stylish cafés and bistrots, coupled with the historical realities of how Black Americans like Josephine Baker, Nina Simone, Richard Wright and James Baldwin were received in Paris, provided a wonderful backdrop to my idea of one day living in Paris.

After completing her law degree and going to work in a San Francisco law firm in 1991, Elizabeth came up with a simple plan to relocate to the City of Light. She sent resumes from her San Francisco home base in an attempt to integrate into a French law firm. There were no takers. She then realized then that the best way to get her foot in the door was to be physically present so that she could knock on doors. And she saw that the quickest way to do so was to become a student and obtain student visa allowing her to stay in France. At that time, she already had 3 degrees under her belt and to her parents' dismay, she was quite happy to add two more (MBA and MA in International Trade). She baptized her idea "The Student Plan."

After her first year in Paris (1995), Elizabeth realized that she was getting nowhere. She could not speak French and did not know French law. She had all the right language books, but she wasn’t making a serious effort to speak. So after 10 months of frustration, she went to the American Church in Paris and looked at the housing boards.

American Church in Paris
© Discover Paris!
She found a French student roommate and immediately moved in with her. Her life changed dramatically as she began living a French experience and no longer exclusively hung out with international students. It was a defining moment.

She spent a summer at the Sorbonne taking intensive French lessons, 5 hours a day 5 hours a week. Those lessons, plus the interaction with her roommate, provided an intermediate level of French that facilitated being hired at a French company. Her French is now fluent.

To anchor her future here, Elizabeth put ego aside, rolled up her sleeves, and taught English and babysitting to earn money while attending an English-language MBA program. Some of the people that she met years ago while giving English conversation lessons are remain good friends today. She still advises new arrivals in Paris to offer conversation courses or even simple conversation exchanges as a way to meet interesting people and earn pocket change while doing so.

After having lived in Paris for 19 years, Elizabeth still believes that moving here was the best decision she could have made. When she looks back on that first, fateful trip to Europe, she fondly remembers her visit to French-speaking Belgium. She says that though she found the Belgians to be quite welcoming and Brussels to be historically impressive, her heart was still drawn to Paris. Ironically, she now does consulting work in Brussels and marvels at how the European train system allows her to live in one country, while working in another.


When Elizabeth finally landed her first position, she found that the French corporate world is a very different environment than what she expected:

When I started working in my San Francisco law firm, the first week and even the first day were filled with welcoming activities: lunches, happy hour drinks and so forth. When I started working at my first French company (a subsidiary of a large American company no less), I was surprised at my welcome. Everyone treated me with courtesy of course, but I ate lunch alone for the first several weeks and needless to say, Happy hour was out. It was over two years before I was invited to a colleague’s home.

But none of this is a criticism of the French! It is but a mere illustration of how things can be different. In France and in the French corporate environment, you have to prove yourself, you have to endure, you have to realize that things are done differently - not wrongly, but differently. You are not instantly welcomed "just because," you are welcomed over time and after substantial contribution.

Oh and by the way, I am still friends with my French colleagues from that first corporate experience in 1997. It may have taken a while to create the links of friendship, but once they exist, they are strong bonds.

Because she believes that expatriates need a stronger support system than do locals, Elizabeth has created several networks in Paris. She joined Message for her children (play dates with other Americans) and found herself drawn to Message Entrepreneurs and other subgroups. She has a network of African-American women network, a Child Rights network, and even a professor network. With the exception of Message, none of them are “official” - rather, they are groupings of like-minded individuals around a particular subject. The bottom line is that they all serve to support.

Elizabeth's favorite place in Paris is...

the Eiffel Tower!

Eiffel Tower
© Discover Paris!

I have lived here 19 years and I love so many things in Paris. I wish I could name some little hidden gem tucked away on a cobblestone street, but honestly my favorite place is still the Eiffel Tower. When I first arrived in Paris, I lived in the 15th arrondissement within a 15-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower and I could never get enough of seeing the symbol of Paris. Every time I see the Eiffel Tower, it reminds me of that young attorney who dared to dream big enough.

Elizabeth is married to a Russian citizen and has two sons who were born in France. They are growing up just like any other young boys in Paris, but Elizabeth wants them to grow up being aware of their tri-cultural origin as well:

I try to ensure that have a normal life in Paris, with a blend of my American culture, their father's Russian culture and of course their native country of Paris. It can be a challenge, since they are enrolled in a French bilingual school and I do not always understand the system. But I try to make sure that they have play dates in all three of their languages, while overseeing their education.

Tough stuff, I am not kidding you. Give me the good ol' PhD days anytime. Being an American with children in the French educational system can be another one of those challenges that I mentioned earlier. Different, not wrong, but different.

I just asked my boys what they like to do in Paris and they responded "Disneyland, Playmobil park, Centre Pompidou and the trampolines in the Jardin de Tuilieres." But that's today. If we ask them tomorrow, I'm sure it will be something else. Which is exactly the beauty of Paris and raising children here.

Part 2 of this Black Paris Profile™ features Elizabeth's professional life in Paris.

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Black Paris Profiles™ II: Toli Nameless

When I interviewed Toli Nameless last year about the phenomenal work that she does with Paris Girls Rock, I immediately knew that I wanted to feature her in a Black Paris Profile. Between her hectic schedule and mine, it has taken several months to gather the information that I present below. Enjoy!!!

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Toli Nameless
Photo courtesy of the artist
Toli Nameless studied music and dance on the competitive high school circuit in New York City. She went on to the New School Conservatory for Jazz & Contemporary Music in New York, making a stop at Goddard College in Vermont along the way. As a performance arts activist at Goddard, she was able to play along side the likes of Marshal Allen, Lester Bowie, Fontella Bass, and Mad Professor.

Toli learned to play six instruments while she pursued her music education, one of which is the trombone. I was impressed when I saw her playing this instrument at the 3rd Annual Brothers Spring Gala in May 2013, not only because it is unusual to see a trombone player in a jazz ensemble these days, but also because it is rare see a woman playing one. She began playing trombone as a means of strengthening her voice tonality when she was a music student in Vermont.

When I asked why she plays so many instruments and how she stays in practice on all of them, she replied:

Because it's fun and a great way to express yourself. Most composers will play a variety of instrument fairly well. At conservatory, additional instrument dexterity is compulsory. One is required to know one's main instrument, sight-read on piano and voice for solfeggio. So the average musician will play three instruments by the time they leave school.

In general, a little bit of practice each day goes a long way. Also, as I receive bookings or create projects, this keeps me going with the rehearsal schedule. It also helps to have a rehearsal studio where late night noise making hours are not only encouraged but the rule.

Toli came to Paris in 2008. She has found a comfortable home as an artist-in-residence at Le 6b, a cultural center in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis. Saint Denis has become a haven for musicians, artists, and other creative professionals and Toli attests to the fact that there are many attractions to living in the area:

For one thing, there is space to produce and perform serious art. We are welcomed by the people and community of Saint-Denis as well as encouraged by the support of the other artists in the building. We have created an intentional community and a legitimate association and collective. This helps us to not only take from the community, but also to give to our surroundings.

Our means of sustaining our creative endeavors are diverse. A few of the year-round activities include hosting expositions in our gallery, presenting workshops that develop the creative, and producing cinema in our onsite screening room. In the summer, we produce a festival every year called Fabrique à Rêves that is free and open to the public.

There are other spaces similar to ours elsewhere in Saint-Denis and also in Paris. But the 6b is truly a unique place that permits artists like myself to incubate.

Le 6B
Photo from Le6B.fr
Toli performs around Europe and in the U.S as well as in the Paris area. Her travel schedule varies - she says that some years her "feet can't seem to touch the ground" while others "are a bit slow going." Last year was an "up year" - she worked in Norway and New York and scheduled a recording session in London. In Paris, she loves performing at l'Olympia, l'Internationale, and at le 6B. She also loves working at local festivals such as Fabrique à Rêves, Sons d'Hiver, and Les Estivales Musicales.

Because Josephine Baker performed at L'Olympia many times and because Toli chose to name her Girls Rock Camp after Baker as a means of "honoring the first female international superstar and activist of France," I asked her whether her fondness of performing at the Olympia was due to the "Josephine connection" and whether she seeks to emulate Baker in any way. She replied:

Yes of course, that completely adds to the mystique of the moment. She, as well as Nina Simone and other artists that I consider major influences are the type of inspirations and vindications that make the moment all the more special.

Josephine was and still is an exemplary classic figure, who can be looked upon as the first, a pioneer. In my work and performance, I look to her as a model of how to strive and push past the impossible. So in that capacity, indeed there is an intentional emulation. As an artist based in an improvisational art form, the challenge is to reinvent yourself with in your art on a daily basis. That is to say, it's like playing a self-challenging sport like golf. Your greatest opponent is yourself. Because there will never be another Josephine.

Toli will host the 4th edition of Paris Girls Rock Camp in July & August 2014.

To finish our interview, I asked Toli what advice she would give to musicians who are thinking of coming to Paris to live and work. Here is her reply:

As with any new adventure, do your research, come for a visit of at least three months, and try to take a language class before and during your stay. Be prepared to enjoy yourself in a new place and culture!

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Black Paris Profiles™ II: Kathleen Dameron - Part 2

Part 1 of Kathleen Dameron’s Black Paris Profile™ presents an in-depth look at Kathleen’s professional activities and philosophy. In Part 2, we look at some of the choices that she has made about creating and maintaining her business and what living in Paris means to her. She also shares advice for anyone who is thinking of moving to Paris and starting a business here.

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Kathleen Dameron with Tannie Award
Image courtesy of K. Dameron
Kathleen chose to start KD Conseil as a solopreneurship (a single-person business) for the simple reason that it was the simplest way to do so. (She confesses that she hates paperwork and administrative tasks.) For anyone thinking of starting a business in France, she advises the following:

Have a great deal of patience and passion, a strong sense of humor and an ability to deal with ambiguity.

Then, hire a French CPA – called expert-comptable. Do NOT attempt to navigate the French accounting or administrative system yourself!

Attend a course on French business administration, especially to know that the laws and the rules CHANGE continuously. ONLY someone who is dedicated to it can be up to date and accurate. That is why you should not attempt to run the administrative side of your company yourself.

Business in France is even more relationship-oriented than in the U.S., so expect a lot of face-to-face contact with people to develop client relationships: get the business, get the deal, get paid, get the next lead. Americans I know always comment that they can do business on the phone and meet the client face-to-face the day of the intervention. That experience is highly rare in France. People need to eyeball you, to feel your presence.

When Kathleen first came to Paris, she fell in love with the city straight away:

I love the architecture; I love the feeling of the city; I love being a woman in Paris. I love the art, the mixture of cultures, the intensity of intellectual life and of having a good street event…

She settled in the Strasbourg-Saint Denis area, a crossroads among the 2nd, 3rd, 9th, and 10th arrondissements. She loves it because the cultural and socio-economic diversity is great in this neighborhood. It abounds with theaters and restaurants, yet the banking industry is represented there as well. Beautiful architecture triggers the feeling of really being in the city of Paris. In fact, her apartment building lies in the shadow of the magnificent Porte Saint Denis, a Roman arch built by Louis XIV in the 17th century.

Porte Saint Denis
© Discover Paris!
Kathleen is an active member of Democrats Abroad. “What drives her passion about American politics, given that she is a long-time French resident?” I asked. She replied:

I have met Asians (Indians & Chinese) who have this incredible energy that can make one believe this century is THEIRS. Investing in yourself AS WELL AS your country is the light they see for their countries. I have begun to believe that the United States will continue to have a leadership role in the world for a few more years only, and I have an inherent interest that it fulfills that role as responsibly and as constructively as possible.

Given the talk I hear in Asia and what I witness in Europe, the American people seem to have lost critical reasoning AND medium-term self-interest in making social / collective choices. Examples include sub-prime loans, gulf wars, pushing OGM’s, and no health care system. I want to contribute to creating a sustainable world with economic and social justice for all. I would like to contribute to the U.S. becoming an effective world-centered, more multi-lateral participant in a world that has multiple axes.

France is actively struggling with the increasingly multicultural nature of its population. Because Kathleen focuses on multiculturalism at work, I asked her how she views French politics with regard to the various populations of people of color in France. She replied:

In some ways it is much easier for me as a Black American: I am seen as OK because I am American. There has been a low tolerance for open discrimination in the business world for Blacks like me. However, to be of North African origin is to live in the corporate world of discrimination closer to that Blacks experienced in the 1960s in the U.S. I fear that the tolerance level for difference is decreasing as “fear” becomes more acceptable as a political discourse in France.

I have witnessed that corporate opportunities for French-speaking Blacks and North Africans are low, few, and far between. I feel a need for inclusion work in French business to maintain a vibrant and diverse workplace.

Regarding the possibilities for equal opportunity employment, higher education, etc. for the young people of color in France, I feel sad for France as a country every time I read in Le Monde that bright West Indian and North African youth are enrolling massively in Canadian schools so that they can fulfill their potential. I believe that getting to the top of a corporate organization is highly unlikely for them, so the path to success for “visible minorities” may well be “Succeed abroad and then come home to Paris.” Maybe . . .

From attending social events at Kathleen’s home, I know that she loves belly dancing. So I was inspired to ask her about some of her other favorite pastimes. She lists them, in order of importance, as follows:

1) DANCING.

2) Belly dancing and 5 Rhythms dancing.

3) Hosting network exchange events and parties.

4) Meditation: both silent and active. Feeling joy in all that I do.

Finally, I asked Kathleen what advice she would give to those who are considering moving to Paris and working in business. Here are her words of wisdom:

The city is beautiful. The cultural life is awesome.

• Learn to talk about wine, food, and current events in the world intelligently—this is the basis for business networking.
• Learn about what makes French culture great – high value on expertise, excellent technology, and a passion for good food and wine.
• Learn the activities where French companies lead in their markets and in their fields. To know the names of key French and European companies is essential. To know the names of the great French and European business leaders & inventors is also a way to establish your credibility as an international business person.
• Open your mind, to creating success in a way different from the U.S. Actively let it penetrate your way of looking at the world, living, and doing business.

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Black Paris Profiles™ II: Kathleen Dameron - Part 1

This Black Paris Profile features Kathleen Dameron, a long-time African-American resident in Paris, business owner, and winner of the 1st Tannie Award for Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013. Kathleen is an active member of the African Diaspora community, bringing Blacks together to energize mind, body, and spirit at events she hosts in her home. She has a great ability to integrate her French-ness, her American-ness, her Blackness, and her curiosity for other cultures. Kathleen invests in her two countries, the USA and France, with love and passion.

In this era where France is attempting to come to grips with its increasingly multicultural identity, I found it fascinating to learn about Kathleen’s work as a cross-cultural coach and trainer in the French corporate world. Part 1 of her profile delves into this aspect of her life in Paris.

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Kathleen Dameron with Tannie Award
Image courtesy of K. Dameron
Kathleen Dameron is the owner of KD Conseil, a cross-cultural training, coaching and advisory-consulting company that she founded in Paris in 1992. Born in East St. Louis, Illinois and spending her childhood there and in southern California, she came to Paris after two years in college and never left. Her penchant for exploring how members of social groups define their boundaries and treat “out-groups” differently than themselves led her to embrace her line of work.

Kathleen coaches, facilitates, and trains in companies that are experiencing cultural change through internationalization and/or through mergers and acquisitions. She is adept at working on an individual, team, or organizational level and relies on a group of senior bi-cultural consultants to assist her with providing services to corporations such as BNP Paribas, Heinekin, Pfizer, and LVMH (Louis Vuitton). Her support network includes trainers, coaches, facilitators, colleagues, mentors, and an extraordinary assistant who has worked with her for 13 years. She cultivates people who are successful and passionate about what they do as well as people who are continuously searching out emerging trends and ways of working in organizations.

Kathleen is certified as a professional coach by the International Coaching Federation and holds certificates in Team Management Systems©, Situational Leadership II©, Coaching & Modeling, and Self-Relations (Ericksonian Hypnotherapy). She has a Master level in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a discipline that has created new ways of understanding how verbal and non-verbal communication affect the human brain. Kathleen defines NLP as the science of observing peak performance and excellence, then creating a model of it so that individuals can model high achievers to easily acquire similar peak performance as well as to apply their own excellence in one area of their lives to another.

In addition, Kathleen has taught at ESSEC (the leading business school in France) for over 15 years in the Executive MBA, General Management (MG), and Specialized Master in Strategy and Management of International Business (MS SIAI) programs, as well as in programs specifically designed for individual companies.

No two work weeks are ever the same for Kathleen as she regularly spends time within different companies providing one-on-one coaching and in-company training sessions, working with co-development groups, delivering presentations to large groups, and running team seminars. She often attends seminars and workshops to stay on the leading edge, so she generally spends only two days in her office per month. She is passionate about her work, dedicated to the individuals / teams that she serves, and committed to excellence in motivating and coaching individuals and teams to achieve excellence.

Kathleen frequently travels abroad as well – working with clients, attending workshops, speaking at conferences, and interviewing people about work place practices & values in their country. She works primarily in Europe and less frequently in the U.S. and Asia. This year (2013), she was fortunate to have spent three consecutive weeks at home in Paris for the first time in four years!

I was curious to learn about Kathleen’s certification in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy (Self-relations) and how this discipline applies to cross-cultural leadership & teamwork training. She gave the following explanation of the technique and how it works:

This approach to making maximum use of the range of one’s levels of consciousness provided me with an articulate scientific link between the magical African/Native American world and the linear, Western Anglo world.

This approach is useful since success in the business world comes from hunches, insights, visions, and ‘magical’ encounters as often as from logical, linear thinking and action-oriented planning. A leader’s presence—his or her ability to be centered, to read/feel weak signals that indicate future trends—can be developed and trained.

To create success in today’s paradigm-changing world of business, one must be able to manage two very different mental states:

This approach to making maximum use of the range of one’s levels of consciousness provided me with an articulate scientific link between the magical African/Native American world and the linear, Western Anglo world.

This approach is useful since success in the business world comes from hunches, insights, visions, and ‘magical’ encounters as often as from logical, linear thinking and action-oriented planning. A leader’s presence—his or her ability to be centered, to read/feel weak signals that indicate future trends—can be developed and trained.

To create success in today’s paradigm-changing world of business, one must be able to manage two very different mental states:

1) Being intensely focused, staying in-the-flow, and maintaining a state of minimal stress while remaining highly focused

2) Observing large amounts of data, absorbing it, listening to it, and allowing the patterns to emerge

A key skill for highly effective people is the ability to create a centered, attentive, relaxed inner state so that the right questions appear and the appropriate solutions emerge. I use Ericksonian hypnotherapy techniques to help my clients attain this level of skill and integrate it as a practice in their working life. Related names for this practice are: mindfulness, leadership presence, in-the-flow, and embodied leadership. (See www.siyli.org* for a similar program that Google created for its employees.)

When leaders and team members have integrated these practices, these two ways of working create breakthrough moments for the individual, the team, and the organization. This is conducive to innovation, to effectiveness, to keeping pace with change without inducing stress.

Because Kathleen works in French, English, and Spanish, I asked how this affects her thought patterns. She replied:

Being multilingual is a vital part of my life. I am attracted to expressions in a particular language that convey a concept differently than in other languages. An example is Weltanschauung in German: a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world, especially from a specific standpoint (welt=world).

There are some things that are much better said in a particular language. Because it’s important for me to express myself in that language, there are situations when I find myself going back and forth between languages.

I am fascinated by how the world can be so different—the political and cultural issue non-existent—when you change languages. For example: am I a black woman or woman who is black? In French it is all in ONE word, noire, so the long debate in the U.S. community seems a moot point.

Then there are the words “hero” and “history” that have “sexist” connotations in English that do not exist in French.

Spanish is a very affectionate, complimenting language. And American English can be exceptionally supportive, encouraging, pushing you forward.

So I like learning and changing languages to get different perspectives.

Kathleen says that the understanding of cross-cultural differences impacts her personal choices on a daily basis. She is ever curious, asking questions all the time. She feels the importance of being in her comfort zone and at the same time challenging herself to go outside that zone. While she is demanding, she is also fair with herself, knowing that there is always more than ONE right way.

*SIY (Search Inside Yourself) Core Program is the 16-hour course that was developed and refined at Google. The program focus is on the five key domains of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills – with mindfulness practice, science, and leadership applications fully integrated at all levels.

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Château Rouge

I'm pleased to present this guest blog post by Yetunde Oshodi, one of the twenty-four persons featured in Black Paris Profiles.

Yetunde Oshodi
Image courtesy of Yetunde Oshodi
Nigerian-born and a former New Yorker, Yetunde Oshodi-Fraudeau is the owner and founder of Feels Like Home in Paris, a vacation apartment rental company in Paris.  With apartments primarily in Montmartre, she's always ready to share her suggestions and impressions of Paris and France in general with her guests.  She has even created a blog called Like Home in Paris to help Paris visitors get more out of their Paris holiday.

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I once heard that the market at Château Rouge, which is primarily sub-Saharan influenced, was said to be moving to the outskirts of Paris. Since it is still standing at this location, I assume that the project has either been postponed or abandoned for now. Thank goodness for that!

As a student in Paris, I was told by a Ghanian classmate of mine that Château Rouge was the place to go if you were looking for ingredients for making various African dishes. When I visited there the first time, I was both overwhelmed and taken back to the street markets in Nigeria, which I only remember vaguely. In the 20 years that I lived in New York state, I had never come across something like this!

I recalled my father taking us from our suburban home into Queens or Brooklyn to buy plantains before they became a popular item at the local green grocer on Tarrytown Road (thanks mainly to the Latin population). I recalled that he came up with interesting and convincing substitutes for many things he couldn't find - for example regular spinach for the water leaf used to make efo. I remember visits from relatives with suitcase full of gari (ground cassava) and even plantains (how in the world they carted all that stuff through customs I will never know). And here I was in Paris' 18th district with all these things and more at my fingertips. I can't begin to express how much delight this brought me! Now I don't eat Nigerian food everyday - it can sometimes be a laborious endeavor for which I find I have either little time or little patience - but I love to eat it whenever offered.

Plantains and Other Produce
Image courtesy of Yetunde Oshodi
Walking through the streets of the African market, you are transported to another world - a noisy world of "mamas" and the kids shopping, chatting and perhaps even bargaining. Many of the items sold at the market look so familiar to me but I don't recall their names partly because my family is represented by two African nations, Nigeria and Cameroon. Since Nigeria was a British colony and not a French one, the names of the produce which can be found all over West Africa are not the same as those in Nigeria. Even when I took my aunt to the market so she could cook up some yummy stews, she was hesitant about some of the leafy vegetables we came across which looked familiar but did not have a name she knew of.

Shopping for Greens and Other Produce
Image courtesy of Yetunde Oshodi

But Château Rouge is not only African products.  It is also the place to get Halal meats and fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese and fish from exactly the same producers that you would find at any other Paris market -  sometimes for considerably less.

Halal Butcher
Image courtesy of Yetunde Oshodi

Fruit Stand
Image courtesy of Yetunde Oshodi

Now Château Rouge is not for the faint of heart. It can be overwhelming to the average tourist with the phenomenal number of people pouring in and out of the Château Rouge metro station and the huge crowd you can find in the middle of the day.

Château Rouge Metro Station
Image courtesy of Yetunde Oshodi

Strolling at the African Market
Image courtesy of Yetunde Oshodi
Seeing as you are in Paris and the people you encounter are predominantly black (you know you are thinking it even if you don't wish to say it out loud), some may be wary, but it is a fascinating place to visit and shop if you wish to venture into African cuisine. That is mainly why I go there. I think it is wonderful that you can find such produce in Paris and it really gives me the feeling of the diversity of this city.

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Moving to Paris – One Woman’s Story

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
On this special day, I am pleased to bring you the story of Anne Denise Stills, a woman who was inspired by this blog – and particularly by the Black Paris Profiles published here – to take definitive steps to move to Paris.

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Anne Denise Stills
Photo courtesy of Anne Denise Stills
The idea of moving to Paris took me by surprise. It was a buried, long-time dream, first nurtured as a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, New York by my love affair with haute couture fashion. Over the years and into adulthood, the dream continued to grow subconsciously, quietly, through international travel, a fascination with beautiful ancient buildings, and a curiosity about all things French.

One year ago, I made a decision to start seriously thinking about living my life in Paris. Perhaps it was because I was feeling overreached by the hustle and bustle of New York life. Maybe I needed a change that would nourish my spirit. Possibly it was that my son would be completing college soon and on his own, and I would have my life back to do as I pleased. Whatever the reason, the dream of living in Paris was rekindled vividly and invaded my thoughts day and night.

Three months later, I was on a red-eye flight on my first trip...April in Paris. Going through the Charles de Gaulle airport terminal and hearing the music of Louis Armstrong singing “La Vie en Rose” put a smile on my face and made my heart sing. I felt like I was coming home! As a temporary resident and self-assured New Yorker, I hopped on the metro and local bus with ease and went to a private flat in the 15th arrondissement.

Every experience and interaction I had during this trip was magical. The first time I saw the Eiffel Tower, it took my breath away! I stood in awe of the ancient architectural masterpieces, cobblestone streets, the beauty and history of the treasures at the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, and the peacefulness of the River Seine. The food was divine and the language was music to my ears.

The kindness of strangers at every turn was contrary to the reputation of the French being unfriendly and snobbish. From the lady who got off the bus with me to direct me to Galeries Lafayette, to the gentlemen working at the museum who after a delightful conversation invited me home to dine with him and his wife, to the Paris Opera Ballet ballerina whom I accidentally ran into while trying to find the entrance to Palais Garnier and who pleasantly answered my many questions about her life and training, then kindly showed me the entrance door…all these are lovely, touching moments and memories.

Upon my return home, one thing was crystal clear: there was a life waiting for me in Paris. I had a burning desire that I could not quell. It propelled me forward to take action to follow my desire to live in Paris.

The first step I took was to research on the Internet other African Americans living in Paris. One of most significant sites I found was “Entrée to Black Paris.” The historical, events, art, and restaurant information was extremely informative and made the city come alive for me. In particular, the Black Paris Profiles were very relevant. They document the lives of ex-pats who created a new life for themselves in the City of Light. Perusing them gave me the idea for my first step in my plan to move: build a network of people living and working there who have done what I am trying to do. As a result of reading their stories, I reached out to some through LinkedIn and start building a network. All were warm, welcoming, and positive and offered to assist in any way they could.

Through the social network I have reached out to almost 200 people. I continued to build upon my professional connections in the industries in which I have worked – airlines, hospitality and financial services – as well as industries I have an interest in so that I can attract employment opportunities. I realize it will not be easy and I will be sacrificing the comfort of a successful, well-established career in New York to take a leap of faith towards the unknown. However, my spirit has already embraced a new life in Paris and I feel compelled to follow that path.

I have given myself a timeline of 36 months towards my goal to move to Paris. Meanwhile, I am doing practical things such as taking French language classes at the Alliance Française and listening to conversational tapes. I visit every 3 to 4 months because I feel “homesick” and I move around the city to familiarize myself with the different districts and get a feel for where I would live. At the suggestion of a few ex-pats, I am gaining a TESOL certificate as an option for a quick means of income. I am formulating a plan on how I can use my professional background, interests and skills and create my own business as well. I have also compiled a list of firms to approach to explore employment opportunities.

As I patiently take these steps, I feel empowered and know that I am moving toward my destiny. With courage and passion, I am following my dream and feel excited about the possibility!

Anne D. Stills
20 November 2012

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Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.
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