Place de Vosges, April 29, 2008

May Day is My Day at the Place des Vosges

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Paris, France

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I can remember once sitting under the thick rows of plane trees at the 400-year-old Place des Vosges one spring literally watching the leaves grow and open before my very eyes. This 'snap shot' was taken just yesterday in a brief moment without much contemplation. It just IS that beautiful.

It's a tradition to celebrate Labor Day in France with a picnic on the grass at the Place des Vosges, a perfectly symmetrically square apartment complex made of brick and stone that is reminiscent of
Jackson Square in New Orleans, which was actually fashioned after it. This year should be no different as May 1st is fast upon us...tomorrow in fact!

Originally named The Place Royale, the one-time gated community (you once needed a key to enter its gates) was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612 as a true square (140 meters x 140 meters) on the site of the Hôtel des Tournelles and its gardens. It was here that during a tournament, Henri II was wounded and died.

Until 2001, the "Pelouse Interdite" or "Pelouse au Repose" ("Keep off the Grass") signs marked the thick grassy triangles, but now you'll find it wall to wall with sunworshipers and picnickers. There is something quite comforting about its symmetry and formal gardens, even if wedged into such intimate spaces while munching on your baguette sandwich.

A few weeks ago, one of our lucky clients scored a duplex apartment on the Place, Paris' chicest residential address and most valuable if not most expensive property. Finding available property within its sacred walls is as almost as difficult as getting the Democratic Party nomination for presidency of the United States.

The apartment, on the top floors with views on the courtyard and the adjacent "Hôtel Particulier" on rue de Turenne, is currently under complete renovation and will be made available at some future date for rental to visitors when the Aussie owners aren't occupying it. I bet they won't want to give it up so easily!

Past Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, who we have to thank for having created the annual "Fête de la Musique" in 1981, lives in the same building. And just yesterday I visited another apartment in the same building, by sheer coincidence. The enormously spacious and magnificently appointed apartment in a very historical part of the building, was once owned by the son of an artist (whose name is a household word and which cannot be divulged here) is being made exclusively for sale only to very special qualifying buyers. (We were the first to see it!)

We also visited another smaller apartment for sale 'down the road' of vaulted archways next to the famous Michelin three-star restaurant, L'Amboisie. it was more like a "petite maison" with floor to ceiling windows on the courtyard, down a narrow cobble-stoned street hidden behind the buildings set on the Place. You'd never know it existed there, but from its steps one could see the beautiful Hôtel de Sully peeking behind the double garage that was an added bonus.

You all know how much I love my Marais apartment in its 17th-century Hôtel Particulier building with its lovely cobblestoned courtyard and elegant staircase, but given an opportunity to trade it for a little corner in the Place des Vosges...that kind of May day would make my day.

Picnicking at the Places des Vosges under April showers, May 1, 2006... A la prochaine...

Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris

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This Week in French Property Insider...

"How to Have Your Own Paris Pied-à-terre...and Let Someone Else Pay For It"
By Adrian Leeds

On Sunday night, 22 French Property Insider subscribers tuned into our free conference call titled "How to Have Your Own Paris Pied-à-terre...and Let Someone Else Pay For It" with myself and John Rule, our Rental and Mortgage Manager...Subscribers Read On...

Learn how to buy property in France!

French Property Insider is a weekly e-zine, sharing insights, recommendations, tips, and discoveries about Paris real estate and French property. Each information-packed issue is devoted to educating its readers on how to effectively, efficiently and profitably purchase property in France.

For more information visit http://www.frenchpropertyinsider.com or email info@adrianleeds.com

Adrian Leeds, of Parler Paris and French Property Insider and John Howell, The International Law Partnership, Present the...

Living and Investing
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Upcoming Conferences in 2008:

London
Date: June 22, 2008
Location: International Law Partnership Offices, Holborn Hall, 193-197 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD
Times: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with buffet lunch
Limit: 25 attendees
Registration Fee: £147 1st person, £97 2nd person
For more information, email rsvp@adrianleeds.com

To reserve your place, click here http://www.frenchpropertyconference.com/LIF_London_June_2008/fax_reg_london_2008.pdf
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San Francisco
Date: July 26-27, 2008
Location: San Francisco, Alliance Francaise, 1345 Bush Street, San Francisco, California 94109
Times: To Be Announced
Limit: 80
Registration Fee: To Be Announced
For more information, email rsvp@adrianleeds.com

Paris
Date: October 11-12, 2008
Location: Paris Chez Jenny
Times: To Be Announced
Limit: 100
Registration Fee: To Be Announced
For more information, email rsvp@adrianleeds.com

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