And also due to my remote freelance writing work. This is part personal essay, part resource guide, complete with very important links. Step one is to become a poet or writer. Just kidding β sort of. I came to Paris first with an ex in mere babies!
Then again in to visit my French friend Fabienne. In , I came to the Dordogne for work. And in , I got a three-month poetry residency. I already knew that Jennifer K. Dick ran the Ivy Writers Series where I was slotted to read that first month of my residency.
All of that happened in the first few weeks of February, The course of my life changed in those three months, but I also walked right into this ready-made community of poets and women artists. I wish that for you, too. You can also make new friends! I try to know at least one living or dead poet in every country I visit. The lesson is this: poetry does not bring you money, but it enriches your life in ways that are unimaginable and often life-saving.
Part of my ability to have friends and community in Paris, and nourishing those relationships on visits that lasted months at a time, comes from being a digital nomad since So, step two is:. But working remotely has allowed me to come to France once a year since with the one exception being In the case of the French apartment, I got really lucky on two fronts. The first is that in I was offered a sublet by a very good friend. So I had a place in Paris that I could afford and was furnished.
This is where my dating life was the second lucky thing. He owns a place in Mulhouse, in the Alsace region of France, but would stay in beautiful hotels in Paris every time he was in town for business so you can see part of the allure β picture champagne dinners, velvet-draped hotel rooms, and a man who charms everyone he meets.
