In a nutshell. France is one of the largest nations in Europe both in area and in population. She has 213,009 square miles and some 45 million citizens, and that makes her second only to the Soviet Union in size, and to Great Britain in population, this side of the Iron Curtain.

For probably the majority of Americans, France is the country that first comes to mind when retiring abroad is mentioned. This for many reasons but chief among them is the wide range of offer­ings France makes to the person wishing the good things of life. Scenically and climatically France rivals or surpasses her neighbors and she is the admitted cultural leader of the world. Paris, her capital, is so widely known and loved that it would be redundant to describe the "City of Light" here. The French Riviera, the Cote d'Azur, probably boasts more retired foreigners than any equal area in the world—and for good reason, of course.

But another cause for so many of us thinking in terms of France when we contemplate retiring abroad is because in the past France was one of the very cheapest countries in Europe. Back in the "twenties" and the "thirties" it was indeed quite possible to live in France, even in Paris, for $25 a week or less. In fact, you could live in comparative luxury on $100 a month and there were tens of thousands of Americans doing it.

Such a reputation did France build between the two World Wars as a land where one could retire on a shoestring, that the memory continues in people's minds until this day, in spite of the fact that it costs 25 times as much to live in Paris now as it did in 1938. Twenty-five times as much!

Paris is, of course, considerably higher than the balance of the country but still the prospective American wishing to escape the work-a-day world should think twice before picking France as his home. That is, of course, unless he has a few gushers bringing him in an income. It is possible to retire in Paris and we'll end this chapter with several case histories of Americans who are doing it very nicely indeed, but I am of the opinion that there are easier places in which to accomplish this end.

If you do find it possible to pick France as a country in which to retire, then you'll find what good life can really be. No place on earth do people eat and drink better than in France, absolutely no place. No city in the world can boast the cultural qualities of Paris. No place has the electric air, the vim, the love of life that Paris breaths. It is no mistake that she is called the City of Light.

And no country in the world exceeds France in the rich beauty of her provinces. Name a few of them over to yourself, the very pronouncing of them brings a feeling of glamour. Burgundy, Nor­mandy, Brittany, Champagne, Gascony, Alsace and Lorraine.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS. All you need to enter France, if your stay is not to exceed three months, is a passport. If you plan to remain longer than that you'll have to apply for a regular visa from a French consulate. This will cost you about $10 (the amount may be changed by the time you read this) and it will take up to two months to procure since the application has to be forwarded to Paris for approval. You'll need several passport photos. There are French Consulates in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, Boston and St. Louis. Or you can secure the visa at one of their European consulates.

TRANSPORTATION. There certainly can be no difficulty in get­ting to France. Probably half of the ships that cross the Atlantic carrying passengers, stop at French ports. Prices for ship passage between New York and Le Havre will range from $155 on such student ships as the Waterman, Groote Beer, Sibajak and the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, to astronomical amounts for first class on such luxury liners as the Cunard Queens, the United States, the Liberte, the Mauretania and the Gripsholm.

Most of us, particularly those on a budget, will settle for some­thing between these two extremes. There are scores of liners and hundreds of passenger carrying freighters crossing the Atlantic nowadays. Tourist class passage on these starts at about $175. At that rate, accommodations can be on the grim side, and you'll find yourself packed into a dormitory type cabin with a flock of other people, some of whom snore, and some of whom love garlic. For better quarters your bill goes up to $200 or so.

Actually, with the new thrift class rates, it isn't more expensive to fly the Atlantic. The initial cost might be an extra twenty or twenty-five dollars, but you'll spend that without any difficulty at all on tips, drinks, deck chairs and such aboard the ship. But for that matter you can beat even this thrift rate by flying with Ice­landic Airlines the only airline in the business that doesn't belong to the International Air Transport Association and consequently doesn't subscribe to their regulations which result in all other airlines charging the same prices for their services.

Transportation within France you'll find as good as anywhere in the world. Her roads are excellent and well supplied with service stations, garages and other motorist needs. Bus services are fine and France's trains are some of the best anywhere. In case you didn't know it, it's France that holds the speedrecord for trains— 205 miles per hour achieved with an electric locomotive pulling three cars. Compared to American prices, train rates are low, al­though not as low as other European ones. Berths however, are high and if you're watching your budget the best deal is to travel during the day and to stop at a hotel comes evening.

§

THE FRENCH. There are two ways of melting the French.

If you're a tourist, dashing through the country, you'll probably wind up hating this people. The only ones you'll meet are hotel and restaurant employees, shop keepers and taxi cab drivers and these, of course, make their living by milking the tourist. You'll be no exception. Everywhere you go you'll meet the outstretched hand, no country is more tip hungry than France. And everywhere you go you'll probably feel you're being gypped and part of the time you'll be right. And even though you are a gregarious type person, interested in people and the way of life of others, you'll find the French home closed to you. You won't even meet any of the French, with the exception of those who wait on you.

But if you settle down in France, take a house or apartment, learn the language, then you will find another people. The French­man who has had the tourist pouring over the boundaries of his country for centuries has built up a barrier to them. He suffers them, because he must since France's largest single industry is tourism. But he keeps them at a distance so far as his personal life is concerned. He is another man when you settle more permanently.

The French as a people probably take more trouble to achieve the good life than any other in the world. Unless pushed by poverty, they wouldn't dream of eating poor food, wouldn't dream of sleep­ing in less than a comfortable bed, wouldn't dream of not looking the best in regards to clothing. It has been no mistake that France has become the luxury nation of the world.

Once you have made friends of a French family, you will find them honest and hospitable, very good friends but very bad enemies. You'll find they have as great a love of country as any nation in the world and an attitude, even stronger than we Ameri­cans have about the States, that there just is no other place to live in the world but France.

§

MONEY. The French franc is one of the most fouled up cur­rencies on earth. Not even the French trust it and when a French­man accumulates a bit of money he is more apt to buy gold with it and bury the metal under the floor than he is to put it in the bank. And for good reason. During this century the franc has dropped from its original value of about 254 to the point where now you can get between 450 and 500 per dollar on the free market exchange.

The legal rate is 420 to the dollar but French law allows you to bring any amount of French francs into the country so the smart operator, be he tourist or more permanent visitor, buys his francs in New York, Switzerland or Tangier and reaps the benefits.

One warning in changing dollars into francs. If you run short of francs, dealing with the black market (the noir, they call it) is risky. Particularly in Paris, the changers who hang around the vicinity of the American Express office are a vicious gang that will try every trick in the book from short changing you to slipping a few counterfeit bills in with the good ones. In fact don't follow one of these gentlemen down a dark alley to do your business transactions. If you do, there's a good chance that you won't come out again. If you do change any money on the black market in Paris, take along a French friend and preferably deal with someone he knows.

WORK PERMISSION. No work permit is needed if you can find yourself a job with an American or other foreign firm. If you want to work for a French concern, it's another matter. You must apply for your work permit to the Services de Main d'Oeuvre du Ministere du Travail, 391 rue de Vaurigard, in Paris. You probably won't get such a permit unless you have a request from your po­tential French employer, and he'll have to explain why he needs an American and why some deserving Frenchman can't handle the job. And even then you'll find yourself with French wages which are shockingly low by American standards.

PRICES. As we've already pointed out above, prices in France are astronomical. They are the highest in Europe and for the average American it is probably more expensive to live in Paris than it is in New York. The average Frenchman might be another thing, but invariably the American is charged higher prices and he just doesn't know the ropes.

The same situation would probably apply if you took the French­man to America. Not that he would be deliberately overcharged in our country but he wouldn't know the ropes, wouldn't know where or how to find cheap rooms and the more economical restaurants. Wouldn't know what foods to buy, what shops to frequent.

In Paris it is all but impossible to find an apartment for less than $100 a month and even then it would be small, with miserable plumbing facilities. As I write this I have before me a copy of the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune. I have gone through the classified ads and note the following advertisements which are the three cheapest listed. (1) is for a one room studio with a bath, price $77 a month. (2) is a 2 room furnished flat which is avail­able for 5 months for $88 a month. (3) is a four room apartment with kitchen and bath for $144 a month.

With rentals such as these many residents of Paris live perma­nently in the cheaper hotels. One-star hotels in Paris begin their rates at 500 francs for a single without bath, 650 francs for a double without bath. To this basic amount is added a 15 % service charge. You wind up paying a minimum of about $1.50 a night in the cheapest hotels the city affords. One of the best neighborhoods for these, by the way, is in the vicinity of the Sorbonne on the Left Bank. Most of the hotels in this section are patronized by students and some are surprisingly clean considering their classification.

Gone are the days when for a dollar you could get a superlative meal in France. Superlative meals are to be found in abundance, but not for one dollar. It is possible to eat in Paris for as little as 350 francs, soup, an entre, and dessert. But the meal will be skimpy and hardly prepared by a great chef. To eat well in Paris will cost you between $2 and $3 and up. The up can be really high. If you wish you can make your pilgrimage to such Meccas of food as Maxim's or Tour d'Argent and dinner with wine for two can hit $40 without even trying.

Food prices are somewhat lower in the provinces but still high compared to the rest of Europe.

Cheaper than Paris is the Riviera where it is possible to stay in a pension (that's pronounced pen-see-on, not pen-shun) for about $4. This includes room, three meals a day, service and taxes. The pension, by the way, is something that you'll want to know about anywhere in Europe. It is not to be confused with the American type boarding house. In some countries, Austria for one, there is even a certain social prestige in living in a pension. In Spain, prices will be as low as a dollar a day, but on an average you can figure on $3 in Europe as a whole and $5 in the more expensive countries such as France and Switzerland. These are minimum rates, pensions can be found in every price level. There are worse ways of living; pension life is pleasant, usually convivial, and they are as apt to be located scenically and centrally as the average hotel. I have spent some of my most pleasant months in Europe, Africa and the Near East living in pensions.

Rents are somewhat cheaper on the Riviera than they are in other resort and tourist areas of France. Why this should be, I don't know. Possibly because the Riviera is no longer tops in swank. The big money crowd is more apt to go to Biarritz, near the Spanish border, or to the Lido, at Venice in Italy. Back in the twenties and thirties when the Cote d'Azure reached its heights in popularity, tens of thousands of houses and cottages went up and now many of these are for rent or sale.

If you look around a bit and especially in the less swank tourist towns such as Beaulieu, Menton, St. Paul, Cros de Cagnes, and Cassis you should be able to find a house for about $50 a month. If you demand American standards you're going to have to pay more than that, of course. If you're settling down in earnest, you can buy a house for from five or six thousand dollars and up, you're not going to get any mansion for this price, obviously. If you've absconded with the company funds and can lay a bit of cash on the line then there are opportunities for larger houses that would beat anything in Florida or California. Twenty-five thousand dol­lars on the Riviera would buy you one whale of an establishment.

Best way to locate a house either for rental or to buy is to read the Sunday papers such as the Petit Marsellais or the Nice Matin. If your French isn't that good and you have no friends to help you out, there are always the real estate agents. Nice alone has over 80 of these so you won't have any difficulty locating one.

Food prices are high, even by American standards. France has the great advantage of being able to supply the very best in foods, but you pay for the quality. On an average, I would say that you can figure on about the same grocery bill as you're used to at home. Wines are cheap as long as you stick to the vin du pays, the wine of the countryside, which you buy in bulk at the grocery store. Other beverages are slightly cheaper than in the States but not greatly so. You pay about as much for spirits as you do at home, and for imported drinks, such as whiskey, you pay prices that only millionaires, or executives on expense accounts, can afford.

Forget about buying clothes in France unless you have a chain of drive-in banks back home. French clothing for women is tops in this world of ours, but so are the prices. And their cheaper, ready-to-wear clothing is shoddy and poorly designed. French women almost always either make their own clothes or hire a favorite seamstress. For men, clothing buys are so much better in all of France's neighboring countries that buying in France is on the foolish side.

PARTICULARLY RECOMMENDED LOCALITIES. I've been up and down and across France on various occasions and for vary­ing lengths of time and strongly subscribe to the oft stated comment that all sections of France are desirable places in which to live and that it is a matter of personal preference. My own preferences are Paris and the Cote d'Azur.

Paris is a city that everyone should at least visit and preferably live in for a time, at least once in his life. You can find something favorable to say about almost any large city, but there is no other city which receives the acclaim honoring Paris.

The Riviera stretches from Marseilles to the Italian border, about a hundred and twenty miles by road. Nice is the capital but for many reasons not necessarily the most desirable town in which to live. For one thing the beach is so pebbly that it is almost impossible to walk barefooted down to the water. Besides, in my own opinion it's too large a city for this portion of the world. The Riviera, it has always seemed to me, should be devoted to small, clean, bright towns—not cities.

Cannes is the next largest town and with its excellent harbor is usually loaded with yachts and even the big liners from New York stop here to disgorge vacationists. For me a bit too expensive and still a bit too large.

There are a score of smaller towns and villages, each with their own attractions from Cassis near Marseille to Menton right on the Italian border. I particularly recommend the following as suited for man, woman or family retiring on a budget. Cassis, La Ciotat, Le Lavandou, St. Tropez, Boulouris, Cros de Cagnes, St. Paul, Beaulieu, Eze, Monte Carlo and Menton. There are many others.

Of them all, I believe I like Monte Carlo, largest town of the three towns in tiny Monaco, the land of Prince Rainer and Princess Grace. It has a charm all its own, this country which is smaller than 400 acres—an average size farm in the States.

It has been said that Monaco is a country nestled behind a bill­board on the road between Nice and the Italian border and that when you pass through it by train you have to look sharp if you want to see it at all. And while all this may be true, surely she is tiny, little Monaco packs a charm into her small limits to be found nowhere else in Europe.

And actually she is probaly a touch cheaper that the other sec­tions of the Cote d'Azur, this because she is free of various taxes which France levels on her own citizens. Lower taxes mean cheaper prices and Monaco benefits in this wise.

There are other advantages for the person retiring on a shoe­string and particularly one who is retiring without even the shoe­string since Monaco has less of the restrictions that France puts on the foreigner residing within her borders. There is no military service, no income or property tax, and facilities for starting up a business without formalities of license are enjoyed.

Undoubtedly these freedoms are to be numbered among the reasons that Monaco actually has as permanent residents more foreigners than Monegasques. In fact, the recent figures show only 2,696 Monegasques but 11,209 French, 4,490 Italians, 655 English and 152 Americans. There are more than fifty nationalities in all residing in the country on a permanent basis.

CASE HISTORY No. 1. I seem to be emphasizing young men in my case histories thus far so we'll start off this section with Claire Trevor (no relation, so far as I know, to the movie actress). Claire, who, when I knew her lived at the Hotel Delavigne, 1 rue Casimir Delavigne, in Paris "retired" without starting off with that in mind. Whether or not she is still living as she did at that time I don't know but I'm quite certain she hasn't gone back to the States and to the type of routine work she once dreaded.

Claire graduated from one of the big Middle Western Colleges; Chicago, if I remember correctly, and decided to take one short fling in Europe before settling down at an office job. She had very little money for her fling, less than a thousand dollars, I would imagine. The student ship that brought her to Rotterdam cost less than two hundred dollars, and nursing the remaining money she headed for Paris. That could have been a mistake, prices in Paris being what they are, but what happened was that Claire fell in love at first sight with the city, its people, its food, its cultural qualities and determined never to return to Chicago—or at least not for years. She began looking for a job and ran into a blank wall. There just weren't any jobs with the American firms in town for a girl with her qualifications and she couldn't get work permission from the French authorities.

She stuck it out until her funds were so low that she didn't even have sufficient to buy passage home and with some of her very last money put an ad in the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune. It went something like this:

American girl. College graduate. Good family. Desires any position. Salary not particularly important.

The ad brought several responses but the one Claire liked best was with an American writer who had come to Europe with the intention of staying almost a full year. He had brought his wife and two small children along and planned to spend three or four months in France, three or four months in Austria and then the balance of his time in Italy and possibly Spain. He wanted someone who spoke English to watch the children. Sort of a governess deal.

Fine. Claire moved in with them. In Paris they lived in a hotel. One room for the writer and his wife, one for Claire and the chil­dren. When they got to Austria they stayed at St. Anton and Claire joined the writer's wife, who wasn't much older than she, in learn­ing to ski. They took a small cottage at St. Anton, and, of course, since Claire was hired only to look after the children, a maid was taken on to do the more tedious work.

Claire fell in love with the children, the children fell in love with Claire. Italy and Spain followed Austria and Claire was seeing a good deal of Europe under the best of circumstances. The family become so fond of her that long after they returned to their Long Island home in New York, they corresponded. In fact, on two occasions they recommended Claire to friends of theirs who wanted similar assistance. Upon their return to America, Claire went back to Paris, finding herself with a few hundred dollars in savings. She had practically no expenses on the job and had been able to save almost all her small salary. Now she put another ad in the paper:

American girl Experienced governess. College graduate. Minimum salary.

In less than a week she was hired by a Danish family who wanted their children to become perfect in their English. Quite wealthy, the Danes lived in Paris part of the year, in Copenhagen for another part, and spent at least two months each year in travel. While Claire was with them, they took in Sicily among other places.

When I knew Claire she was between jobs, but this was purely of her own making. She was taking a rest from positions that actually were more like vacations themselves than work. She told me that she liked to work with Americans the best. They were more generous, less demanding. After she'd been doing this "work" for several years she had found that she could be rather picky about whom she worked for. Good with children, attractive and obviously pleasant to have about the house, all her employers invariably recommended her to friends.

She didn't plan to do this forever in spite of the easy life. From time to time in her travels about Europe she found opportunities to go into this project or that but thus far had refrained, however she realized that sooner or later some such deal would be too good to resist and she would settle down to a more profitable way of life even though possibly a less interesting one.

As it was, Claire had been living the life of a millionaire on vacation. People with enough money to bring their children to Europe and to hire a governess to take care of them, invariably lived in the best hotels in the most swank resorts and ate only the best food in the top restaurants. Claire admitted she's never had it so good, and dreaded the thought of going back to a more mundane way of life.

Could you do this?

Well, there are a lot of young American girls doing it. I would estimate that at any one time there must be several hundred. Most of them, admittedly, don't make a career of it as Claire has done. Rather they come to Europe and take such a job for a season or so before returning home. I've met quite a few of these. Some get their jobs before leaving the States, advertising in the various travel magazines or in their home town newspapers. In this way they sometimes even get their passage across the ocean.

Requirements, of course, are that you be good with children and be, preferably, attractive and presentable enough that a wealthy family traveling in Europe would want you on their trip. A college degree is desirable but far from necessary, I have met several girls working in this manner who didn't have one.

There are three American newspapers currently in Europe. The Herald Tribune Paris edition is published, of course, in Paris; the European issue of the New York Times is published in Amster­dam, and the Rome Daily American in Rome. All of these run classified ads. Going through their pages will sometimes give you other ideas for desirable jobs that are not too demanding.

CASE HISTORY No. 2. Mentioning the Herald Tribune brings to mind a case history with which I am not personally familiar but is authentic since it is taken directly from the "Americans Around the World" special issue of Life magazine. The section devoted to Joan Signorile reads as follows:

"She wore the bright orange sweater with Herald Tribune em­blazoned in bold letters across the chest, a garment that stands out even in Paris. She stopped at each cafe and shouted: Herald Tribune! Herald Tribune!

"She has a lithe body, controlled in movements; a face exotic, arresting. Born in Flatbush, she is half Irish, half Italian by descent, with the best of both: the Italian coloring, the blue eyes of the Irish. In New York she worked as a substitute teacher, receptionist, dentist's assistant, salesgirl in a .05-and-.10 store. For a girl whose age was only 23 she has seen a lot of living.

"She is Joan Signorile. Her job when I saw her was selling the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune up and down the Champs-Elysees, where in her flat-heeled shoes she racked up several miles a day on a four-block beat beginning at the Arch of Triumph. "The men at the sidewalk cafes stared with interest at her. Now and then she sold a paper. One man just leered. She stared directly back. "Herald Tribune?" she said with icy sweetness. He still said nothing, still just leered. She turned briskly and walked on.

"We stopped at a place around the corner for her breakfast which is just coffee. For lunch she can get a sandwich and coffee or beer for 110 francs and at night dinner for 200 francs in a cheap restaurant.

"Three years ago she had visited Paris for six months and fallen in love with a Frenchman. Two years ago she went to France again, looking all over for the Frenchman who had dropped out of sight. When she found him, she decided she did not love him anyway.

"She took me around to her latest room, on the Left Bank. It was on the second floor, extremely small and almost all the floor space was consumed by bed, clothes cupboard, washbowl and bidet. The traffic noise directly below was shattering.

" 'Why do you live in Paris?'

" 'Because an American girl can cut loose in Paris. Like me, selling papers. Psychologically, it's helped me a lot. In New York I'm very shy. This job has made me go up to people. I sell papers here and like it. I would die if I did it in the United States.'

" 'What do you want to do?'

" 'Get married and have babies,' she said instantly.

" To a Frenchman?'

" 'Heavens no,' said the girl. 'I can't stand Frenchmen. I want to marry an American.' "

I don't present this case history as an example of a "retired" person who has made good and is leading an abundant, happy life, but just as an example to indicate that it is possible to secure jobs abroad even in such supposedly difficult towns as Paris. No work permit is needed for this, of course, since Joan was working for an American firm. The Herald Tribune hires dozens of American girls to sell papers, you see them all about the streets. Temporary jobs, of course, until something better turns up, but enough money to get by on meanwhile.

CASE HISTORY No. 3. But the income from selling papers isn't exactly my own idea of living easily and in comfort, even in beauti­ful Paris. So let's take a more profitable example.

Art Buchwald also works for the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune. A few years ago he was an unemployed news­paperman—but one thing he knew, he wasn't going to go back to the states and take a routine reporter's job on an average American paper in an average American town. He'd had it.

Luck was with him. He got a position on the Trib and after a time started doing a column largely about Parisian restaurants and night clubs. Art developed a tongue in cheek style and went over so well that they increased his column to three times a week, and, indeed it was syndicated and began appearing in newspapers all over the States.

But his newspaper job isn't what I had in mind when Art came up as a possible case history because on a whole we are dealing in this book with jobs that you, the average reader, could handle and Art is certainly an exception, being a gifted humorist. What I'm thinking of is his paperbacked booklet which sells on every news­stand and in every magazine and book shop in Paris. It is entitled Paris After Dark and sells for a buck a throw.

There is no advertising in Paris After Dark but the relatively high price must net Art a luscious profit. The book is priceless to any tourists since Art, with all his knowledge of restaurants, food, night clubs and getting about in Paris in general, really is the lad to write such a guide.

Periodically Art brings out a new edition to keep up to date on the new places, the currently popular bah, chansonniers and caveaus. He also reprints some of his better columns in each edition. Frankly, I never go to Paris without immediately buying the latest edition of Paris After Dark.

Could this be done in other cities? Why not? It would require that you really learned the town, knew its restaurants, nightclubs, theatres and such. And acquiring such knowledge would take time. But if you were living permanently in one of the other big Euro­pean towns, or one of the larger American cities with a big tourist trade, for that matter, there is no reason why you couldn't eventu­ally publish such a book. Once again, if you yourself aren't writer enough to string such material together to make a presentable publication there are always newspapermen or free lance writers around who would do such a job for you at surprisingly little cost, if you supplied the material for them.

CASE HISTORY No. 4. I met another fellow while staying at the above mentioned Hotel Delavigne in Paris. He also had more or less fallen into a deal that shows him Europe the easy and luxurious way and at a profit.

I'm not too sure about this, but as I recall he'd been working in the lumber industry in Washington or Oregon and had saved him­self enough money to take a European tour. He had planned to buy a car in Paris, and then resell it upon completion of the trip. On the boat over he met several other tourists who had in mind ap­proximately the same things he was interested in and they made a deal, splitting costs with him.

His name was Bill Jensen and Bill was surprised to find the low cost of getting around Europe by car when you split the costs four ways. Not only does the cost of transportation drop to all but nothing but you are able to cut other corners, seek out cheaper hotels on the outskirts of town or in the country, avoid the endless tips when your luggage is being toted about by red caps and bell hops in the cities.

Bill had charged his friends on an American basis and a flat sum according to mileage, but upon his return to Paris, after a six week tour of Switzerland, Austria, Italy and France, he found he'd made an actual profit.

Instead of selling the car and returning to the States, he decided that he might as well see some more of Europe and ran an ad in the Herald Tribune for fellow travelers. This time he charged enough so that not only was his transportation taken care of but also his hotel bills and meals. In fact, after a two month trip into Germany and Scandinavia he found he had a few dollars more than he'd started with. But still his "customers" were traveling cheaper, much cheaper, than if they had taken a regular guided tour, or had gone about on their own.

Bill decided he was in business. He upped his prices again, advertised and found four more customers. This time he called himself a guide, and took them over the same route as his last trip, and this time as he went he collected tourist literature, and boned up on the local sights so that he could rattle off a little talk on the more important things to see and do.

When I met Bill Jensen he was what amounted to a one man tourist agency whose office was in his hat. Whenever he felt in the mood, or whenever his cash supply began to get a bit low, he'd take on another tour. He'd found just how much he could charge and still readily get all the passengers he wanted, and he'd worked out tours to just about any place in Europe. If he, personally, got tired of seeing Spain, Portugal and Southern France, he'd switch around to some other portion of the continent. Once he even took a party to Greece and Turkey through Yugoslavia but the roads were so poor through Tito-land that he all but ruined his car. Now he sticks to the more usual tourist lands.

From time to time, he told me, he considers the possibility of hiring a man or two, buying a couple of more cars, and going into business on a larger scale, but then he thinks "the hell with it." He doesn't want to become involved in a full time business. Nor does he look forward to expanding to the point where he would have to get French licenses and in other ways embroil himself with French red tape. As it is his office is in his hat and he needs no work permit nor anything else to conduct his business.

Could you do this? You could if you have the initial investment money to buy a car and to run a few ads. In fact, we know of one fellow who gets his customers together in the States. From time to time he decides upon a European tour and advertises for tourists interested in "splitting expenses." They may not know it, but the rates he quotes them pays all his expenses on these trips and even nets him a small profit. Each time he crosses he buys a new car in Paris, through one of the agencies that guarantees to buy it back for dollars upon completion of the tour. Each time he charges his fellow travelers enough to pay all his own expenses, even the fare across the Atlantic. They still see Europe considerably cheaper than on a tour advertised by a regular agency.

CASE HISTORY No. 5. One of my best friends when I was staying in Monte Carlo several years ago was Peter Donald who had his own way of living in luxury in one of the most beautiful and desirable places in the world. He took jobs on charter yachts. This was simple enough for Peter since as a boy he had hung around the yacht basins in Southern California, taking every op­portunity he could find to go out on cruises. His family wasn't in the income bracket which calls for yachting, but Peter is an easy going, likable guy, and he had lots of chances to go on cruises when friends needed an extra hand.

When he arrived on the Cote d'Azur he was characteristically broke and quite by chance ran into a friend from California who was about to charter a yacht for a month. One thing led to another and Peter found himself with a job as a deck hand. When the period of charter was over, he applied for and had no trouble get­ting another job on another charter boat. Peter found that there is a considerable shortage of sailors for the charter yachts that work out of the Riviera towns. All season he had no trouble finding employment and by its end he settled down in a cheap pension in Monte Carlo. He had plans to return home, but somehow never got around to them. He was having too much fun. By the time spring rolled around he had another job ah1 lined up, one that lasted him through the whole season this time. In fact, he was kept on when other crew members were laid off between charter cruises. They needed someone to remain on board and take care of the craft. Peter was elected.

What was his pay? Peter averaged about 15,000 francs a week, according to what kind of a job he held. Sometimes he'd go out as a deck hand, sometimes as a steward. But the 15,000 francs was just the beginning. Tips, especially for stewards, were high. In fact, it was standard procedure to give one week's wages as tips for each month of charter. On American charter yachts this would often go up to as much as a week's pay as a tip for every ten days of charter. Besides this, of course, he got his keep, eating the same food, drinking the same wines and liquors as the passengers.

Few people in this world of ours ever see the degree of high living that exists on yachts that ply out of the Riviera ports. For instance, one season Peter worked upon the "Sea Huntress" which was chartered at the rate of $8,000 a month by David Selznik, the movie producer. He and his wife, Jennifer Jones, the movie star, could, and did, afford every luxury known to the world's wealthiest people. Among other things, Peter reported that he had never known that such food existed.

The charter yacht season lasts about six months, although some­one like Peter who works at in on a full time basis can often get jobs a bit early, or a bit late. He has put in as much as eight months of the year on his charter yacht jobs.

How much experience is needed to take such a job?

Actually, none.

Given a presentable appearance, you can start off as a steward, or even a deck hand, with no experience at all. It's done all the time. The rest of the crew will probably hate your guts at first, but as you learn the ropes you'll carry more of your own load. After the first trip, you'll have picked up enough know-how to be a competent hand. It's absolutely done all the time.

The best places to secure jobs on the Cote d'Azur are Marseille, Toulon, Cannes, St. Tropez, Nice, Antibes and Monte Carlo. And of all these possibly Cannes is the best. Yachting agencies and har­bor masters are the ones with whom to check in any of these towns. In Cannes, Peter usually gets his jobs through Major Burton or Mr. Dru, at 25 L'Croissette. They specialize in chartering to Eng­lish speaking customers. Other good agencies in Cannes are Mr. Richardson's, right on the harbor. And Mr. Bret, who can be located at the Carlton Hotel.

No work permit is needed for this kind of work and there is no income tax levied on you.

France, of course, isn't the only country that has a large charter yachting business in season. Jobs in this field are also available in San Remo, Genoa, Portofino and Capri, in Italy; Palma de Ma­jorca, in Spain; Gibraltar, to some extent, and Tangier. Your best bet, however, is on the French Riviera where an extremely large charter boat business goes on.

CASE HISTORY No. 6. One of my favorite examples of a couple of Americans who came to Paris on a shoestring and found a gold mine are Gordon Heath and Lee Payant both of whom once had ambitions to become actors but ran into such a good thing in Paris that they gave it up.

By combining their meager fortunes (and, believe me, they were meager) and borrowing from a few friends, Gordon and Lee opened a tiny bar at 6 bis rue de FAbbaye. They called it VAbb aye and almost from the first it went over with a bang. Why? Gordon and Lee provided the entertainment which consisted of them strumming on their guitars and singing American folk music in the tradition of Burl Ives and Paul Robeson. This was something different for the French longhairs and they began flocking in.

As time went by friends and followers of the two began digging up new songs for them. Folk songs from England and Scotland and Ireland, and then, after a time from other lands and in other languages. Today Gordon and Lee have a repertoire of literally hundreds of folk songs and sing in at least half a dozen languages.

Little difficulties came up from time to time. For one thing, the neighbors complained of the noise. The section is a fairly quiet one, right off the Rue de la Harte in the St. Germain area. So the boys dreamed up the idea of having their customers applaud by snap­ping their fingers, rather than clapping their hands. After each piece ringers will start snapping like firecrackers, and only first timers, not in the know, ever clap and when they do they are promptly shushed.

Another thing was that the place was just too small. But that was easily solved. Gordon and Lee came up with tables not much bigger than postage stamps and crowded an unbelievable number of chairs into the room, not to speak of smaller than usual bar chairs crammed side by side. You would think the place could hold no more than 25 persons, but somehow a hundred or so are accommodated.

One thing was disconcerting. French folk aren't usually long on money, and the boys were attracting quite a few French rather than just tourists. These French kids would order one drink, the cheapest in the house, and then sit there all evening without re­ordering. They filled up all the chairs and tables. So Gordon and Lee upped prices so that the first drink costs $1.50 whether you buy coke, lemonade, or a highball. However, from then on prices are just half the first drink. It all works out.

When last I was in Paris, Gordon Heath and Lee Payant were doing a rush business. So much so that every night they were turn­ing business away. It was a matter of letting the place get packed and then locking the door. You couldn't do anything else. Their little bar has become a goldmine and there is no indication of it ever falling off. The boys have something different and they are delivering.

I haven't listed more of such deals as this because such op­portunities are only open to performers and the average American doesn't have such talents. However, there is hardly a city in Europe that doesn't have some equivalent American bar or nightclub. Many of them become world famous such as Harry's Bar in Florence, Italy. Many of them, of course, flop. Know-how in the business is necessary to make a go of such a project.

However, this I would definitely say. The world is becoming ever more American-conscious. In every town you see the trend. More and more people drink Coca-Cola, smoke American type cigarettes, begin to experiment with corn flakes, pop corn and corny music. Even such horrors as the jukebox are finding their place in every land. Consequently, there is more and more demand for American type bars, American type entertainment. Where you might break your neck trying to make a go of a little place in your own home town, you'd have a darn good chance of cleaning up in the same line of business in Paris, Athens, Istanbul, or where-have-you.

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