Le site du Washington Post m'a demandé de réagir à l'article de l'écrivain Diane Johnson dans le journal de dimanche, The Dollar's Down. But We're Not Out, sur le drame des expatriés américains à Paris confrontés à la flambée de l'Euro face au Dollar.
L'auteur de romans à succès ("Une Américaine à Paris," adapté au cinéma sous le titre "Le Divorce") qui est, me dit-on, charmante dans la vie, a déclenché une bourrasque de commentaires fieleux sur le site du Post. Il faut dire que son timing ne pouvait être moins bon: le récit de ses douloureux sacrifices (fini les coûteuses bouteilles d'eau minérales à table dans les bistros parisiens; adieux voyages à San Francisco en classe affaires...) a peu ému à l'heure où Américains et Européens voient leur pouvoir d'achat érodé et redoutent carrément une dépression économique. Sa candeur de privilégiée m'a rappelée une autre Américaine à Paris, Susan Spano du Los Angeles Times, qui se faisait régulièrement tailler des costards sur le blog de la Française de coeur Amy Alkon (ci-dessus dans un supermarché parisien: photos Gregg Sutter).
Voici ma réponse (peut-être tout aussi détachée de la réalité française?): (Americans in Paris don't have it so bad.)
This successful author (her best-seller,"Le Divorce," was adapted into a movie) is a charming person in life, I'm told, but her column has unleashed a flurry of spiteful comments on the Post's website. It has to be said that her timing couldn't be worse: the details of her dolorous sacrifices (fini expensive bottles of mineral water to spritz up meals at Parisean bistros; adieux airfare in business class to San Francisco...) didn't exactly move many readers at a time when Americans, and Europeans for that matter, are seeing their purchasing power crumble and fear an upcoming economic depression. Diane Johnson's out-of-touch candor reminded me of another American in Paris, Susan Spano of the Los Angeles Times, who was regularly shred to pieces on the blog of our favorite Française de coeur Amy Alkon (fabulous as always above, shopping in a Parisean supermarket -- all photos by Gregg Sutter).
Here is my "rebuttal" (perhaps just as disconnected from the French reality?): (Americans in Paris don't have it so bad.)
Merci Amy -- I love the elegant Bugmenot touch too ;) Glad I'm not the only one who finds out that, from an American perspective, many food items are very reasonable and that you get a lot more bang for your buck. Granted, groceries are not your main expenditure when you live in a developed country but despite the strong Euro a lot of things are still cheaper in France to someone pulling an American salary or a pension from a prestigious US university. I'd exchange a Paris rent against a Washington DC rent any day!
Meanwhile, a reader sends me this interesting story du jour:
Nicolas Sarkozy's supermarket threat to shops
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/29/wfra129.xml
Fantastic piece, Emmanuelle. Here's the comment I left on the Washington Post site, in case they erase or don't post it: