An American in Paris

My  friend Joey graduated from Columbia this year. I could have gone to the ceremony, but instead, I am flying her to Paris for three weeks. She majored in architectural history, studied French for 2 years and has never been to Europe. I know! Could not have been a more obvious choice.  Joey is staying at the apartment of a friend of mine here, who is elsewhere on her own vacation. Joey is here alone to start and the boys (her husband Ben and their 10-year old son, Owen) will follow in about a week. I have a few things planned, but mostly time together. Joey and I stay in touch but we both miss our time together. When she was in school, we would have lunch every Thursday and mull over the issues of the day. This time in Paris is a joyous time for me; time to reconnect and to get closer. It has a touch of sadness as well. When this time is over, when will we be able to do this again? No, not for now. Now we will revel in the time we have.  Of course we have to see some of ...

I am currently on a "tourist" visa in France. That means that every three months, I need to exit the country and re-enter to go through customs. This seems to be standard procedure worldwide and I have heard the same routine for friends of mine in the US who are non-citizens. Helmut has been telling me that this is unimportant because I am an American who is not looking for support from the state and there should be no problem. I am always a bit leery when he says "should be" because there is no real recovery when this assumptions turns out to be off or plain wrong. As I started researching other more permanent solutions to the immigration issue, I see again and again that you should never overstay the 3-month limit and there are dire consequences throughout the EU if you do. I am now 3 weeks over my 3-months. Looks like it is time to take a trip.  I can go anywhere in the world that will stamp my passport, but I am running into a problem in that I don't want...