VINGT Paris

New wine column on Bonapart's sister site, I V Y paris

Matthew Rose writing for I V Y Paris & Bonapart Consulting

L'Ebrescade: For Adults Only
MARCEL RICHAUD (below) is one of those rare French wine producers who have made Cairanne, a Côte de Rhone, into a cult vintage. The cépage for
L'Ebrescade, one of Richaud's top-shelf vintages, is a blend of syrah, grenache and mourvédre. I recently tasted the 2004 L'Ebrescade and suddenly began to sing. If this bottle were a woman, I'd say she's rather like Lindsay Lohan: spicy, smoky and very sexy, oh and a little wild in just the right way.

Priced between 24 to 26 euros, the 2004 production for the L'Ebrescade came to approximately 5,000 bottles and is clearly one of the great wines Richaud has to offer. (Richaud's vineyards are relatively small - just 30 hectares). It's alcohol content is great, too : 15,5%, but there's no killing taste of alcohol here, just pure pleasure.
Read more on I V Y paris.

Bonapart's sister site I V Y paris at the Louvre

Bonapart's sister site, I V Y paris has once again been invited to organise an expatriate art exhibition at the Louvre on Sunday October 14, 2007 - RSVP here. Our audience is 5000 people who are attending Expatica's conference on living in Paris, "I'm Not A Tourist".

I V Y Paris arts network links artists to help them meet, support and inspire each other. IVY paris enables you to easily find other Paris-based artists, writers, musicians, dancers and filmmakers helping both artists and patrons quickly discover and negotiate the Paris arts scene and participate in interesting under-the-radar events.

Join the Paris express

From the TimesOnline (UK) - A SURGE in the popularity of second homes is set to follow the Chancellor’s tax concessions unveiled this week. Anyone selling such a property after nine years will benefit from the new low rate of capital gains tax on the profits – only 18 per cent. According to Liam Bailey, Knight Frank’s head of residential research, “this could have the effect of raising investment volumes – and hence underpin prices in investment and second-home locations”. Paris, which is already receiving a boost from the high-speed Eurostar train link from St Pancras starting next month, is set to be one of those locations. House prices in the French capital rose by 9.9 per cent last year.

They rightly address in the article the best method of renting for increased returns and security as a landlord that you should concentrate on furnished rental property of a one year lease - see our own article.

Happy Christmas?

No, Non, NON! If you were trying to sell your apartment for €1 078 000 would you really choose this as the principal photograph to represent it?
Picture - ALMA immobilier

It's nice to work with someone else who understands the business but can really appreciate that Paris is...well, different. Our client Carol Carnevale is a realtor from Palo Alto in California. Funnily enough, there are some similarities with our taglines, Bonapart is "the art of real estate" while her company is "Mastering the art of real estate"!

When I sent some apartment reports and visual samples through to her I giggled at her comments on the shocking state of the typical French realtor's apartment presentation. We call it French shui instead of Feng shui......

Rue Jacob, Paris, Saint Germain des Prés

Michaël Harrington, Communications Coordinator of Information Services and Technology, M.I.T., wrote to us about these photos of an apartment we had for rental on rue Jacob in the heart of Saint Germain des Prés.

"I was especially curious to see them since I lived at #9 Rue Jacob while attending Paris IV in 1974 and 1975. A tiny studio that cost the equivalent of $50US a month back then! I appreciate the nostalgia. Wish I were there again—at least I visit as often as possible. How I miss those days, though we did not have a nearby Ladurée back then. We had to go to the Drugstore Publicis (which is where Emporio Armani is now, I believe) for treats and sightings of movie stars and other glitterati."