city girl

city girl

” I came to the USA after a short assignment in Tokyo and Hong Kong. Life is cool here, my husband had to follow me and he is taking care of our three girls, Samantha, Deborah and Jess (Jessica), all great pom pom girls, just like grandma. I was born in a city and I am a city girl, and I not a big fan of small towns like Orbey or others.”

What are you the most proud of?

“Being an executive woman is not easy every day, I travel all around the world and thanks to Bob, my husband, I can dedicate myself to making the world a better place to live for our kids; my friend Marina and Isabella are also a great support”

I love this picture of Sandy on the road to Death Valley, a moment of rest at the very opposite of her lifestyle, urban and fast.

 

 

ballerina belle

ballerina belle

“I lived nine years in Los Angeles and I was a ballet dancer. Back to France I started a dance school in Mougins, South of France; we came back in 2013 and I love this place, in the US you can be yourself while in France you have to follow a life codes…”

What do you dream of ?

“I think “Ballerina Belle”, I dream “Ballerina Belle”, I hear “BB”, I live “BB”. Ballerina Belle is a thirteen episodes TV series I produced, and is  about a young american girl called Belle, she arrives from California to the south of France with her mother, and her dream is to become a Ballerina. My youngest daughter is Belle, my oldest is Manon the ballet pianist ,and I am “Madame Odette”, the Ballet Dance teacher.”

Carol’s is full of this American energy that idea that “anything is possible”: while she is working on selling her TV series, she is managing her dance school, she teaches  pilates and zumba to the french community, is invested in organizing shows for the school and even wrote a book about “french cuisine”…her next business woman dream is to direct a Broadway Musical Movie. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

cycling to the flying boat

cycling to the flying boat

” I came to the US to fulfill a wish I made at the corner of California & Powell streets in 1982 !  It took me almost 30 years but I did it!!!”
What do you like about San Francisco?

“Space , space, space. That feeling that you can breath here. The fog in the morning going down the hills, the sunset in the evening on the Pacific ocean near  the Cliff House ”

What  do you dream of ?
“Cycling to the flying boat. In fact I realized that Burning Man gave me the opportunity to cycle to a boat floating in the sky in the middle of the desert, a dream I realized even before dreaming of it!

Behind  his very professional and serious  image of a Finance  Manager, Christophe is also capable of wearing the most amazing costumes he tried on Haight Ashbury, frightening his two teenagers for ever! I was lucky to spend most of my three days at Burning Man with Christophe, a very friendly burner.

transportation

transportation

“After spending 2 years in college in South Bend, Indiana, I took a trip to California, just in case I would never come back! Without noticing, I guess I was then infected with the “exploration” virus… Three years later, I was married, had my first child and worked for an American company; I was ready for a new experience abroad. I started raising my hand to get an assignment in a foreign country and was stubborn enough to succeed…9 years later!”

What do I like the most about living in San Francisco, California?
“I love the American practical sense. Everything is made to make your life easier and enjoyable. The social barriers are much thinner, the optimism is a way of living, giving is a philosophy… Everything is possible!
Even though a piece of my heart is also in Houston, Texas, California offers a variety of landscapes you can’t match elsewhere. The North Marin County weather is so perfect! And you’re a short drive or flight away from multiples wonders…”

What do you dream of ?
“Living in “optimismland”, I can only have dreams!
“I dream of transportation. Enjoying San Francisco’s fog patterns in the morning and having dinner with friends and family in Paris… Enjoying a sunset from the top of the Eiffel tower and waking up in Singapore… Cruising the Ha Long’s bay and visiting my children in their future own paradises.”

Laurent, his wife Chantal and their five kids, are probably one of the most friendly family I have ever met so far; I was impressed by Laurent’s capability to manage multiple tasks, from going to work all day, then managing the kids in the evening while organizing the next family trip to Costa Rica and making sure the insurance fees are renewed and the tax declaration is completed before doing his business trip for three weeks to Asia and coming back to prepare their annual “White Party”…I liked Laurent’s idea of “transportation”, probably a great way to keep deploying all that energy while his kids keep growing.

fusion

fusion

“The USA has always been a sort of attraction for us and when we got a proposal from my company we considered this as a unique opportunity for our family.
This move to San Francisco, which is supposed to be temporary, has offered so far an environment where each one in our family has found his place in each community we are part of. For a non explicit reason, we are all comfortable and well adapted, which is I believe unique to this place, providing a unique lifestyle. We have our own background and this background turns here as an advantage for a better life where it was more neutral or a disadvantage in France.”

Do you have a dream ? ” Yes, we would like to continue to entertain the atmosphere where our family raises in love and happiness”

When I asked Arlen and Stephanie to start giving me some responses to my questions for this interview, they where the first to respond as a one and not individually like all the others; I can tell these two are totally in “fusion” and they live the Californian experience as a couple still very much in love, protecting and taking care of their two kids like birds protecting the nest.