The time has come; I must move back to the US. I knew this day would arrive, I just didn't think it would be so soon. Had it really been ten years since I'd left my life in Pasadena and moved here to Paris, France? It seems like just yesterday that I had arrived here, wet behind the ears and scared to death. The marketing company I worked for had decided to open up in France and had shipped me over.



It had been hard at first. I missed my family and friends and that comfortable feeling of belonging when you're born into a culture and stay within it. I hadn't been able to speak much French in those days either. But I'd persevered, studied the language until I was fluent and made a life for myself here. I had made life-long friends that I hated to leave, but leave I must.

And so it was that I instructed my secretary to contact international moving companies, check their licensing and reputations on the Internet, and ultimately pick the best one. She did and a date was set in one month for the international moving company's people to come and pack up my French life. I was USA bound.

I was moving back to Pasadena as CEO of the company a big step up for me. I felt fulfilled that my career was going so well but still France was where a big chunk of my heart would stay. My secretary seemed to forge quite a friendship with the international moving company's agent, which was great for me. She even got a real estate agent to call with houses for sale in Pasadena. I let my secretary handle all that; she knew my taste. She showed me the final two choices she'd made for my residence and I made my choice. It was perfect really.

I just couldn't get excited about it though. There's something about Paris, the City of Light that gets under your skin. The Louvre, the Champs Elysees, the Eiffel Tower, nearby Versailles, Notre Dame Cathedral, not to mention the close proximity to everything the surrounding countries has to offer. My international moving company agent and I got into a long discussion about skiing in the Alps of Switzerland in the morning and skiing down into France for lunch. There's nothing like it!

That's not to take anything away from Pasadena, surrounded as it is by the San Rafael Hills and the San Gabriel Mountains it's considered the premiere city of the San Gabriel Valley. It's beautiful and all but I guess one of the main differences is that in Paris, you feel surrounded by ancient culture and history. Something that just can't be duplicated anywhere in the relatively young USA.

My family is all in Pasadena. And like my international moving company agent said, there really is no place like home. I'd love it once I was there.