Hi Mr. Prokhorov,
Today I noticed that this blog already can be found on Internet. I'll try to contact some people who know you to let you know. Because you don't use computers, I hope they will print this out and give it to you. Paper is better anyway, it's more relaxing and tolerant than an electronic screen.
Let's go to France, shall we? Not literally, please. I have no desire.
I lived there for a year and a half; 2 winters and a summer, from 2006-2008, in south, Cote d'Azur. I was there when your news broke. I couldn't care less, I wasn't following, didn't have any opinion about it.
Recent decade, according to their press, Russians bought more than one billion euro worth of property in South of France. I personally wouldn't buy anything there. I mean - nothing. How do I know about Real Estate? I have a License in Real Estate in NY. I sold other people's properties and bought and sold mine.
When I've got there I was thinking to stay for couple of weeks, go to Paris, see my friends and come back. I fall in love. It was smaller, slower and quieter than NYC.
I loved French language, use to be very good at it, used to play piano with their popular songs and sing them in French. I wanted to remember, bring the feelings of those happy years of my life back. I rented an apartment in the center of Nice, on Ave. de Jean Medecin. To make my long story short (I can write a book about this), I discovered fraud after fraud. Every day one nasty thing after another. But dog waste - I have no words. The entire country in swamped in it. We have a saying in America "In France you can't walk your head up." That's not a joke, that's scientific truth. You have to walk your head down to watch out for dogs' sh.t. In couple of weeks I saw more of it than I had seen for 16 years in NY. Most French are arrogant, don't like anybody, but they despise Russians, especially the rich. They think that all of them are crooks with dirty money and by buying all those properties they are bringing prices up and hurting their buying power. Practically that's not false - the buying part, but do they do anything to buy themselves - is another question. They also didn't want to return St. Nicolas Church in Nice to Russian government after the contract was over. They are half socialist country and like entitlements from government. Half of the year consist of vacations, weekends, holidays and strikes. One man said to me "French are the world champions of "striking." I agree. I felt I was half way back in former Soviet. Same nasty faces in service, only there I was paying not rubles, but the highest currency of the world. Everybody who had business said that people in their right mind don't go there anymore. Especially Americans, they don't get their money's worth and they won't tolerate that type of service. French think that they above and superior to anyone, that speaking another language is degrading to them. When they hear English language they feel they're being colonized. They're control freaks.
The only people they don't feel superior to are the Americans. They're just jealous of us.
Now, what happened between you and their authorities I don't know and don't care.
One thing is clear to me: they had a reason or not, they'd love to teach you a lesson, show that you were on their turf and that they were in control. Another sad factor in Nice was that some Russian ladies at nights were walking on Promenade des Anglais for no good reason. It's a beautiful sidewalk, but when I realized that, I stopped going there for walks in the evenings. Although I don't have bleached hair and don't walk on high heels and don't even look Russian, still was approached, because of the trend created around that area. When it was getting dark, I'd just go home.
Europeans are much more territorial and controlling in their behavior than Americans. USA is very big, Americans are bigger, happier, richer and they're not jealous of anybody. That's the difference.
Why did you worry about apology from French, I don't know. In your place I wouldn't care less to waste energy on it. By demanding it you were showing that it had importance to you. Maybe you needed it as a proof for important people in your life, who knows?
One thing you did good - not buying that big house. Too bad you didn't have a good lawyer to point out that you had only 7 days to rethink. Even if you'll not get your deposit back after appeal, you still won. That's a chum change for you anyway. Don't you worry, you can make it in NYC. Who knows what kind of bad energy that place has from burned skeletons in closets. All sorts of crooks lived there. You don't want to put your name under theirs. You can start yours - build new, modern, contemporary, energy efficient and much more convenient. I have an idea and example for you.
Who needs an old rotten big house full of ghosts? And the maintaining of it? Are you kidding me? Who is going to watch out, hire people, pay them, make them work? You can make French work??? Oh, la-la... They would rip you off and laugh out loud. You have money to throw away? I'll show you where the garbage can is.
Do you know what General De Gaulle said about French men and their work ethics when he became President of France? It's interesting...
Best regards.
