Bonjour Reader,

The British had Pau figured out by 1840. They built villas, a fox hunt, and the first golf course on the continent — then settled in for the winter and refused to leave.

The rest of us are just catching up.

From My Corner of the World

Here's the truth: France Fast Track flopped. So I cancelled it.

Not "great learnings, lots to build on" flopped. Actually flopped. I had a number in my head, and the real number was a fraction of it.

I sat with it for a few days. Decided I was fine. Then realized this is exactly the kind of moment my whole approach to life is built for.

So here's the framework — three principles, all borrowed from people smarter than me.

1. Life is one big experiment. The hypothesis: each year, I want to be a little happier, healthier, and more fulfilled than the last. This is essentially kaizen — the Japanese philosophy of continuous, 1% improvement. You don't need a moonshot. You just need next week to be marginally better than this one.

2. Take uncomfortable risks, not reckless ones. Nassim Taleb's Antifragile is built around one core rule: never take a risk where the downside ends the game. Fun side note — Taleb actually helped me buy my metro ticket to CDG on my last Paris trip. Completely random encounter. I took it as cosmic endorsement of his entire bibliography.

3. Define the realistic worst case — then build a Plan B. Tim Ferriss calls this fear-setting. His TED talk is 13 minutes and worth every second. Most "worst cases" turn out to be a bad Tuesday, not ruin.

FFT flopping was a worst case. It turned out to be a Tuesday.

Hopefully these principles help on your journey to France, too.

Onward.

📍 Hidden Gem

Pau, Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Sometime in the 1840s, a group of British aristocrats discovered Pau and decided it was perhaps the finest winter resort in Europe.

They built villas. They built a fox hunt. They built the first golf course on continental European soil — the Golf de Pau, which has been running continuously since 1856 and is still very much in operation today. (Yes, really.)

The French thought this was somewhat peculiar. The British didn't particularly care. They were standing on the Boulevard des Pyrénées, a mile-long promenade above the city, looking at a wall of snow-capped peaks that the poet Lamartine once called la plus belle vue de la terre — the most beautiful view on earth.

He wasn't wrong.

Landmarks & local flavor:

Pau is the birthplace of Henri IV — the most beloved king in French history — and the Château de Pau, right in the heart of the city, is where he entered the world in 1553. It's not a ruin. It's a living royal château, and you can walk through the actual rooms. The turtle-shell cradle he apparently slept in as an infant is still on display. (He later unified France, ended religious wars, and gave the world poule au pot. The cradle may have helped.)

The Boulevard des Pyrénées is the city's living room — a mile-long promenade built along the escarpment above the Gave valley, with cafés, benches, and a view of dozens of named Pyrenean peaks that hits you differently depending on the light. It's the kind of thing you walk along once and immediately start calculating whether you could afford to live here.

The Halles de Pau is the covered market — open daily, well-supplied, and the kind of place where you learn what season it actually is by what's on the tables.

Get outside:

The GR10 — the grande randonnée that runs the full length of the French Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean — uses Pau as a key access point. You don't have to hike the whole thing. But the foothills are less than an hour away, and even a half-day out gives you something most European cities can't offer at any price.

For cyclists, the flat path along the Gave de Pau river is an easy ride straight from the city center. More ambitious? Pau also connects to the Vélosud — a long-distance cycling route running from the Atlantic coast all the way to the Mediterranean. And if climbing is your thing: the Tour de France has passed through Pau more than almost any other city in France. The Col d'Aubisque is about an hour's drive from the center — and considerably longer by pedal, if that's your version of a good afternoon.

The Parc National des Pyrénées is right on the doorstep — 45,700 hectares of protected mountain wilderness, with ibex, golden eagles, and trails that go as hard or as gently as you want them to.

Accessibility + day-to-day vibe:

The Gare de Pau connects to Bordeaux in about 1 hour 40 minutes, and Paris is roughly 4 hours 15 minutes with a change at Bordeaux. Bayonne and the Basque coast are under an hour.

Pau Pyrénées Airport handles daily flights to Paris-Orly, with seasonal routes to London and other European cities. Small enough to feel civilized. Large enough to be genuinely useful.

The city center is compact, flat, and walkable — market, château, shops all on foot. It has the infrastructure of a real city (hospital, university, full services) without the pace of one. The Office de Tourisme is a good starting point for getting oriented before or during a scouting trip.

Affordability:

Pau is affordable by French standards and genuinely striking by American ones. Apartments in the centre-ville typically run €1,500–€2,500 per square meter to buy — so a 70 m² two-bedroom sits somewhere in the €100,000–€175,000 range. Larger family homes in the greater agglomération go for €200,000–€350,000.

The rental market is similarly well-priced. See the listing below for proof.

📜 Taxes + Visa + Healthcare

Are U.S. Annuities Taxed in France?

You've been contributing to an annuity for twenty years. You're thinking about retirement in France. And somewhere around midnight, you start Googling: does France get a piece of this?

The answer depends entirely on how you bought it.

The US-France Tax Treaty's Article 18 covers "pensions and other similar remuneration." If your annuity lives inside a retirement account — an IRA, a 403(b), anything qualified — then Article 18 applies. That income is taxable only in the United States.

Translation: France doesn't touch it.

But if you purchased your annuity directly with after-tax money — writing a check to an insurance company, outside any retirement account wrapper — that's a non-qualified annuity. The treaty doesn't offer a clear safe harbor there. France may well tax that income as it arrives.

If you're still in the planning phase, this is worth knowing before you structure anything new. An annuity inside a Roth IRA or traditional IRA stays protected. The same annuity product purchased directly from an insurer — even the exact same insurer — may not be.

A quick conversation with a cross-border tax advisor can tell you exactly which category you're in. As always, this is general information — not legal or tax advice — and your specific situation may have nuances that shift the picture.

📺 France Must-Watch

Pau, France | La plus belle ville de France 🏰✨ | Visite à pied

Walking Eye

This one does what the best travel videos do: it just shows you the place.

Four kilometers of walking through Pau's historic center — the château, the Boulevard des Pyrénées, the covered market, the old streets — in 4K, with the Pyrenean foothills as a constant backdrop. No narration. No sales pitch. Just a genuinely lovely day in a city that has somehow stayed off most Americans' radar.

If you've been on the fence about Pau, watch this before deciding. The shot from the boulevard alone is worth the twelve minutes.

→ Watch Now

🏡 Real Estate Spotlight

€1,090/month (~$1,282) — Furnished 4-Room Apartment, Pau Centre-Ville

Let's be clear about what we're looking at here: a furnished, 89 m² apartment — three bedrooms, full kitchen, balcony, private cave — in the center of Pau.

One thousand and ninety euros a month.

That's not a typo, and it's not a compromise. Rue Valéry Meunier, second floor, calm street, parquet floors. Open kitchen with dishwasher and induction hob. Energy rating A — which in French terms means your utility bills won't give you a heart attack. Individual heating. Internet included.

For a couple testing a long-term stay before committing to a purchase, this is the kind of listing that makes the whole thing feel less abstract. You're not imagining retirement in France. You're pricing it.

→ View Listing on LeBonCoin

The Pyrenees or the Atlantic coast — if you were retiring in far southwest France, which direction would pull you? Hit reply and let me know.

That's it for this week. À bientôt, Tommy

PS — The France Retirement Hub goes public soon — but subscribers get in first. I'm hosting a free live Zoom on Wednesday, May 13 at 7pm ET to walk you through all four tools. Reserve your spot here.