Merci, New York Times!

According to the New York Times, France is now officially passe as a place for Americans to have second homes.

I will break out the bottle of Vueve Cliquot chilling in the frigo.

But if you want to snatch up cheap deals in Bulgaria, or other parts of the New Riveria, you better scurry over there quickly: the Dutch, who have been the wiliest of traders throughout the centuries, have been selling their properties in France and moving to the east.

Before I happened upon today's article in the Times, I was going to write about how the Dutch seem to be moving out of this part of France. I personally know only two Dutch property owners, and both of them are selling their places and leaving France.

One of them, a successful businessman in Holland, told me last year that the business writers in Holland were churning out articles about how France was too expensive now, and if you wanted a great property investment, you needed to go to Eastern Europe.

When he told me this, it was more than I could hope for that there would be a grand exodus of the Dutch out of my little part of la belle France . . .but it seems to be happening.

Don't get me wrong. I like the Dutch. I really like seeing them in action when I'm in Holland. But I'd much prefer to have my little corner of France populated with French people. The Dutch do horrid things like eat at 5:30 in the evening and talk loudly like Americans when they are in public, totally ruining the French ambiance.

Now the question is: What nationality will replace the Dutch?

My guess is: The French. And here's my anectodal evidence regarding that phenomenon. A realtor we know who "specializes" in British clients, has recently taken on a British assistant . . .so that the head realtor is freed up to deal with FRENCH clients.

And, of the four properties in our neighborhood which have changed hands in the past year, three have gone to French people . . . score only one for the British.

So perhaps the countryside will once again be Frenchified in my lifetime.