Doing it in La Défense

And what is wrong with speaking your own language, long lunch hours, labour laws that try and protect people's rights, taxes that fund public services? London's current (or past) boom has we have seen is not sustainable...it is near impossible to make a life for oneselves unless part of the new non-dom banking elite and the 80% of other citizens here are getting sick and tired of it.

As long as the french are stuck in the rut of believing they speak the world language, at the same time as enjoying a shorter working week and longer lunches.........no chance!!

I think Paris is nice 4 a week-end, everybody i knew who lived there got seriously depressed. French r rude and backward, too closed a society, even more than English - far from ideal. To the point - one forward-looking economy minister is not enough to make all the change, her efforts are commandable but way too shallow. London is light years ahead, alas sadly this government is making steps to get rid of non-doms, etc., but Paris isn't top of the list for them and the brains to go.

It is impossible for Paris to significantly challenge London as long as most of the leading investment bankig and asset management companies will be american : most of the US expatriates will refuse to settle in Paris as they and their family don't speak the language.

That said there are a lot of groundless comments in favor of London. For example om tax. Income tax is indeed lower in France with a marginal tax rate of 40% applied only to 90% of the disposable income (hence an effective 36% rate vs 40% in the UK). If this is true that welfare costs are much higher in France compared to the UK, this is to some extent mitigated by the fact that your company is not obliged to contribute to a private health insurance or to a pension fund. On top of this, because housing/transport/food is much cheaper in France, you can afford to pay your employees less with no impact on their purchasing power. Last but not least it is also very difficult to fire people in the UK after one year.

Bottom line this is a much more complicated issue than usually thought. What France needs to change first thing is its attitude for the financial industry, which is considered as useless for the economy...

Inflexible labour markets..a country regularly brought to a standstill by people striking and the stunning idea of a 35 hour week to stangle business.

no chance