Last weekend I visited someone I know at the American Hospital (they're fine). Did you know that the only hospital outside the U.S. that is fully certified to U.S. standards is here in Paris? It was founded almost a hundred years ago for American residents of Paris, and built in the leafy, wealthy suburb of Neuilly (if this was London, Neuilly would just be part of the city, as it really is). All the personnel speak both English and French, and there are special arrangements for Chinese and Japanese, as well as other foreigners. The personnel also seems to be unusually nice, if my experience was any judge.
"But it's no better than any other hospital," says my neighbor the famous doctor. "The public teaching hospitals are the best. The American hospital is just the most luxurious." It has specially grand rooms you can pay a high price for; Christina Onassis came here to have her child. All the rooms are private, which you have to admit is nice when you're sick-- I've never understood why you should have to put up with roommates just when you're feeling especially awful.
I had a baby in Paris, and several of my American friends and family members were shocked that I didn't go to the American Hospital. It was almost as if they thought I wasn't being patriotic. Do you know the honest-to-God reason I didn't? I didn't want the child's passport to read "Neuilly"! Instead, it proudly says "Paris."