By Emmanuelle Richard
Monday, April 28, 2008; 5:53 PM

I have some comforting news for Diane Johnson, who wrote in Sunday's Outlook section about these tough economic times for Americans living in Europe. Here in the U.S., folks are also cutting down on their expenses! And we're not talking about giving up on senses-pleasuring bistro lunches on Parisian terraces, or gourmet mushrooms at the market. This weekend, U.S. newspapers were awash with stories about average Americans foregoing outings to Denny's, and instead slapping together grim-sounding casserole dinners with non-brand steak sauce.

I'll spare the author my own sob stories of being a Los Angeles-based freelancer for French media outlets in the late '90s, when the mighty, dotcom-fueled dollar was killing us euro-expatriates. My biggest pain then wasn't giving up trips in business class -- what are those like, by the way? -- but rather that $2,000 hospital bill (something unheard of in France) after a rush to the emergency room. I also have shudder-inducing memories of supermarket sticker shock: $1 for a single pot of overly sugary yogurt? $2 for a rather bland California avocado sold in California? And why on earth is decent coffee so expensive in America? While many mysteries remained, I chose to feel awfully lucky to live in an entrepreneurial country that brings you Trader Joe's, 99-cent stores and garage sales, as well as Whole Foods for plusher times (and flashes of Marie Antoinette-type indulgence).

Today, the occasional $2 avocado is less painful to fortunate Eurotrash like me, who can earn euros while living in Les Etats Unis. But in a way, it's still somewhat outrageous. Johnson seems to suggest that the French are rich with euros and enjoying posh lives. The reality is that, even while being paid in a (currently) vigorous and robust currency, we make less money than our American counterparts (see here), especially after taxes. In my field of journalism, and in Johnson's literary world, article fees and book advances are almost comically lower in France than in the dollar-doomed United States. Selling the movie rights for "Le Divorce" to a French studio would have brought far less saucisson to the table.

This disparity is reflected in relative prices. Just go to a French supermarket: Even with your euro-dollar calculator firmly in hand, you'll end up snogging the red tomatoes and drooling at the low price. I would bet a 0.80-euro croissant that Diane Johnson can fill up her shopping cart for the same or less than in the U.S. -- that's what I did two weeks ago, with the added bonus of buying great food. Meanwhile, I know several U.S.-based euro-earning French journalists and authors who moved back to France in part because they couldn't afford American health care, child care or quality education for their kids.

U.S. media outlets have painted Europeans as jet-setters who fly here to raid chic boutiques and snap up Manhattan apartments. The truth is that what we see from most of these tourists is discretionary spending -- they buy the Clinique beauty products and Victoria's Secret lingerie and shoes that have become so pricey in France over the past few years. Then they go back home to their small apartments, dry-hang their new Gap clothes and worry about gloomy economic prospects, just like here.

Americans living in Paris are likely to enjoy a privileged lifestyle that only a small French elite and other foreigners have access to. It was a relief to reach the end of Johnson's essay and discover she hasn't lost perspective of the fact that, despite the stinging euro, the many advantages of living in France are priceless.

Emmanuelle Richard is a French journalist living in Washington.