On our recent trip to Paris, Becky and I ate and drank like locals. After all, we were visiting her parents, Dick and Debbie Young who, through several years, have accumulated months of on the ground intelligence on all things Paris. One of my favorite meals was lunch at La Fontaine de Mars. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon with everyone enjoying themselves as if they were happy to stay there until next Sunday afternoon.
In trying to describe Fontaine de Mars to you I have to go back to my childhood memory of going to Epcot Center. It had just opened and we were walking through the World Showcase. I remember eating at the France pavilion and imagining how cool it would be to go to Paris someday and experience it in real life. That, to me, is Fontaine de Mars: Champagne, fresh baguettes, butter, cheese, bubbling escargot, red wine, sole mueniere. You get the point.
Long lunches, talking about what makes businesses like Fontaine de Mars tick are what Paris is all about. And yet walking by places like this and not even knowing they exist is what’s simply breathtaking about Paris. There are so many gems. And yet trying to replicate them would be an almost impossible task. Yes, Epcot gave me the curiosity but actually finding this place was, to me, the miracle.
In talking with investors and contacts about this market, most are wondering how long this can last. To me a lot of investors are acting like frogs in a pot of soon to be boiling water. I wish investing were as easy as going to a pavilion in Epcot, getting a taste and deciding to invest in it. But that’s not how it should be done. It’s not as easy as indexing appears to make it as the water continues to heat up. To me I prefer to find valuable gems and to take my time learning about what makes them tick. And sometimes, the only way to do that is to spend hours upon hours talking about it until hopefully an idea comes to fruition. If you want more on this concept of values then you want to sign up for www.youngsworldmoneyforecast.com here.