It's Lonely At The Paris Embassy

Put your assets where the business is: That was one of Felix Rohatyn's first orders after being named U.S. Ambassador to France in 1997. More than 1,000 employees were then clustered in the Paris embassy, while previous State Dept. budget cuts meant few diplomats in other French commercial centers. U.S. consulates in Bordeaux and Lyons had been shut down.

Rohatyn, however, is reversing that trend. He sees increasing economic activity in some European regions straddling national borders, such as Southwestern France and Spain's Catalonia, as the euro takes hold. So on Dec. 6, the 71-year-old former investment banker opened the first U.S. diplomatic presence in Toulouse, the thriving southern French home of the Airbus consortium. Rohatyn found low-cost office space, moving diplomats out of Paris to help look after U.S. business interests there. In recent months, he has also opened similar consulates-on-the-cheap in Lyons and Rennes. Other U.S. embassies in Europe are looking at similar moves. Rohatyn's plan is winning praise even from traditional State Dept. critics such as Senator Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.). That takes diplomatic skill.