Adrian Leeds

Early life

Leeds grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. After 21 years of experience in marketing and public relations, first with Levi Strauss & Company, then with television station promotion, broadcast advertising sales, media purchasing and advertising agency account management for her own firm, opening in 1981, she moved to Paris, France in 1994, with her daughter, photographer Erica Simone Leeds.

Insider Paris Guides

In 1996, the Leeds’ Good Value Restaurant Guide was born under the umbrella of the Insider Paris Guides with partner, Web France International. The guide was published over the years by Leeds and later by Bastille Media. In 2011, it was updated with the collaboration of copywriter and editor, Lynda Sydney, for Karen Henrich, publisher of TapBooksPublishing.com and re-launched under the name Adrian Leeds’ Top 100 Cheap Insider Paris Restaurants.

Parler Paris Nouvellettre®, Parler Nice Nouvellettre® and French Property Insider

Leeds opened the Paris office for International Living in December 2001. As part of the services offered to their readers, International Living re-launched her publications, Parler Paris and French Property Insider, under their umbrella. Today it is published under the name Parler Paris Nouvellettre® and French Property Insider retained its original name. Since that time, she has added Parler Nice Nouvellettre® issued as a report on her time spent on the Côte d'Azur. Today, total readership is more than 15,000.

French Property Fractional

While conducting a property search for a client in 2008, Leeds discovered a property in the prestigious Place des Vosges area of Paris. The client passed on the property, but Leeds recognized this as a unique find with the best address in the City of Light. With the assistance of investors, she oversaw the purchase and renovation of the property, transforming it into a fractional ownership property called “Le Palace des Vosges,” and launching a new business, French Property Fractional.

Adrian Leeds Group, LLC and Inc.

Leeds left her position with International Living in September 2004 to develop an independent company to help other North Americans who wanted to make the move to France. At the time the company name was Western Web Works, LLC, later changing it to the Adrian Leeds Group, LLC. It was at this time, in 2004, that she began to offer all the services associated with making a property investment in France, from beginning to end. In May 2014, Adrian Leeds Group, Inc., a Louisiana corporation, replaced Adrian Leeds Group, LLC.

Leeds incorporated the LLC in May 2014 and registered the name Adrian Leeds Group as a trademark in France in December 2014.

In 2014, Leeds started a quarterly Financial Forum for American Expats with Brian Dunhill and co-authored the American Expat Guide. In 2015, Leeds created a partnership with Carsten Sprotte and established a real estate agency formally named Parler France Properties, SARL (DBA Adrian Leeds Group France) in France with licensing to provide sales and management of French properties.

Television appearance

Since 2005, Leeds has appeared in more than 20 episodes of HGTV’s House Hunters International.

Personal life

She and her husband of 17 years, David Jules Leeds, divorced in 1997, both retaining separate Parisian homes. Her daughter, Erica Simone Leeds went on to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, graduate and develop a photography career in New York, where she now lives and works under the name of Erica Simone.