This told essay is based on a conversation with Remi Roof, 39, co-founder of AI startup .txt, which builds tools for AI systems to return structured and predictable output. Edited for length and clarity.
I’m based in Bron-Marlotte, France. It’s an hour south of Paris and is basically rural. I live in a village.
We did the coronavirus lockdown in a small apartment in Paris with our 5 year old and 1 month old. I remember what we used to do every day was look at houses in the suburbs of Paris. We moved here once the lockdown ended. There is also an international school, and my wife is American.
I’m the CEO and co-founder of .txt. Currently we are 15 people, mostly engineers, and completely distributed. Half of us are in the US and the other half are located throughout Europe.
In fact, it’s just the two of us in France. People think it’s a French company, but it’s actually an American company with a French CEO.
When I moved here, I was working as a freelancer and working from home. I got tired of my home office after a year and thought it would be great to find an office in the area. It’s a village. There is no WeWork. The only option is to rent an actual standalone office. I didn’t want to do that.
It turns out that there is a castle with a hotel, but it seems that they also have rented offices. I thought, “This is exactly what I need.” That was the only one that was pretty close. Otherwise, you will have to drive to a nearby town.
It’s a 20 minute walk. Instead of walking through the village, I like to walk a little outside in the fields to my office/castle. I often make phone calls during my morning walk. If you call me between 8:30 and 10 a.m., I’ll probably be walking in the field.
The castle has a large iron gate, and when it opens, you have to cross a moat. A big fish is swimming there.
Roof rents an office in this French castle. Remy Roof
That’s irrational in a sense. I go to San Francisco every six weeks. If you compare the two, you’ll see how different they are. One is much quieter than the other.
I appreciate the space to think. I literally touch grass every day. I like to say, “I can hear my thoughts.” I don’t live in a bubble here. Almost no one knows what I do with my life, and no one talks about AI. San Francisco is the opposite.
The office is beautiful on the outside, but boring on the inside. It feels like you’re in an old French office from the 60’s. There is carpet on the floor, which is not my preference.
that’s what you want. The morning commute is great, but then it’s just another day at the office. No distractions.
It used to be the only place in the village with fiber optic internet. I don’t know why; it’s still a mystery. If you have a GPU, you don’t even have to pay for electricity.
It’s a fairly large office. It’s too big for me. I could probably put half of the company into it, but that’s all they had and I was paying next to nothing. It costs about 600 euros per month.
I think the environment is important. No matter what happens, I can go into the castle every morning. cool. You won’t get tired of it.