How can I find work in Paris?

What you want and what is possible are two different things. Orla has given you the correct information in no uncertain terms.

It is not easy to find work or decent housing in Paris even for well qualified French people, and you see local graduates with MAs flipping hamburgers in fast food outlets and living in down-at-heel neighbourhoods unless still in the parental home,or their European counterparts cleaning bathrooms and making beds in third rate parisian hotels whilst sharing rooms in attics that are boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter.

@Orla. I don't do sarcasm and only use Google for maps. The person that excels at put downs and at laughing people out of court is Cabal.

You are American. You are not an EU national. Unless you have some rare skill that is not available anywhere in the EU, you will NOT be moving to Paris or any other city in any other EU member state anytime soon.

The hard fact is this: EU employers are by law obliged to employ local or EU nationals FIRST. Only if they cannot find a local or EU national to do the job - which is not a problem for them at the moment due to the fact that there are very many very highly educated EU nationals ready and willing to to be employed in the current economic climate - can the EU employer consider a suitably qualified non-EU national, who would require an employment visa.

So, no, it is NOT 'easy'. Right now, it's IMPOSSIBLE. You would have to have a job offer in writing FIRST, and you can only apply for the employment visa from your country of origin. You will not get an apartment without proof of employment, or a French bank account.

And before you start whinging about how unfair life is, this has been the same for EU nationals wishing to move to the US for several years now.