During his Parisian exile, Wassily Kandinsky frequently considered moving to the United States where his art was very much in demand. Via his friend Josef Albers he received a specific invitation to Black Mountain College, close to Asheville, in North Carolina. However, Kandinsky did not make the journey across the Atlantic. In late 1936, he explained this in a letter to his friends from the Bauhaus era.

Armin Lührs' family thought that they had spotted Nina Kandinsky on an American photo. Kandinsky denied this, stating that it could not be true. He had no desire for such "new departures", despite his currently being the talk of the town among Hollywood's actresses. He thought that he might possibly visit "the big country" at some point. However, he had no desire to move permanently from his hometown of Neuilly sur Seine near Paris. His motivation was emotional rather than based on any conviction: "That's Paris for you, where so much is annoying, where there is so much to find fault with, yet where there is beauty." The contradictions of the French metropolis fascinated and inspired the artist in his French exile - "in spite of all the faults".

As mentioned in the letter, however, the Kandinskys made journeys within Europe from Paris. In 1936, they had visited Italy. Nina and Wassily Kandinsky planned to spend the upcoming New Year's Eve alone by themselves. Over a glass of champagne they wanted to listen to the sound of the bells from their former homeland of Germany on the radio.