Shooting For Paris 3.0

I lived and worked in Paris for a little while during the spring of 2015. Naturally, I wrote a book about it. I started writing it while I was in Paris and continued long after I came back to Hong Kong.

The first thing any publisher wants to know about your book is word count. They will decide if the story is marketable when they skim through it, and genre only matters if it is not something the publisher usually covers. The first thing they need to know is how long it is. If it's too short, they will tell you to go back and rewrite it. If it's too long, they will tell you to cut it to pieces. Word count affects the price, and every publisher wants books that are in that sweet spot of expensive enough to make a profit, but not so expensive that no one will buy it.

Shooting For Paris came in at 350,000 words. With most standard formats, that would be over 1,000 pages. According to the publisher I was working with at the time, that was entirely too long. Readers want 300 pages.

I looked up a few books. Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is over 655,000 words. War and Peace, depending on translation, is between 561,000 and 587,000 words. But would either of those sell well if they were released today? Probably not. I think most publishers would reject them outright.

What about books that might sell today? The Catcher in the Rye is 73,000 words. Nineteen Eighty-Four is 89,000. The Great Gatsby – 47,000, Fahrenheit 451 – 46,000, Lord of the Flies – 60,000. That does not bode well for me.

But those are great works of literature. What about more contemporary books? The first Harry Potter book is about 77,000 words. They gradually get longer. The first Twilight book is 119,000 words, which is actually considered pretty long for a first novel. The first Hunger Games is 99,000 words.

An obvious argument is that Shooting For Paris is not a series of books aimed at the young adult audience. But publishers see numbers. If 80,000 words = giant buckets of money while 150,000+ words = a few sales here and there, what is the average publisher going to say to 350,000 words? I was told to gut it like a fish.

On the one hand, I did not want to. I felt that the story was as long as it needed to be and that cutting anything would hurt it. On the other hand, every publisher in the world has more experience than I do. They have seen a million books come and go, and they know that longer books are usually longer because they need some serious editing. Writers, especially novice writers, tend to ramble on and on. This post, for example. None of us are Victor Hugo.

After cutting out more than I wanted, it was down to 290,000. What I cut out could be an entire book, but it was still too long.

Someone came up with the idea of breaking it into two volumes. Series books are popular right now, and the theory was that people would rather buy more than one book to get the complete story than buy a 1,000 page book.

I immediately hated that idea. So I went shopping around for another publisher. No one seemed very excited to publish an expensive book by no one about women who have no magical powers and are never rescued by vampires. My only options were to cut it in two or sit on it and wait around for something to change. The hardest thing you can do after spending so much time on a book is to shelve it. You want it out in the world where people can read it. So I cut it in half.

I should have waited.

I went to Jerusalem for a little while during the spring of 2016. While I was there, I thought I might end up writing a book about it. But the last thing I wanted to do was write about the trip only to cut most of it out. In Jerusalem, I met someone who worked for a publisher in Europe that was looking for Israeli writers and novels about Israel. I had always intended to write the Jerusalem trip as a non-fiction travelogue, but the more I thought about it as a novel, the better it sounded. My story describes a movie that I did not write. I did not like the idea of talking about someone else's story with my name on the cover. If I changed the plot of the movie, I could describe anything I wanted. In non-fiction, you have to describe what happened. There is a little room to use different names and change a few things to protect the guilty, but in fiction, you can do absolutely anything.

Harmony On Spring Hill became a novel and I went with a different publisher. Ordinarily, I would have felt too much loyalty to switch houses, but gutting and dividing the Paris book left a bad taste in my mouth. When they wanted another novel almost immediately, I had nothing to give. For good or bad, I tend to write after I have taken a major trip abroad. The last trip I took was Jerusalem, and that story was taken.

I was never entirely comfortable with cutting Shooting For Paris in half, but I never found a way to shorten it either. But what if it were a novel? As a work of fiction, I could do anything with it. I had no idea how long it would take to turn an epic travelogue into a reasonable novel, but I liked the idea.

It actually took a long time, but that gave the new publisher time to buy out the old publisher. I'm the copyright holder, so I can rewrite whatever I want, but the material is licensed to the publisher. They hold the exclusive rights to publish it. No company wants to publish a book that is already available from some other company.

As of right now, Shooting For Paris is only available in novel form. Other than used copies or remainders, the non-fiction version should be out of print and/or unavailable at all retailers. If you bought either volume of the non-fiction version, hold onto it. It might be worth something in a hundred years.

Personally, I like the novel version better. It tells the story I wanted to tell without too much sacrifice on my end. Ironically, it is 220,000 words shorter than the first version. The best part is, it's finished. There will never be a 4.0.

I Go Swimming

When Lily & I were in France, we spent a few days at a very nice house on Cap d'Antibes. I might have mentioned that once or twice. This house had everything you want in a giant house on the French Riviera. There were plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms, two kitchens, three dining rooms, a library/game room, a home theater/music room, several gardens, a greenhouse, an infinity pool overlooking the Mediterranean, a pool house, a few garages and all kinds of utility and service rooms. The funny thing is, only one person lived in the house. There were always guests coming and going, and people to keep the house in shape, but the house owner technically lived alone.

I thought it was a great place to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of the big city, and Antibes is not a bad neighborhood to hang out, but I would never want to live in a house like that. It was simply too big. Even with a large family, it would be too big. There was enough room for several families.

When we went to Château de Versailles, I could understand why Marie Antoinette had the Queen's Hamlet and Petit Trianon. The main house was just too big to be comfortable. The house on Cap d'Antibes was nowhere near the size of Versailles, but they were both excessive in my opinion. I have a balcony in my apartment on which I rarely spend any time. I can't imagine having enough free time to really enjoy the large gardens at a mansion.

My favorite part of that house on Cap d'Antibes was easily the swimming pool. It was rarely empty, mostly because it was an infinity pool overlooking the Mediterranean. But for one brief shining moment, I was alone in the swimming pool. It was an incredibly cathartic experience. In the pool, I could ignore whatever was going on in the house around me. Under the water, I could ignore the rest of the world. I floated in that womb without schedules, bills, obligations or boyfriends.

Paris Recommendations

Obviously I'm not the world's foremost authority on Paris. I was only there for a month. I barely saw anything.

But I saw something, and this is what I would recommend to anyone who goes there. Others might disagree.


Museums
(in no particular order)

Musée du Louvre
1st arrondissement
Featuring Rembrandt van Rijn, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael Sanzio, Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian Vecellio, Francisco Goya, Tintoretto and ancient artifacts out the wazoo.
Métro stops: Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre, Louvre – Rivoli, Tuileries, Pont Neuf, Châtelet, Pyramides, Assemblée Nationale
RER stops: Châtelet – Les Halles, Musée d'Orsay

Musée d'Orsay
7th arrondissement
Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Across the river from the Louvre.
Métro stops: Solférino, Assemblée Nationale, Varenne, Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre
RER stop: Musée d'Orsay

Holocaust Memorial
4th arrondissement
This is a terribly depressing place, but worth remembering what happens when hatred and intolerance become politically correct. A block from Église Saint-Gervais.
Métro stops: Pont Marie, Saint-Paul, Hôtel de Ville, Sully – Morland, Cité, Châtelet

Musée Rodin
7th arrondissement
Auguste Rodin, Vincent van Gogh, Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet. Next to les Invalides.
Métro stops: Varenne, Saint-François-Xavier, La Tour-Maubourg, École Militaire, Rue du Bac, Solférino

Musée National d'Art Moderne
4th arrondissement
Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Willem de Kooning, René Magritte, Paul Klee, Balthus, Jackson Pollock, Joan Miró. In the Pompidou Center.
Métro stops: Rambuteau, Châtelet, Hôtel de Ville, Les Halles, Étienne Marcel, Arts et Métiers, Pont Neuf, Cité
RER stop: Châtelet – Les Halles

Musée Picasso
3rd arrondissement
Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Henri Rousseau. Next to the National Archives.
Métro stops: Saint-Sébastien – Froissart, Chemin Vert, Filles du Calvaire, Saint-Paul, Rambuteau, Hôtel de Ville, Bastille, Arts et Métiers

Musée Carnavalet
3rd arrondissement
A history museum dedicated to Paris. It has a great model of Île de la Cité, plus a lot of personal knick knacks from historic French figures. Between Musée Picasso and Place des Vosges.
Métro stops: Saint-Paul, Bastille, Chemin Vert, Saint-Sébastien – Froissart, Filles du Calvaire, Rambuteau, Hôtel de Ville, Arts et Métiers

Musée de la Musique
19th arrondissement
This place had the largest collection of mostly antique and obscure instruments I've ever seen. At Parc de la Villette.
Métro stops: Porte de Pantin, Corentin Cariou, Porte de la Villette

Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie
19th arrondissement
The largest science museum in all of Europe. Also at Parc de la Villette.
Métro stops: Porte de la Villette, Corentin Cariou, Porte de Pantin

Arènes de Lutèce
5th arrondissement
An ancient Roman ruin in the middle of Quartier latin. Small by Roman standards, but interesting in that it is surrounded by 19th and 21st century Paris. Between Jardin des Plantes and the Panthéon.
Métro stops: Jussieu, Place Monge, Cardinal Lemoine

Château de Versailles
Not actually in Paris, but close and very easy to get to.
RER stop: Versailles-Château-Rive-Gauche


Churches

Notre Dame de Paris
Île de la Cité
The best looking church I have ever seen. The tower is a bit of a climb, but the view is fantastic. The rest of the church is not too shabby either.
Métro stops: Cité, Saint-Michel, Châtelet, Pont Neuf, Hôtel de Ville, Pont Marie, Saint-Paul, Sully – Morland
RER stop: Saint-Michel – Notre-Dame

Église Saint-Eustache
Les Halles
A beautiful church in the heart of Paris. It is almost impossible not to walk around or past this place. As long as you are there, you might as well go inside. The architecture is amazing and there are some wonderful paintings and stained glass windows.
Métro stops: Les Halles, Étienne Marcel, Sentier, Louvre – Rivoli, Châtelet, Hôtel de Ville, Rambuteau, Arts et Métiers, Pont Neuf
RER stop: Châtelet – Les Halles

Basilique du Sacré Coeur
Montmartre
Another long climb to get to the great views, especially after climbing uphill just to get to the church, but a nice little church nonetheless. Photography is not allowed inside, and unlike a lot of places, they enforce this rule politely but firmly.
Métro stops: Abbesses, Pigalle, Anvers, Barbès – Rochechouart, Château Rouge, Marcadet – Poissonniers, Jules Joffrin

Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis
le Marais
A beautiful Jesuit church built in the early 1600s.
Métro stops: Saint-Paul, Pont Marie, Sully – Morland, Bastille, Chemin Vert

Église Saint-Augustin
Malesherbes
Not the most famous church in Paris, but very impressive. You can't help but see the dome from most of the towers and hills around the city.
Métro stops: Saint-Augustin, Miromesnil, Saint-Lazare, Europe, Villiers, Monceau
RER stop: Haussmann – Saint-Lazare


Restaurants

Sixieme Sens
Rue de la Roquette, Bastille
Hole in the wall restaurant on the street that connects the Voltaire metro stop and the Bastille, pretty much right in between the two. It is hard to find until you know it's across the street from a Monoprix. The owner/chef is incredibly friendly and knows how to cook.
Métro stops: Bastille, Voltaire

L'Orangerie
Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île, Île Saint-Louis
A nice little cinema themed bistro in the middle of the island. Less than a block away from Chez nos ancêtres les gaulois.
Métro stops: Pont Marie, Sully – Morland, Saint-Paul

L'As du Fallafel
Rue des Rosiers/Rue des Ecouffes, le Marais
Israeli restaurant with the best hummus in Paris. Between Place des Vosges and Hôtel de Ville.
Métro stops: Saint-Paul, Chemin Vert

Nick's Pizza
Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Opéra-Haussmann
A slice and a pop. What more do you need? People can debate all day whether it can be authentic New York without the water, but the owner/chef is from New York, for what it's worth. Between the Folies Bergère and Hard Rock Cafe.
Métro stops: Grands Boulevards, Richelieu – Drouot, Le Peletier

Pur' at the Park Hyatt
Rue de la Paix, Opéra
Fancy Michelin star restaurant with good food despite the pretentious hype. Near Place Vendôme and Madeleine.
Métro stops: Opéra, Madeleine

Harmony Café
Boulevard de Port-Royal/Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, Montparnasse
Another friendly owner/chef and some of the best frites in Paris. Near the Montparnasse Cemetery.
Métro stop: Raspail
RER stop: Port-Royal

Pizza Julia
Rue de Charenton, Place de la Bastille
Nothing fancy on the outside, but great pizza inside. Some of the toppings are questionable, though fresh, but the dough is pretty close to perfect. Around the corner from Opéra Bastille.
Métro stop: Bastille

Chez nos ancêtres les gaulois
Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île, Île Saint-Louis
The strangest little restaurant in Paris. It is supposed to look like a tavern in medieval Gaul. This is not the best food in Paris, but the atmosphere is unique, with people singing and a resident troubadour wandering around. Less than a block away from l'Orangerie.
Métro stops: Pont Marie, Sully – Morland, Saint-Paul

Mancini
Rue Bachelet/Rue Custine, Montmartre
Italian restaurant owned by actual Italians, this tiny place is dangerously close to the tourist food that litters Montmartre, but is on one of the tourist-free streets where you never see anyone selling t-shirts. It is easy to find once you get away from the madding crowd, with large Italian flags hanging out front. Two or three blocks northeast of Sacré Coeur.
Métro stops: Château Rouge, Marcadet – Poissonniers, Jules Joffrin, Lamarck – Caulaincourt

American Corner
Rue Saint Jacques/Rue Cujas, Latin Quarter
“New York” style bagel shop with hot dogs and American desserts. Nothing about this place reminded me of New York, but they had great cookies and better bagels than anything in Hong Kong. Between the Panthéon and Jardin du Luxembourg.
Métro stops: Cluny – La Sorbonne, Cardinal Lemoine
RER stop: Luxembourg

La Maison du Chou
Rue de Furstenberg, Saint Germain
Chouquettes and other pastries at a small shop on the tiny street where the final scene of Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence was filmed, across the street from Countess Olenska's apartment. Very close to Église de Saint-Germain des Prés.
Métro stops: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Mabillon

Le Jamoncito
Rue Quincampoix, Les Halles
Spanish restaurant on a dead little street wedged between the Pompidou Center and Les Halles, two blocks west of Place Stravinsky and three blocks north of Tour Saint-Jacques.
Métro stops: Châtelet, Hôtel de Ville

Berthillon
Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île, Île Saint-Louis
Considered by more than a few people to be the best ice cream in Paris, I went there mostly because it was on our island. Food snobs will explode when I say that I prefer Ben & Jerry's, but this place was pretty good, too. Between l'Orangerie and Chez nos ancêtres les gaulois.
Métro stops: Pont Marie, Sully – Morland, Saint-Paul

Twinkie Breakfasts
Rue Saint-Denis/Rue Greneta, Les Halles
Most people dreaming about sitting at a sidewalk café will never go to this place, but if you are an American living in Asia, this is a nice change of pace. They have a large selection of American and English foods that are not common in Paris, including a full breakfast menu and all kinds of American condiments that some of us don't see all that often. Across the street from the Love Shop.
Métro stops: Réaumur – Sébastopol, Étienne Marcel

Eric Kayser Artisan Boulanger
Rue du Bac/Rue de Verneuil, Pont Royal
This is a chain, so they have a few locations and you are not going to get the personal touch of a family business, but they opened a shop in Hong Kong in one of the old Starbucks locations, so I wanted to compare the Paris version with the Hong Kong version. They both look remarkably similar, which is not standard practice when companies bring their food to China, but what they make in Paris is much better.
Métro stop: Rue du Bac
RER stop: Musée d'Orsay


Landmarks

Eiffel Tower
7th arrondissement
You have to go here when you go to Paris. It's the law.
Métro stops: Trocadéro, Passy, Bir-Hakeim, La Motte-Picquet – Grenelle, École Militaire
RER stop: Champ de Mars – Tour Eiffel

Palais Garnier
9th arrondissement
Even if you never go to the ballet or opera, it's worth going into this building for the grandeur.
Métro stops: Opéra, Chaussée d'Antin – La Fayette, Havre – Caumartin
RER stop: Auber

Arc de Triomphe
8th arrondissement
You don't have to climb the stairs or take the tiny elevator to fully appreciate the history, but the view from the top is nice.
Métro & RER stop: Charles-de-Gaulle – Étoile

Panthéon
5th arrondissement
Burial site to a lot of famous French people. It has not been a church in a long time, but the interior still looks like a grand cathedral.
Métro stops: Cluny – La Sorbonne, Maubert – Mutualité, Cardinal Lemoine
RER stop: Luxembourg

Tour Montparnasse
15th arrondissement
People complain that it's ugly, but from the top, you can see all over Paris. And you can go on the roof. A lot of tall buildings only let you go to an indoor observation deck. Here, you can get a 360 degree view and feel all that wind in your face.
Métro stops: Montparnasse – Bienvenüe, Edgar Quinet


Parks

Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
19th arrondissement
My personal favorite park in Paris. It has a nice little lake with a nice little island connected by two bridges, one of which was designed by Gustave Eiffel. There is a waterfall near the lake and sloping green lawns with patches of bright flowers. Simply beautiful in the spring, I would love to see it covered in snow.
Métro stops: Buttes-Chaumont, Botzaris

Bois de Vincennes
12th arrondissement
The largest park in Paris, with a few lakes, a zoo, a concert stadium, sports stadium, French gardens, lots of flowers and Château de Vincennes. Mata Hari was executed here.
Métro stops: Château de Vincennes, Bérault, Saint-Mandé, Porte Dorée, Liberté, Charenton – Écoles
RER stops: Vincennes, Joinville-le-Pont, Nogent-sur-Marne, Fontenay-sous-Bois

Bois de Boulogne
16th arrondissement
The second largest park in Paris, with a few lakes, a zoo, a concert stadium, sports stadium, English gardens, and Château de Bagatelle. The first manned balloon flight was here.
Métro stops: Porte Maillot, Porte Dauphine, La Muette, Ranelagh, Porte d'Auteuil, Michel-Ange – Molitor, Pont de Neuilly, Les Sablons
RER stops: Neuilly – Porte Maillot, Avenue Foch, Avenue Henri Martin

Parc de la Villette
19th arrondissement
A large park on the canals that were built to bring drinking water to Paris. This is a cultural park rather than a garden park, though there are gardens, with the Musée de la Musique, Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, a concert stadium, symphony hall, live theaters, movie theaters and a large array of modern architecture.
Métro stops: Porte de la Villette, Corentin Cariou, Porte de Pantin

Jardin du Luxembourg
6th arrondissement
A pleasant, if crowded, public space that borders Quartier latin and Montparnasse. Lots of statues and fountains.
Métro stops: Odéon, Saint-Sulpice, Rennes, Notre-Dame des Champs
RER stops: Luxembourg, Port-Royal

Parc de Belleville
20th arrondissement
A small park on top of a hill, it has great views of Tour Jussieu, the Panthéon, Notre Dame, Tour Montparnasse, Église Saint-Sulpice, the Pompidou Center, les Invalides and of course, the Eiffel Tower. Running through the park is a series of fountains that flow downhill.
Métro stops: Couronnes, Belleville, Pyrénées

Jardin des Plantes
5th arrondissement
The botanical garden, with thousands of plants and hundreds of different roses.
Métro stops: Jussieu, Place Monge, Censier – Daubenton, Saint-Marcel, Gare d'Austerlitz
RER stop: Gare d'Austerlitz

Jardin des Tuileries
1st arrondissement
This used to be several grand French gardens that inspired painters and poets, but those days are over. It is still an excellent walkway sans voitures between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde with a few sculptures by Rodin.
Métro stops: Concorde, Tuileries, Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre, Louvre – Rivoli
RER stop: Musée d'Orsay


Neighborhoods

Le Marais
A great little historic neighborhood for a walk. Home of the Musée Picasso, Place des Vosges, Musée Carnavalet, Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, Hôtel de Ville and National Archives. Just north of the river at the islands.
Métro stops: Hôtel de Ville, Saint-Paul, Bastille, République, Arts et Métiers

Bassin de la Villette
An interesting residential neighborhood with walking, jogging and biking paths along the canal. Between Parc de la Villette, Canal Saint-Martin and Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.
Métro stops: Stalingrad, Jaurès, Riquet, Laumière

Montmartre
Home of Sacré Coeur, Théâtre Trianon, Moulin Rouge, and former home of some great artists. It is mostly a tourist trap today with the red light district and that little train for children, but there are some nice winding little streets with authentic food. You just have to avoid any place with postcards and t-shirts nearby. Between Gare du Nord and Gare Saint-Lazare.
Métro stops: Blanche, Pigalle, Anvers, Château Rouge, Lamarck – Caulaincourt, La Fourche

Île de la Cité
The most famous island in Paris, mostly because of a big church and a couple of popular bridges.
Métro stops: Saint-Michel, Cité, Pont Neuf, Châtelet, Pont Marie
RER stop: Saint-Michel – Notre-Dame

Île Saint-Louis
My favorite island in Paris. Mostly because our apartment was here. For most people, there is not much to see. But it's still a good place to walk around.
Métro stops: Pont Marie, Sully – Morland, Cité, Saint-Michel
RER stop: Saint-Michel – Notre-Dame

Latin Quarter
Mostly touristy, but there is good food if you are willing to look around and go to places without English menus. Home of the Panthéon and Sorbonne. Just south of Île de la Cité.
Métro stops: Saint-Michel, Cluny – La Sorbonne, Odéon
RER stops: Saint-Michel – Notre-Dame, Luxembourg

Île aux Cygnes
A thin island between Pont de Grenelle and Pont de Bir-Hakeim that is little more than a nice place for a walk. It also has a 22 meter Statue de la Liberté. The one in New York is 93 meters. Tokyo's is a little over 12 meters.
Métro stops: Bir-Hakeim, Passy
RER stops: Avenue du Président Kennedy, Champ de Mars – Tour Eiffel

Disneyland Paris
Not actually in Paris, and probably not everyone's first stop on a visit to France, but it is Disneyland. Home of Phantom Manor, Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains and Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. In Marne-la-Vallée, about 20 minutes from Île de la Cité.
RER stop: Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy

Paris Diary part 25

Day 30
12°, rain off & on most of the day.

I got rained on during my last morning run in Paris. Morning rain was nothing new, but this was the heaviest rain while I was out running. This was my last chance to run along the Seine, so I ignored the rain and pushed through.

Lily & I had no real plans for our last day in Paris, other than getting to the airport on time. Our flight left later at night, so we still had some time to experience the city.

After a full month, we did almost everything on our lists. We saw the big tourist sights and more than a few little places. We ate big fancy meals in big fancy restaurants and quick snacks from sandwich shops. We went to just about every type of bistro, café, brasserie and salon de thé. Lily & I shared a bedroom in a large seaside mansion and had our own rooms in a beautiful little apartment. We met locals who lived in Paris their entire lives, foreigners and expats working in France, and people just passing through. We went to the borders of the city and beyond, and took a few side trips outside of Paris altogether. We rode on trains, cars, scooters and bicycles. I even got to drive a little myself.

We did everything and almost nothing. We covered everything in the typical tourist guide and then some, but living in Hong Kong has taught me that you can spend months, and even years, in a city and still barely begin to understand it. I chuckle a little to myself when I meet people who spent a week in Hong Kong and think they are now experts. Lily & I were always aware that we were never going to know Paris in a month. We barely scratched the surface.

Paris Diary part 24

Day 29
16°, partly cloudy day, mostly cloudy night.

After my morning run in a light rain, Lily & I spent a relaxing morning at the apartment. We opened the tall balcony windows in the living room and watched the Seine wake up.

After our last day at work, we went back to the Eiffel Tower. We had seen it before, as everyone who ever goes to Paris is required by law to do, but we went up and watched the sunset this time. The Eiffel Tower has three levels, of course, but everyone disagrees on which is the best. In my expert opinion, as someone who has been there fewer times than I have been to foreign hospitals, I say the second level has the better views. You can see a wider angle than the first level and more detail than the third. The first level is better for architecture and the neighborhoods around the tower. The third level is too high to really see anything, but you do get better views of the distant landscape.

For our last real dinner in Paris, we went to Pur' at the Park Hyatt on Rue de la Paix, across from Place Vendôme. Pure it was not. It was an overpriced Michelin star restaurant with tiny portions on large plates. I generally have a low opinion about this type of restaurant. More often than not, I'm disappointed that the emphasis is on presentation and whoever their celebrity chef is than on the taste of the food itself. But this place was pretty good. Not the greatest meal in the world, or even the greatest meal in Paris, or the greatest meal of the week, but good.

We had a six course meal, which is entirely too much, but the portions were tiny despite how large the plates were. We also had a nice bottle of some kind of French wine. Everyone said it was great, so we accepted their advice. It tasted like wine to me, but I'm not an expert on the subject. I can tell the difference between a $100 bottle and a gallon box for $6.95, but when it comes to vintages, wineries, French, Californian or Israeli, they are all Greek to me.

After dinner, we took our last nighttime walk along the Seine. It would have been an incredibly romantic moment if I was there with a boyfriend instead of my best friend. It was still nicer than a walk along the Yau Ma Tei typhoon shelter.

Paris Diary part 23

Day 28
15°, partly cloudy.

This was our last full day off in Paris and I wanted to make the most of it. We did not work every day we were there, but sometimes it seemed like it. I wanted to experience the city as much as I could while I could.

I went for a morning run along the Seine on what was looking like a gloomy day. Our first few days in Paris were cold and wet, but the weather cleared up for most of the month. By the end, we were back to cold and wet. There might be better times of the year to spend a month in Paris, but April is not a bad choice.

Lily & I went to Normandy because it was one of the places to see on both of our lists. It was not on the top of the list, so it had to wait until the last minute. Had we not gone on this day, we never would have.

We took the train up to Caen, which was easy, and then rented a car, which was more complicated. June is the big tourist season, for obvious reasons, but April is not exactly empty. We wanted to take a guided bus tour, but since we decided to go at the last minute, nothing was available. The tours also tend to go to one beach or another, and we wanted to see Omaha and Juno.

We went to one of the many car rental places near the train station where we met an American couple who also never bothered to reserve anything in advance. We solved all of our problems by renting a car together. They also wanted to see Omaha, but did not mind going to Juno. With the other couple, we could all save money and we would have more drivers. The area around Caen, Bayeux and the beaches is not especially large, but Lily can't drive a manual transmission and does not have an international permit even if the rental company had automatics.

We drove from Caen through the country roads to Courseulles-sur-Mer, which looked like a great little village. I wanted to look around more, but we had places to go.

From Courseulles-sur-Mer, we followed the coast to Vierville-sur-Mer. It was not the fastest way to get there, but the scenery was beautiful and it took us to Gold Beach on the way. We went to most of the monuments, but spent most of the day on the beaches. West of the American Cemetery was an enormous stretch of beach with cute French cottages behind rustic wooden fences.

We picked a great day to go to Normandy. It was cloudy, but there was no threat of rain as there was in Paris, and it was cool enough to walk along the beaches and coastal paths.

From the beaches, we went to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. No one in any of our families was buried there, but we had to go anyway. After looking at so many battle sites, it seemed only appropriate. From the cemetery, we drove down to Bayeux.

Bayeux was a nice little town with more monuments and cemeteries. We also checked out Bayeux Cathedral.

After Bayeux, we headed back to Caen. I had done all of the driving at this point, so I offered to let our new American friends drive. One of them could not drive a stick shift and the other was too intimidated by the French freeway system. It seemed pretty basic to me, so I stayed behind the wheel.

We spent more time in Caen than we had in Bayeux. There were more D-Day monuments, but Caen took us further back in time than the 1940s. William the Conqueror was everywhere. He built several of the older buildings, including Château de Caen, Église Saint-Etienne and Église de la Sainte-Trinité.

Château de Caen is right in the middle of the city and a good place from which to branch out. It was attacked a few times during the Hundred Years' War, vandalized during the French Revolution and bombed before D-Day. William would never recognize it today, especially with its ample parking.

Église Saint-Pierre is an ornate but small Gothic church across the street from Château de Caen, but has nothing to do with William. It was built and rebuilt a few hundred years after he died.

Église Saint-Etienne and Église de la Sainte-Trinité were built at the same time by William to make the Pope happy. St-Etienne is larger and more elaborate than Ste-Trinité, with museums and grounds rather than simply sitting on a street in the middle of town.

When we were all done for the day, we returned the rental car, exchanged contact information with our new friends and hopped on separate trains. They were headed for London and we went back to Paris.

Back in our Paris apartment, Lily & I decided to eat in rather than go out. We spent the entire day eating snacks in various seaside villages. We were ready for a home cooked meal. I also wanted to use that kitchen while I still could. We have a nice apartment in Hong Kong, but we don't have access to the fresh ingredients we had in Paris. I miss that apartment kitchen with its morning sunlight and the smell of the flowered courtyard outside the window, but more than that, I miss what I could find in local markets and bring back to the kitchen.

Paris Diary part 22

Day 27
16°, partly cloudy day, clear night.

Lily & I went to Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the morning and got caught in a sudden rain shower. We had umbrellas with us since it looked like it was going to rain, but it started too suddenly for us to stay dry. Since we were already wet, we took a swim in the lake. That might not be entirely legal, and the lake water was much colder than the rain water, but how many times do you get to say you went swimming in a Paris lake in the rain? We knew that our time in Paris was going to end soon and we wanted to experience as much as we could.

We spent a month going to all the popular tourist sights, but we also explored neighborhoods that most tourists never see and ate at restaurants that are not in any of the travel guides. But we knew that we still barely saw the city. A month is better than a week, but still not long enough for a city like Paris.

We went to le Marais for lunch because someone told us about a great falafel place, l'As du Fallafel. The owners are Israeli, so we assumed they were going to do everything the Israeli way, but we had no idea what that was. The best falafel I had ever eaten at that point was at an Arab place in Bangkok. One could argue that Bangkok is no more Arab than Paris is Israeli, but that was the best we could do. Lily & I have never been to the Middle East.

We both agreed that the Israeli hummus was outstanding. I make my own hummus at home, but this was a million times better. Probably because of the spices that I can't get in Hong Kong. Or because they know what they are doing.

For dinner, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, which is not exactly authentic Paris. But it was the most authentic American meal we had on this trip. Paris has more than a few restaurants that claim to have authentic American food, but everything I ate was a European interpretation of American. The Hard Rock Cafe in Paris was just like any other Hard Rock, for better or worse.

I got a t-shit while we were there because that's what you do. I have shirts from almost 20 different Hard Rock Cafes. I never meant to collect them. Most of the time I just happen to stumble onto the restaurants. I did not even know they had a Hard Rock in Tokyo, Bali or Bangkok until I went there. There was even one in Nice, but I never went there. It is close enough to Antibes, but I did not want to go out of my way for a t-shirt.

Paris Diary part 21

Day 26
16°, light rain off & on all day.

On our last Sunday in Paris, Lily & I went to Notre Dame. We had already been inside the cathedral, and we walked past it a million times, but we had never gone up the tower since it was always closed. We figured everything would be open on a Sunday. A lot of things are closed on Sundays in Paris, but this is a church. We could tell that the tower was open as soon as we crossed Pont Saint-Louis onto Île de la Cité and saw the long line of people along Rue du Cloître Notre Dame.

The climb up the tower was torture. I'm in pretty good shape, as is Lily, but those 387 spiral steps took their toll. A straight staircase would have been easier, but spirals force you to constantly adjust your balance. Instead of simply walking up, you are walking up and to the left.

It was a cloudy day, but the view was worth the climb. Paris is a pretty low city, so the high clouds never covered much of anything, and only made the view more dramatic. We could clearly see the Eiffel Tower, les Invalides and Sacré Coeur. Since we knew the city a lot better than we did the first time the tower was closed, we also noticed our roommate's hospital, Saint Sulpice, one of our grocery stores and more than a few restaurants.

After we climbed down all of the steps, we went down even further into the crypt. That is probably more interesting to archeologists, but still worth a look.

From Notre Dame, we went to Bois de Boulogne. We had already been to Bois de Vincennes, so we figured we might as well go to the other giant park that bookends the city. Bois de Boulogne is smaller than Bois de Vincennes, but not enough to notice. Bois de Vincennes has the Château de Vincennes, a small medieval castle, while Bois de Boulogne has the Château de Bagatelle, a neoclassical mansion.

Both parks have lakes and streams, but Lily & I agreed that Lac Daumesnil at Vincennes was the best of the bunch.

We spent the evening on the apartment's roof terrace. It had just stopped raining and was about to start up again at any moment, but we both decided that we liked our Paris apartment more than the big Antibes house. The Antibes house was much bigger and had a swimming pool, hot tub and all kinds of gardens and grounds to walk around, but it never felt like a home. The Paris apartment was more comfortable. Paris has plenty of gardens and grounds to walk around anyway.

Paris Diary part 20

Day 24
22°, sunny day, cloudy at night.

After work, I spent the afternoon wandering around the cape. I went to Chapelle de la Garoupe and the lighthouse, with the views on the hill, and made my way south and downhill to the postcard sentier du littoral.

There are some great walking trails around the southern tip of the cape. Given enough time and energy, you could walk from Chemin de la Garoupe at that little nothing beach all the way to Anse de l'Argent Faux and the very end of the cape without ever crossing a street with cars. All you need are some good walking shoes that can get wet, a bottle of water and a good deal of stamina. I should have started earlier in the morning, but I had no idea that I was even going there until I went.

Dinner was at la Paillote Blanche, a fancy restaurant on the Vallauris side of Golfe Juan. Every restaurant we went to on the gulf was for the tourists and food snobs. It was the tiny restaurants on tiny side streets that had the best food, where the owners made our food and spent time with us. At the big fancy restaurants, the owners were not the chefs and were probably rarely in the building. It was like going to Starbucks instead of a neighborhood barista. This place was not bad by any means, but there were better options. I liked the location. It was on the beach, so we could feel and smell the sea while we ate. That always makes any meal better.

This was our last night in Antibes, so Lily & I made sure to use that big hot tub while we still could. We were going back to Paris the next day, which is not such a bad deal, but there was no hot tub or swimming pool at our Paris apartment.


Day 25
20°, cloudy, light rain at night.

I had breakfast at le Goût-Thé, a wonderful little bagel shop on Rue Aubernon between the marina and Marché Provençal. This was the kind of small café/bakery that would do very well in Hong Kong, but no one ever opens anything like it.

Lily & I left Antibes after work and arrived in Paris in time for dinner. We went back to Sixieme Sens, the restaurant we went to on our second night in Paris. The owner either recognized us from our first visit or he was simply friendly to everyone. He treated us as well on this night as he had three weeks earlier.

Paris Diary part 19

Day 23
20°, light clouds.

Lily & I spent the morning at Marché Provençal, the local farmer's market in Antibes next to the Musée Picasso. We walked along the promenade toward the marina before going to work.

After work, I learned how to use a real camera with a borrowed 1960s Nikon F. I wanted to experiment with the camera, but you can't just delete the bad pictures on film. You have to pick and choose your shots more carefully.

We had dinner at Romagna Mia, an authentic Northern Italian restaurant on Boulevard Dugommier in downtown Antibes. The owners, who were also the chefs and waiters, were from Romagna and seemed to know what they were talking about, so we let them decide what we should eat. This seemed to be happening a lot on this trip.

After dinner, we spent the evening walking along the Mediterranean, which is a world away from a nighttime walk along Victoria Harbour. Antibes is a lot cleaner than Hong Kong and the air feels fresh, just as any coastal area should.

We also went to a Carrefour in the Old Town neighborhood. That might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but I thought it was interesting how different French Carrefours are from the Chinese versions. There was far more fresh food in the Antibes store and fewer, if any, living creatures inside the packaged items.

The night ended with a pool party where almost no one went swimming. That seemed like a waste to me. When you have a perfectly good swimming pool at your disposal, you should use it. But I think most of the people were only at that party to get drunk and/or laid, none of which were appealing to me.

Paris Diary part 18

Day 21
22°, sunny.

Lily, our roommate and I all went back to Antibes, only this time it was going to be a longer trip. Most of the day was spent on the train, getting settled in and enjoying the big house in Antibes.


Day 22
22°, sunny.

After spending the morning on the beach, Lily & I went to lunch at Estérel Plage on Boulevard Charles Guillaumont in Juan-les-Pins. The food was definitely not worth the inflated price, but the views from our table on the terrace were beautiful. We could see the entire gulf in every direction, from Cap d'Antibes to Cap de la Croisette.

Everyone went to work after lunch, and Lily & I explored the house and grounds after work, with a quick trip to the swimming pool.

Dinner was at la Taille de Guêpe on Rue de Fersen, a tiny hole in the wall restaurant in downtown Antibes with plates that were more like pieces of art than dishes of food. The restaurant is famous for its flower salads and some of the dishes looked like floral decorations. The beignets de fleurs de courgettes were the best zucchini blossoms I have ever eaten, but the flower desserts were the highlight for me.

The restaurant was on a tiny little alley in the old town. Only one waitress served the entire restaurant, but there were only a dozen tables at most. The big surprise to me, other than all the flowers on everything, was how low the prices were. This was a restaurant that lives on its reputation among the locals for quality food rather than overcharging the tourists. In fact, I would be surprised if we were not the only foreigners there that night.

Paris Diary part 17

Day 20
22°, sunny.

This was another long work day, but at lunch, Lily & I walked around the 14th arrondissement near Tour Montparnasse and got kicked out of the Société des gens de lettres.

We had lunch at Harmony Café on Boulevard de Port-Royal, where the owner, an older man, spent a lot of time talking to us. I could say it was because we were young women, but he lives in a city full of young women. It was most likely because he was a friendly restaurateur.

We went to a weird little restaurant called Chez nos ancêtres les gaulois on Île Saint-Louis for dinner. Rather than the refined elegance of most Paris restaurants, this place was designed to look like a roadside tavern in medieval Gaul, hence the name. The walls were exposed wood beams and stone with mounted animal heads, and long wooden block tables provided group seating.

Every table had a large basket of raw fruits and vegetables and a nice assortment of cheeses. This is essentially an all you can eat buffet restaurant, wine included, but it is nothing like Las Vegas.

The spécialité de la maison, aside from the ambience, was grilled chunks of meat and sausages, but there was more than enough cheese, vegetables and bread. Cheese and bread with a nice glass of wine can be a great meal all on its own, if you get the right cheese and bread.

Paris Diary part 16

Day 18
18°, sunny.

While I was at work, Lily had her own day to wander around, and our roommate went shopping.

While Lily & I were relaxing on our rooftop terrace, our roommate provided some of her own drama. She sliced her finger open in the kitchen and we took her to the nearest hospital, which was conveniently only four minutes away on Île de la Cité.

After paying less than 7 euros for a week's worth of pain medication, we all walked back to the apartment together. Our insurance covered the emergency room visit, and we learned later that we could have called an ambulance for free and they would have fully treated her at the apartment since it was not exactly brain surgery. She could have picked up her medication at her convenience. But walking to the hospital was still faster.


Day 19
18°, sunny.

Nothing special happened on this day. It was mostly just work.

We went to Île aux Cygnes after work and saw the tiny Statue de la Liberté. Having now seen the versions in New York, Las Vegas, Tokyo, Duluth and Paris, I can safely say the New York statue is the best.

The island also has the elaborate Pont de Bir-Hakeim with the raised metro level where line 6 crosses the Seine and gives riders a postcard view of the Eiffel Tower.

We spent the end of the day on the apartment's rooftop terrace watching the city get darker while all the lights turned on.

Paris Diary part 15

Day 17
20°, mostly sunny, partly cloudy in the afternoon.

After work, Lily, our roommate and I went to Palais de l'Élysée and the Grand Palais and Petit Palais just south of Champs-Élysées. From there, we climbed the Arc de Triomphe and looked at all the war memorabilia.

From the Arc de Triomphe, we took a very short metro ride to Boulevard Haussmann and went to the Galeries Lafayette with the large domed atrium, and Printemps with its large domed atrium. From the roof terraces of Galeries Lafayette and Printemps we could see the Palais Garnier, the Saint Augustin dome and the steel and glass roof of the Grand Palais with the Eiffel Tower behind it. It was sunny all morning, but it started to get cloudy just after lunch. The views were still great since the clouds were high and never all that threatening, and the buildings we were looking at were so low.

Paris Diary part 14

Day 16
22°, sunny.

Lily & I had the day off, so we went to Bois de Vincennes. We started at Château de Vincennes, which is no Versailles, but is a pleasant enough side trip. Parc Floral de Paris is a nice botanical garden near the château.

Lac Daumesnil is on the far western edge of the park and has the Temple d'Amour, which looks a lot like the Temple de la Sibylle at Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. Mostly because they were both designed by the same guy.

Just next to Lac Daumesnil is the Parc Zoologique de Paris. We were undecided whether or not we should support a zoo, but this one has open enclosures and a more natural environment. It was closed for six years specifically so they could make it more animal friendly.

The zoo is divided into five regions – Europe, Guyana, Madagascar, Patagonia and the Sahara, with almost 200 different species representing each ecosystem in landscapes that were designed to resemble their natural habitats. Madagascar had an enormous aviary full of birds, reptiles and lemurs. Guyana was full of monkeys and manatees. Europe had wolves and otters. The Sahara section had lions, zebras and a few rhinoceroses. There was a large aviary for all of the birds, and the giraffes had a special maison des girafes. Patagonia had cougars, sea lions and penguins.

After lunch at a café on the Left Bank, drinking ordinary wine, we went to Musée d'Orsay for a quick visit with Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Degas, Manet, and smaller collections of van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat. We saw some of the greatest 19th century works of art, including Bal du moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet, Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 by James McNeill Whistler, Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh and The Painter's Studio by Gustave Courbet.

All in all, not a bad collection.

Paris Diary part 13

Day 15
25°, sunny.

A quick day at work and some time at Musée Rodin with The Thinker, The Kiss and some paintings by Monet, Renoir, Munch and van Gogh. They were at the tail end of a large three year renovation, but most of the museum was open to the public.

The Louvre is open late on Wednesdays, so Lily & I went there at night. The Egyptian and Islamic rooms were closed and would be until the middle of May. Some of the Greek and Roman rooms were closed, but all of the sculptures outside of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome were available, and the Cour Marly was open.

Unfortunately, most of the French paintings were not. Some of the 18th and 19th century French rooms were closed until May or July, while most were closed until 2016. But we still saw most of the Louvre's vast collection of European paintings with plenty of Rembrandt, Raphael, Leonardo and Caravaggio.

D-Day + 25,915

A little over a month before the 71st anniversary of the D-Day invasion, Lily & I went to Normandy. We both have grandparents who were part of it, although from different armies and on different beaches. We figured we should probably make the trip to Normandy as long as we were in Paris.

Lily's grandfather was a private in the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division that landed on Juno Beach. My grandfather was a sergeant in the 1st Infantry Division that landed on Omaha Beach. Lily's grandfather survived D-Day, but died later in the war. Obviously, she never met him. My grandfather survived D-Day and the war and lived well into his 80s. I was closer to him than anyone else in my family.

Lily and I went to a few of the beaches and spent the day visiting monuments and memorials. Neither of us have any family buried there, but we went to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. It is a pretty nice place, for a cemetery.

The entire Normandy area is a beautiful seaside community. The death and destruction that took place on that day felt more than a little out of place. It was like looking at an amazing Hawaiian sunset in the harbor knowing that so many people died there all those years ago.

Paris Diary part 12

Day 14
24°, sunny.

Lily, our roommate and I all had the day off, so we went to Disneyland. That sounds like a crazy thing to do when you are in Paris, but you have to remember that Lily & I work at Disneyland. Seeing the other versions in other countries can be interesting to us. Plus, we can get in for free, and doing something free in Paris is always a good idea. Our roommate had never been to any Disneyland anywhere in the world, so we just had to take her. That's the law.

It was a great day to go. This was the warmest day so far, and one of the warmest days of the entire month. It was never especially cold, but this was April, with the hot days of summer still a few months away. Most of the schools started their spring breaks a week later, so the park was never crowded. Going to Disneyland, anywhere in the world, can be a chore when it is wall to wall people.

We never planned on going, and we had no idea what was going to be closed before we got there. That is always dangerous. If you don't check beforehand, you can go when Pirates of the Caribbean or the Haunted Mansion is closed. If those are closed, there is little point in even going, as far as I'm concerned. They don't have either ride in Hong Kong, for reasons no one has ever explained. Hong Kong has Mystic Manor, but that is absolutely nothing like the Haunted Mansion. I don't know why there is no Pirates of the Caribbean. Chinese people love all those Johnny Depp movies.

We got lucky. Space Mountain was the only good ride closed that day. We actually went in the middle of a six month refurbishment.

We did not care about the other closures – Dumbo the Flying Elephant, which just spins around in a circle, Les Mystères du Nautilus, which is like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Tokyo Disneyland and not even a ride, and Captain EO, which we thought had already closed years ago.

There is no Jungle Cruise in Paris, but they have Les Pirouettes du Vieux Moulin, an old Dutch windmill that used to be a ride but was closed a long time ago and is now little more than decoration, and Alice's Curious Labyrinth, a hedge maze that was not all that difficult to conquer. In all fairness, it was designed for children. The view from the Queen's Castle showed us just how empty Fantasyland was that day.

We ate lunch at Fuente del Oro Restaurante in Frontierland. This was a pretty good Mexican restaurant considering we were at a Disneyland in France. Dinner was at Annette's Diner, an “American” style 1950s restaurant at Disney Village, a shopping center just outside the park. The dinner was decent, but the dessert was outstanding. We all shared a giant sundae made with Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey and Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream, caramel and strawberry sauce, whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, peanuts and a cherry on top. Très magnifique.

After dinner, we saw the big fireworks show. The Paris show was mostly lights and water. It looked like a Las Vegas water fountain show. In Hong Kong, it is more fireworks than anything.

The highlights for me were Big Thunder Mountain, it's a small world, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, and of course, Pirates of the Caribbean and Phantom Manor. Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril should have been a great ride. It is certainly faster than most Disneyland rides and even has an inverted loop. I can't think of any other Disney ride that goes upside down. But the entire ride lasts less than 90 seconds. That's just too quick.

Big Thunder Mountain was fast and goes under water for a second. it's a small world had a lot less Chinese than the Hong Kong version, and looked like they put more effort into the design. Our roommate really got into Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, scoring in the Cosmic Commando range. Lily & I were in the Ranger First Class category. Pirates of the Caribbean was like the original California version without any of the Johnny Depp movie additions. The dialogue is in French, which makes sense in its own way, but at least it is not politically correct. Phantom Manor was just great. It had a specific storyline that runs through the entire ride and connects with the rest of the Frontierland story. It is also a lot scarier and more gruesome than any of the others. I can only imagine what they do for Halloween.

The only rides we completely skipped were Orbitron Machines Volantes, which is the Astro Orbiter ride that just spins around in circles, and Autopia, which is never all that exciting after you get old enough to know what it is really like to get stuck in traffic on the freeway.

Disneyland might not be on everyone's itinerary when they go to Paris, but it was a fun day, and walking down Main Street USA when it was all lit up at night was beautiful.

Paris Diary part 11

Day 13
21°, sunny.

I had the day off, so I wandered around Paris by myself. Sometimes that is the best way to see a city. You can just go wherever the day takes you without worrying about what anyone else wants to do. This happened to be a beautiful sunny day, so I got lucky there.

I went to Victor Hugo's house at Place des Vosges and the Holocaust Memorial. Victor Hugo's house looked like an expensive place to live and ultimately told me nothing about the man. I liked Rembrandt's house in Amsterdam better. The Holocaust Memorial was close enough to our apartment that we could have easily gone there every day, but it was the kind of place that is too depressing to go more than once.

I went to the Pompidou Center and checked out the Musée National d'Art Moderne and saw some Matisse, Magritte, Picasso, Chagall and Kandinsky, among others.

I spent a little time at Arènes de Lutèce, an ancient Roman amphitheater, and far more time at Jardin des Plantes, the botanical garden.

I made dinner for my roommates with our new groceries in our big kitchen. It was neither the best nor worst meal any of us had in Paris, but it was nice to eat in for a change. If you are in Paris for a week, you can eat out every night. If you are there for a month, you either make a few meals yourself or rob a bank.

Paris Diary part 10

Day 12
20°, sunny.

Lily & I spent most of the day near the Seine before going up to Montmartre later on. We worked at night, so we had most of the day off to explore.

The highlight of the day was riding scooters around the short and winding roads of Montmartre and driving a 1960s Citroën DS. Lily & I both have limited experience with driving scooters in Hong Kong, but I have driven more in Mainland China.

The Citroën DS was something else altogether. It looks different on the outside and feels different on the inside. The steering wheel was attached to the column at a central point just like any other car, but rather than have several spokes that branch out like most cars, this only had one arm connected to the wheel. It felt strange and looked like the steering wheel was floating in air.

But the most unusual thing about this car, in my opinion, was that the gear stick was mounted on the steering column. This may have been common practice at the time, but I have always driven cars with gear sticks between the seats. When coming to a stop, my right arm automatically reaches down, even when I drive an automatic. It took a while to get used to reaching up when I wanted to shift gears.

The difference between driving in France and driving in China is like the difference between eating a handmade chocolate truffle from a maître pâtissier and eating a lump of dog shit off the ground. Pardon my French.

I don't idolize France or French people. They have their own share of problems. But when it comes to following the rules of the road and common courtesy, the French are a million miles above the Chinese.