Hello, everyone! Writers have done it from time immemorial, and the French have made an art of it. And what is that? Flanerie, the noble art of walking the city. Any great city will do, but for me Paris and New York are the lodestars of my life, the sources of inspiration for my blog Desperately Seeking Paris. Come, walk with me!
With a nip in the air, I grab a cab heading for Studio Daniel Libeskind on Rector Street, close by Ground Zero and across from Trinity Churchyard. This is the workplace of an architect who has created some of the most stunning cultural centers, museums and residential buildings in the world. The list goes on and on, ranging from “Reflections at Keppel Bay” in Singapore to “Dancing Towers” in Seoul, South Korea to “Chausseestrasse 43’ in Berlin, to mention only a few of my favorites. Not only does the list go on and on, but so does the view of lower New York and the harbor.
Music can be found everywhere in Paris, not least in the churches. Last spring, while researching a trip in June, I came across a listing for a concert featuring the music of the French composer, Maurice Ravel, that would take place at Sainte-Chapelle the week we would be in Paris. What better setting for a concert? After all, Sainte-Chapelle, on I’le de la Cité, is widely recognized as one of the great architectural treasures of the western world, a Medieval beauty. So, too, it's neighbor, Notre Dame.
Breaking news from Paris: Word on the street has it that visitors to the Louvre are twelve-deep behind the velvet rope, straining to get a view of the Mona Lisa. Only those with the sharpest elbows make it to the front for a ‘selfie’ with the engaging young woman with the enigmatic smile. Luckily, my companion and I have tickets, not for the Louvre, but for the museé d’Orsay, where the reserved line is moving smartly along.
There's no need to go looking for Paris today, not when Paris comes calling so early. An email arrived from the Grand Palais that magnificent Beaux Arts structure on rue Winston Churchill, a few steps off the Champs Elysées. They want me to book tickets now for their fall 2014 exhibits, not to wait. My first thought? Well, why not? My second, how did they find me?
Of the thirty-plus locations that Woody Allen used in the film "Midnight in Paris," there wasone I didn't recognize, a part of Paris I had never seen. Do you remember in the film when Gil goes to the 1920s party and meets Adrianna in a room with a carousel? The whole idea was so enchanting, but where could it be? Going on-line, I discovered Le Musee des Arts Forains, the Museum of Fairground Arts. Quickly, I added it to a list of places to visit the next time I saw Paris. After all, if it was good enough for Woody, it was good enough for me.
Somewhere around midnight in New York, as I'm watching "Midnight in Paris" on my iPad, it occurs to me that Woody Allen’s Paris and mine are mirror images on one another. That both of us are besotted with Paris! And mad about the historic monuments and magnificent squares -- the Eiffel Tower, the Arch of Triumph, the Place de la Concord -- that add so much to the beauty of the city. Indeed, would Paris be Paris without them? At that point, I climb out of bed to compare my photographs with the fleeting images in the film. Starting with that of the Eiffel Tower.
The canopy at Vosges Haut-Chocolat is one of the most beautiful on Madison Avenue. Each time I walk by, the elegant floral design and the striking purple and white color combination grab my attention. And then, all the lovely associations come to mind...
Welcome to the first edition of Desperately Seeking Paris, a blog that traces its accidental origins to a case of dry eye syndrome. Specifically, to the day my brilliant ophthalmologist, looking at a pair of eyes as dry as toast and red as beefsteak tomatoes, said: "You’re spending too much time staring at the computer screen. Get out and get some air. Don’t forget your sunglasses."
