Minuit à Paris

Paris is a magical city--yesterday, today, and toujours (too-joor: always), but especially yesterday.  I honestly figured  before moving here that I'd be spending my evenings rubbing elbows with Edith Piaf and F. Scott Fitzgerald--pre-fame--while we sipped absinthe and dined on escargot (s-kar-go: snails) before making a minuit (min-wee: midnight) stroll along the Seine.  

 So, you can imagine my utter shock at finding out that these famous chanteuses (shan-toos: female singers) and écrivains (ek-ree-von: writers) of the days of yore have long since died, leaving in their wake over priced croissants and watered down cocktails at the uber-touristy Latin Quarter joints.  Like the protagonist in Woody Allen's adorable newest film, I too wish for a older, more down-home and grungy Paris filled with the intellectual elite.  However, unlike Woody Allen's character, I would never be invited into the inner-circle of these geniuses.  I lack a certain je ne sais quoi (juh nuh say qwa: I don't know what)--or, you know, talent.

Unfortunately I still haven't stumbled across the magical time portal that brings me to the Paris of my choosing, but luckily there's still something magical about roaming the streets of Paris in the throes of nightfall even in the year 2011, imagining where it was that the people who made this city famous once puked their drunken guts out, passed-out, or simply engaged in other debauchery.  When the city is dark and the streets are more or less empty, it's easier to imagine this cultural capital in its heyday--whether that be la belle époque (lah bell ep-ok) or when Hemingway was practicing his alcoholism here.

 Sure, I may not be making history here like the many celebrities who have claimed Paris as their stomping ground, but it's enough for me to know that I've had the privilege of soaking up the leftovers.  Plus, David Sedaris (one of my personal favorite authors) lives here, and that means Paris must be in the process of a whole new age: that of the sassy, humorist writer with a penchant for being a lovable asshole.