I just watched "Midnight in Paris" with a friend. Always fun to watch an english movie in Paris. You get to see the subtitles in exactly the wrong places.
I know it's a cliché to actually watch one of these movies and fall in love with the city, but I did. In the sense that it reminded just why I like calling it my home. I wanted an image to capture how I feel about Paris. I think the movie poster is pretty spot on.
Yes, this is what Paris is to me. A city of shadows and light, all at night. With a liberal sprinkling of blonde people. The movie in itself, might not be the best, but it resonated with me.
I've spent what seems like most of my time in Paris, walking the streets alone. At night. I might not have met and fallen in love with a mysterious french girl, but I've had my modest share of excitement. I've met strangers, some mysterious, some french, and some girls. I've sat in parisian bars and cafés, and been so very parisian, that I sometimes snap out of it all, look around, and wonder if all this is really happening. And how it seems worlds away from my books and boring life while the sun is up. Or even from the first 23 years of my life.
Now that I think about it, it was the perfect way to spend my birthday.
The problem is that I don't notice how exciting or exotic my life is, until i've moved on further down the road and am squinting back through binoculars.
Moving on.
As always, when inspiration strikes, the words dry up. But I sit here, as does my mental image of Hemingway, sipping absinthe, and looking out at a city of lights. Or is it life? Not too bright, not too dim. Just right.
Paris during the day... feels unreal. It's unreal at night too, but at least it seems a more appropriate unreality. More in-character.
You'd think that there'd be thousands of people roaming the streets of Paris after midnight, wouldn't you? After all these movies and books about it? And yet 500 meters from the busiest spots, it's as quiet as you could wish for it to be.
How glad I am that the tourists stick to the tourist spots.
And how much gladder I am to be able to say tourist with just a touch of a sneer.
I know it's a cliché to actually watch one of these movies and fall in love with the city, but I did. In the sense that it reminded just why I like calling it my home. I wanted an image to capture how I feel about Paris. I think the movie poster is pretty spot on.
Yes, this is what Paris is to me. A city of shadows and light, all at night. With a liberal sprinkling of blonde people. The movie in itself, might not be the best, but it resonated with me.
I've spent what seems like most of my time in Paris, walking the streets alone. At night. I might not have met and fallen in love with a mysterious french girl, but I've had my modest share of excitement. I've met strangers, some mysterious, some french, and some girls. I've sat in parisian bars and cafés, and been so very parisian, that I sometimes snap out of it all, look around, and wonder if all this is really happening. And how it seems worlds away from my books and boring life while the sun is up. Or even from the first 23 years of my life.
Now that I think about it, it was the perfect way to spend my birthday.
The problem is that I don't notice how exciting or exotic my life is, until i've moved on further down the road and am squinting back through binoculars.
Moving on.
As always, when inspiration strikes, the words dry up. But I sit here, as does my mental image of Hemingway, sipping absinthe, and looking out at a city of lights. Or is it life? Not too bright, not too dim. Just right.
Paris during the day... feels unreal. It's unreal at night too, but at least it seems a more appropriate unreality. More in-character.
You'd think that there'd be thousands of people roaming the streets of Paris after midnight, wouldn't you? After all these movies and books about it? And yet 500 meters from the busiest spots, it's as quiet as you could wish for it to be.
How glad I am that the tourists stick to the tourist spots.
And how much gladder I am to be able to say tourist with just a touch of a sneer.
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