I final­ly got to expe­ri­ence a Paris night¹, walk­ing back to the hotel at 2:30 in the morn­ing. I thought Paris nev­er slept the way New York nev­er does, but the streets were most­ly emp­ty, save for a few cou­ples still drink­ing at the only bistros still open. It’s a won­der­ful inter­lude of calm amidst the din dur­ing the day.

The weath­er has turned love­ly, clos­er to 20°C and much less oppres­sive than the last week. The only prob­lem is that depend­ing on the way clouds move, it can alter­nate between warm and brisk quite quick­ly, so an extra hood­ie or sweater becomes a neces­si­ty. Today, the low tem­per­a­ture in Ottawa is high­er than the peak in Paris, and I’m glad to be here instead of there.

On the go. Paris is a fast city, and Parisian’s dif­fi­cult to cap­ture.

Continue read­ing “France, Day 8: Paris”…

1. Last time I stayed in Chartres and only made day trips to Paris. [↩]

We filmed one of the most amaz­ing sub­jects today. Our top­ics have been exact­ly the things I’d want to expe­ri­ence if I was in a new city. I’ve only been here a week, but it feels more like a month cause I’ve seen and done so much.

Paris is such a cos­mopoli­tan city. Every region of France has their own spe­cial­ty — whether it’s a cheese, wine, fruit, or pas­try — but Paris has them all. The more I get to know it, the more it reminds me of Hong Kong: dirty¹, busy, small, crowd­ed, old, loud, and absolute­ly charm­ing.

Apple chaus­son, a spe­cial­ty of the bak­ery, made with half a fresh apple baked inside instead of apple­sauce which is what most bak­eries do.

Continue read­ing “France, Day 7: Paris”…

1. There’s dog shit on almost every side­walk, and men both young and old have no prob­lem pulling their pants down and pee­ing on the side of the street. [↩]