These past few weeks have been absolutely crazy, and after A LOT of hassle, Elizabeth, Flea and I are heading out to dear old Paris for a pre-holiday stop. Flea has been in love with Paris since she was a little girl and every time we land in Charles de Gaulle, she looks just as excited as she did all those years ago, setting foot in the French capital for the first time.
Tip: first two songs to listen to as you proceed into the city are Sous Le Ciel De Paris by Juliette Gréco and La Mer by Charles Trenet. You might have heard both before, the first in An Education (Scherfig, 2009) where Carey Mulligan sings along to it in her room and the latter in The Dreamers (Bertolucci, 2003) when Eva Green fulfills a daring dare.
Naturally, any Edith Piaf song may create the husky, Sun-setting-on-the-Seine feeling -
A few personal favourites are La Foule, Milord and Hymne à L'Amour.
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Just arrived at the hotel, a clean and simple place in Les Halles - the centre of Paris, almost everything is walking distance and we like it that way. There are awful stories about what happens in the Métro de Paris. First thing's first, we're leaving all our luggage here and delicately plonking ourselves in the nearest café for a croissant or two and a cafe au lait. More details on where we ended up later.
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We got lucky! La-di-da, sexual meaning aside, even though it was quite late, Elizabeth, Flea and I found a lovely place to rest our tired bones and soak up the feel of Paris. The name of this haven is Le Sarah Bernard on Place du Châtelet Nr. 2 - It masquerades as a timeless, tasteful café when really it's an ode to the Divine Sarah. I'm not going to digress into her life story and her relationship with the theatre and cinema, since what I want to concentrate on is Paris itself, but visit it if you can. Tomorrow our little Bande à Part (yes, that's a reference to the 1964 Godard film) have a long day of Vintage Hunting ahead of us, and although we won't be dancing in cafés, we do need our sleep. Bonne Nuit!
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