When you daydream about Paris — and you do daydream about Paris, right?! — whatever sparkling, romantic images you conjure are probably not too far off the mark. It is known, after all, as the City of Lights and the City of Love.
The Eiffel Tower can be seen from almost everywhere and is a constant reminder that you are in Paris. The streets are lined with cafés, the tables and chairs arranged so you can sit next to your companions and look out on the people passing by. The smell of baguettes wafts in the streets in the early morning. And when the sun gets lower in the sky, burnishing the buildings with its slow, every café is filled with people drinking wine, smoking cigarettes, and talking, while their hands gesture in the air to make a point. In many ways, it is just like the movies.
But Paris is home to more than 2 million people, and they’re not all chic women in little black dresses. Paris is a modern, thriving city with a rich, multicultural population — and a cultural scene that pushes forward — in music, art, literature, technology, cuisine — as it nods at its illustrious past.
Paris is a world-class and world-influencing setting for all kinds of stories about everyday heroes and larger-than-life figures.
In this episode, we talk about how Paris lives up to its dreamy reputation. Then we discuss the books that transported us there: an insightful memoir about one lively (and typically Parisian) street, an illustrated novel about the magic of everyday life, a fictional biography of Madame Tussaud, a modern crime novel with a snappy heroine, and a confection of a story that centers around a very special bottle of wine. (show notes / transcript)
(Looking for France recommendations beyond Paris? Listen to our podcast episode France: Mostly Here for the Butter.)
Top image courtesy of Nil Castellví/Unsplash.
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