“Everybody leaves Paris for the Summer, nobody is there but tourists” almost everybody I talked to about going to Paris in the summer. First, a couple of caveats: we are not actually staying in the Paris of the guidebooks, we are one stop on the Metro – subway – past the ring road that defines the edge of the tourist Paris, and eight stops from the Bastille station. Every morning, we walk a couple of blocks, get on the Metro, and get off somewhere near an amazing monument or museum and every day, no matter what the hour, the Metro is crowded with a mix of tourists and locals (mostly locals). I was prepared to be intimidated by Paris, having been told that it is pretty formal, that nobody wears shorts, but the July Paris, this July Paris at least, is less formal than San Francisco (I brought a blazer and slacks that I’ve never even taken out of the suitcase). At first, I thought it was just the tasteless tourists that were wearing shorts, my mind got changed when  we were having dinner in a nice restaurant near the Pompidou Center and a local couple comes in with the guy in cargo shorts (we knew they were local because they kissed the owner on both cheeks).   At first, Paris seemed impossibly huge but, walking around, it seems to me that it is not so much huge as dense. I have no idea how many museums are in Paris but we hardly scratched the surface and didn’t see several that we were near the top of my list, like the Musee National Du Moyen Age that Linda Melton recommended or the Musee des Arts et Metiers or, or, or….

It may be impossible to get a lousy meal in Paris but a truly memorable meal is not that easy and certainly not very cheap.

 After French, the language we heard on the street the most was English which is certainly not a surprise, but it was a surprise that the third most heard language was Chinese. There are Chinese tourists everywhere and not just in groups, there are lots of Chinese families in Paris, I’m thinking they are the new Americans. 

One surprising thing to me – although it shouldn’t have been given the number of bombings – is the strong, militarized, police presence (usually one of them is carrying an assault rifle) 

Two last things, the Parisians are very serious about both cars – many of which we can’t get here – and graffiti.  

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A week in Lyon is probably not enough, but a week in Paris is crazy not enough.

Everybody I know loves Paris, it is impossible not to. Walking around it – her? – it feels like we are at the center of the kind of civilization we all want, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” and, I want to add, “Civility”. It seems to me that one of the things that give Paris that feel is its lousy housing. It is hot here, slightly under or slightly over 90° every day and most people live in small apartments in old, masonry, buildings, without air conditioning – or, even, much in cross-ventilation – so people live much of their private lives in public. If, at the end of the day, you want to wind down by reading a book, it is much more comfortable outside in a park or along the cooling Seine. If you want to get together with a friend for a glass of wine, it is more comfortable to meet at a local bistro where we are all jammed together.   I think this public living is a good part of what makes Paris so attractive; it promotes tolerance and community, equality and fraternity, a Civilized world.