Paris Pastiche
Photos by Marla Norman, Publisher
Any attempt to say something novel about Paris is futile. Over the centuries, volumes have been written about this loveliest of cities. Literary geniuses, journalistic hacks, love-sick tourists — all inspired to put pen to paper — in an effort to capture just a single expressive bit of joie de vie….an effortlessly chic phrase….a crumb from the moveable feast…
Here are a few choice samples — love notes, if you will — in praise of Paris.
I.M. Pei Glass Pyramid and Louvre
“You can’t escape the past in Paris, and yet what’s so wonderful about it is that the past and present intermingle so intangibly that it doesn’t seem to burden.”
Allen Ginsberg
“Paris is always a good idea.”
Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina Fairchild in Sabrina
View of the Eiffel Tower from the Parthenon.
Le Grand Véfour – gourmet rendez-vous for more than 200 hundred years.
“Living in Paris is a crash course in chic.”
Rebecca Romijin
Le Quinze Vins, 1 rue Dante
“I love Paris in the summer, when it sizzles.”
Cole Porter
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur at the summit of Montmartre.
“If you can live in Paris, maybe you should.”
Alan Furst
Pont Neuf – the oldest bridge in Paris
“Good talkers are only found in Paris.”
Francois Villon
“Secrets travel fast in Paris.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
Exceedingly expressive waiter in the Latin Quarter
“I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you they do it so nicely.”
Josephine Baker
Pont Neuf and Notre Dame
“Paris… is a world meant for the walker alone, for only the pace of strolling can take in all the rich (if muted) detail.”
Edmund White
Tuileries Garden
“When spring comes to Paris the humblest mortal alive must feel that he dwells in paradise.”
Henry Miller
Irresistible – Tarte aux Pommes
“Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris.”
Paula McLain from The Paris Wife
Musée Rodin
“Paris is a seminar, a post-graduate course in everything.”
James Thurber
Café Delmas, 2 Place de la Contrescarpe.
“To err is human. To loaf is Parisian.”
Victor Hugo
Hall of Mirrors at Palais Garnier
“I love her tenderly, even to her warts and her spots. I am French only by this great city: the glory of France, and one of the noblest ornaments of the world.”
Michel de Montaigne
“It’s Paris. You don’t come here for the weather.”
Adrian Leeds
On the Seine, across from Notre Dame.
“A final reminder. Whenever you are in Paris at twilight in the early summer, return to the Seine and watch the evening sky close slowly on a last strand of daylight fading quietly, like a sigh.”
Kate Simon
TCO Publisher, Marla Norman enjoys Paris in any season, rain or shine.
