Every Place In Paris I Mention 'In I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself'
Liberty, Equality, and some other pleasurable things
Joyeux 14 Juillet!
This summer is a big one in France, in ways anticipated, and not. Last week the French held a snap election, and managed to stave off the far right (for now). In ten days the Olympics start. People are obviously always visiting Paris, but in the past few months it feels like I’ve been sending out my Paris recs every week or so (and also pointing people to Lindsey Tramuta, naturellement) and my instagram is continually flooded by photos of friends who are visiting.
Ever since I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself published, and even before that from friends who had galleys, people have been asking me to confirm some of the locations I mention in the book. They also ask me if Fruitz is real. It is real. And has apparently been making a comeback in the Paris metro of late, I’m told.
I have complicated feelings about travel guides, and increasingly about travel in general. (This Olivia Laing interview has really stuck with me: “Perhaps what we need to be offering is a sense of why it’s richer to stay in one place, why it’s richer to be able to communicate from the place you’re in.”) New York City has its fair share of tourists, obviously, but the city is so enormous it can absorb visitors without feeling as though the city has been lost to them. This is not the case in many places, as the recent water gun protests in Barcelona demonstrate. I was in Rome last summer for a week and couldn’t shake the sense the city was performing being Rome for the enjoyment of tourists.
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Of course, I’m also a person who’s rerouted every road trip, sometimes hundreds of miles, in order to visit the locations that are mentioned in my favorite books (and then made a huge podcast about it) so I get it. And also, the interest is very flattering!
With all that in mind here’s a list of every place in Paris I mention in the book. Vive la France.
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