Yesterday we took the train from Angers into Paris, and I learned I’d been saying Angers wrong! It’s just “an-zhay,” like every other -er word in French! I had been pronouncing it like “angerre” and that is not it, and I wonder why I thought that! The train was EXCEEDINGLY pleasant and I read quietly the entire time, putting 100 pages behind me before we arrived 1h40m later. We were in a row with no fewer than three children under five and the quietness was still totally persistent, even with a slight delay as we pulled out of Massey.

Paris is huge, it’s aware of itself, it breathes. I think it’s good to contextualize it with other big cities, not necessarily – or at least not exclusively – as just The Big French Place, romantic and etc. I haven’t been back here in 25 years, about a month before 9/11. And just walking around yesterday, it was so familiar and yet, ugh, sorry, so much more American feeling. Jeans and leggings and sports gear, that’s all everywhere now. Oh and vapes. Oh my god there’s just vape everywhere. People hold their vapes like people hold their phones, just absolutely constantly, and I kinda hate it! Every time I see, or more likely, smell the saccharineness of vape exhale, I’m glad I quit smoking before that became de rigueur, before I might have been inclined to try it. God, I guess it’s better for you than tobacco.

But so much of Paris, of course, is the same. The sidewalk cafes – which is virtually all of them, because it’s what Paris does, and it’s what people expect, and that ouroboroses back into itself. That’s true of so much of any structurally reinforced set of a city’s expectations – what comes easiest is what will please people most easily. And it is pleasing! The cafe we sat in yesterday reports that they’re open until FIVE AM, and it was best beef tartare I think I’ve had since Boke Bowl closed in Portland, which you might not understand, was incredible. We’re covered from the gloomy, romantic rain, enjoying our world-class food and beverage, watching the water come down and the world go by in this very cool, very close-in arrondissement.

Though, I’m still sick. I can’t believe I’ve been dealing with this cold basically the entire time we’ve been here. It’s so mild! But it will get worse if I don’t actually take care of it. What I really would like to do is just casually drink a little too much for the remaining couple days we’re here but I really can’t, I’m just too busy! We’re walking around so much today, museums and shopping, so uh, I guess I’ll try to go slowly?? Bah