Things I love about Paris:

1. Men at 7pm walking home eating le croûton of the baguette.

2. The way the nightclubs are a bit lousy. It is not a city for going out to les boîtes (like Manhattan) but more a place of private parties and dinners.

3. The lack of proper standing showers. Though it irritates me at first, it forces me to relax and take a bath instead.

4. The way people take their time. Though this lack of efficiency also annoys me at first, it is a refreshing change from northeastern metropolises. My friend says it’s because a lot of things don’t work properly in France. For example, there will be a strike on the metros and it will be impossible to get a taxi, but it’s not a catastrophe since no one is in such a desperate rush.

5. The hundreds of small cinemas showing everything from Cary Grant marathons to Agnès Varda’s latest autobiographical documentary.

I saw a beautiful new American film near the Place de la Bastille, Two Lovers, which is a dark romantic story that takes place in Brighton Beach, the Russian neighborhood of Brooklyn that is lovely in its foreign and almost outdated atmosphere. Though the movie’s poster presents it as a trite romantic comedy with hunky Joaquin Phoenix and former Hollywood belle, Gwyneth Paltrow, it is an emotionally complex and delicately told story of a man suffering from bipolar disorder and caught in between two loves.

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