By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net
In Woody’s wonderful movie* “Midnight in Paris,” an American writer is able to time travel each evening to the literary/artsy world of 1920’s Paris. If you never saw that film, most of you would probably like it. It has all the Woody ingredients including cinematography that causes you to fall in love with the city plus the usual lush and evocative scenes around town and the seductive musical soundtrack.
We went there a couple of times. You can stay in little hotels on the Rue Jacob (Left Bank) and walk along the Seine, stop at cafés like Deux Magots, drink tiny cups of espresso, and have croissants with homemade strawberry preserves. They’re not big on lunch over there, but you can get jambon (ham) with mustard on a baguette that you can munch on while watching the street theatre.
This is a classic Parisienne part of town with wonderful people watching,, restaurants, art galleries and shops.
Or you can walk to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa or the Musée D’Orsay to see Van Gogh. He was in a mental hospital for awhile. If he lived in America, he might have been wandering around Ocean Grove.
One evening, across the street from Deux Magots, on the corner, right in front of the old church of St. Germain-des-Pres, an American street band was playing music reminiscent of the 1920’s. The vocalist, a teenager who sounded like Billy Holiday, was singing, and the small crowd was dropping francs into a hat. She was Madeleine Peyroux. You can choose her on Pandora. I’ve played her and written about her before on Blogfinger.
MADELEINE PEYROUX:
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Scene from Midnight in Paris with Salvatore Dali, Louis Bunuel, Man Ray and Owen Wilson.
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