D'une petite cave quelque part au sud de Paris

You too can travel low cost

Faunus Steps Out, Jardin Luxembourg, Paris.

(n.b., December : An end-of-the-year pause for the Paris Desk to refresh and retool the machine, and come back swinging in ’21, with new accents and angles. As always, happy to hear from you with ideas and critiques.)

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They told me to be modest with the first one, so I wrote, ‘Welcome to the only regular English-language reporting from Europe that matters. Ten years simmering in and sauntering around the capitals. Reports and observations from Europe. Open for queries all kinds.’ And now I find I cannot delete it. On verra. We’ll see if I hit the target. All I have to do is get these nails out of my wrist…

I notice that the cash-fountain Atlantic profiles one of their writers as “living in the banlieu” (the suburbs, rough or smooth) as if this guaranteed authenticity. All right, let me claim some of that, too. What bosh, as the Brits used to say, before the Boris-bosh rose up past their eyelids and became reality-as-such. Reporting from France for publications in the States seems to be a job for people who don’t get out very often. Let’s see if we can change that a little.

In the meantime, if you find anything in these pages, badger your friends to look, too. Latest research shows that reading lowers sugar consumption. That’s supposed to be good, isn’t it ? The button is here : tell your friends! Now get off the computer and have a look at the world. I’m going for a smoke and a trip to the boulangerie. Small mercies and all that jazz, etc.