Quotes About Paris

If any city was a study in noir et blanc—be it black-and-white photography, film, or literature—Paris was it. The French versions of all three techniques were born during the Age of Romanticism. So was the concept of the daredevil avenger-antihero of the noir crime novel genre, the so-called polar, a Parisian specialty I learned to love.

Today, after the Holocaust, it is seldom recalled how anti-Semitic the Europe of 1938 tended to be. When Ribbentrop journeyed to Paris with much pomp in December to sign the joint declaration first suggested by Hitler to François-Poncet, Bonnet begged him not to flood France with more German Jews as they already had enough of their own. ('In fact,' Ribbentrop informed Hitler, 'they are considering Madagascar for this purpose.')

those immovable traffic barriers, which Parisians have nicknamed bittes (pricks).

rond-point, the traffic circle that wraps around the very busy place de la Bastille.

One major reason I live in Paris is that I can visit Poilâne any time I want. Of all the boulangeries in Paris, Poilâne is certainly the most famous, and if I'm willing to brave the city sidewalks of the Left Bank, my reward is a rustic wedge of their world-famous pain au levain cut from the large loaves of sourdough lined up in the bakery,

The Bastille, where I live, is best known as the site where the infamous prison was seized and ransacked by the masses, igniting the French Revolution. Two hundred and twenty years later my doorstep is still the starting point for almost all the marches and strikes that happen in Paris. Fortunately it doesn't happen all that much. Just once a day or so.

I headed up to the twentieth arrondissement, to the highly regarded Brûlerie Jordain. (I needed little encouragement to go there, since it's conveniently located just next door to Boulangerie 140, whose brick oven turns out some of the best bread in Paris.)

But my favorite is in Provins, a small town about an hour outside of Paris. Once a week, the town center comes alive with tables and carts heaped with beautiful, locally grown fare.

So where is Pâtisserie Viennoise? To get to it, you'll need to brave the most hazardous street in Paris: la rue de l'Ecole de Médecine (which, fortunately, means there's a medical school nearby), in the fifth arrondissement.

the Marché d'Aligre, which I think is the most exciting market in Paris.

One of my favorite places to buy fish, called Pêche Paris, is at the marché d'Aligre.

11th arrondissement, one of the largest in Paris, spanning from Père Lachaise Cemetery to the Place de la République, as well as bordering the Marais. It's considered hip, or bobo; les bobos are the upscale Parisian version of a hipster—although none are knitting bonnets, like they do on the subways in Brooklyn;

like the 20th, perched high above Paris. The Parc de Belleville has an unparalleled view of Paris (second only to the view I had from my rooftop apartment), and I could have easily imagined living there amid its rough brick streets and the human scale of the architecture.

Blé Sucré, an excellent little bakery overlooking a gorgeous square in the twelfth arrondissement.

The Butte-aux-Cailles in the 13th is charming (and flat), and resembles a mini village far removed from a big city.

On the rue Rambuteau, a street that cuts through the Marais, is Pain de Sucre. It's not a drugstore, but arguably

My best efforts were some modern things that looked like very lousy Matisses. Thank God I had the sense to realize they were lousy, and leave Paris.

Keep good company - that is, go to the Louvre.

Whoever does not visit Paris regularly will never really be elegant.

My deep relations with fashion started in Paris in 1980s, when I was appointed head of The Fashion History course at French Esmod fashion school, the biggest and the best in those years in Paris.

There are only two places in the world where we can live happy: at home and in Paris.

Paris is the playwright's delight. New York is the home of directors. London, however, is the actor's city, the only one in the world. In London, actors are given their head.

For me, the sketching of dresses was about fantasy and dreams. In my little room at home, I felt that I was somewhere else. In Paris, for instance.

I'm very attached to Paris because I have a base there and am also recording there, but New York is home to me when I'm in the U.S., because it's nice to have a bed to go back to.