Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [19]
And if you want to try the language, don’t do it in the American Express office in Paris, for heaven’s sake. That poor guy may have spent the last six hours in that cage. Get out of Paris, off the beaten track, where the people don’t speak English, and where some of them will be delighted to chat with you. Try retired people: they’ve generally got the time, and therefore the patience, to let you practice.
If you need a subject, ask a question about food—or wine. Here’s a sure thing. Ask if the region produces good asparagus—or, if you’re near the coast, good oysters. These are questions so subtle, so complex, so rife with possibilities for a Frenchman to display a Cartesian clarity, that you will likely have a full hour in which you won’t have to do anything but listen. If you want to say “Ah, bon?” (“Oh, really?”) once in a while, go ahead. It’s thought to be encouraging.
It pleases me to remember that the story I used to tell most often in conversation with new French acquaintances was the one about the grocery store, the “essayez-moi” story. I suppose I was shrewd enough to see that it endeared me to them. It was the sort of moment that they, as French people, feared the most. It is hard to explain, but it got me over a bridge. It made me human, rather than another bossy, abrupt American. “Oh, le pauvre!” they would say—“Poor thing!”—laughing in genuine sympathy.
“I seem to have accidentally on purpose devised a tradition of celebrating my birthday (in February) in Paris. I’ve been there consistently over the course of the last ten years or so. Bon Appétit magazine is based in Los Angeles, and one of the best birthday trips was definitely along the lines of “You can take the girl out of Hollywood, but …” I managed to find out which brasserie was featured in Something’s Gotta Give, that delightful comedy with Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Keanu Reeves. Not only did my friend Stephanie Curtis track down the restaurant for us—Le Grand Colbert behind the Opéra—but she managed to reserve for Paul (Nagle, my life partner) and me the same table where Keaton and Reeves sat; there was a very discreet poster for the movie placed behind the banquette. That night we had all the classics—superb fresh oysters, perfectly cooked chateaubriand for two, pommes dauphine, profiteroles, Champagne, a great bottle of Margaux. I can’t think of a better place—or more delicious way—to mark the passing of another year.”
—Barbara Fairchild, food writer, editor, consultant, and former editor in chief, Bon Appétit
RECOMMENDED READING
EUROPE
For European history and a sense of the European community of which France is a member, all of these are excellent reads:
The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance, John Hale (Atheneum, 1994).
Europe: A History, Norman Davies (Oxford University Press, 1996).
Fifty Years of Europe: An Album, Jan Morris (Villard, 1997).
History of the Present: Essays, Sketches, and Dispatches from Europe in the 1990s, Timothy Garton Ash (Random House, 2000).
The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History (1967; revised 2002), The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History (1968; revised 1992), The Penguin Atlas of Modern History: to 1815 (1973; revised 1986), and The Penguin Atlas of Recent History: Europe Since 1815 (1982, revised 2003), all by Colin McEvedy and published by Penguin. The concept for each of these paperbacks is brilliant: a chronological sequence of maps that illustrate political and military developments, which in turn illustrate history via geography. Each volume is remarkably fascinating, and the four volumes as a whole present an enlightening read. Maps appear on the right-hand pages while one