Our paths crossed in Paris and over a café at Le Danton she brought me up to date on her life as a parisienne.

TG: When did you first come to Paris?

TV: Back in the 1950s….

TG: When and why did you come back (to stay)?

TV: I visited a couple of times or more, and then came back as a student in the early 60s. Eventually I got married here and family became home. I have lived in Paris most of my life and all my adult life, that makes a good number of decades.

TG: Where do you live (arrondissement?)

TV: In the 14th arrondissement

TG: Why?

TV: Initially we moved here because we happened to find a flat with a spectacular view over Parc Montsouris, but I would have chosen to live here in any case. It’s on the fringe of the Latin Quarter (where I lived earlier on), but is more conducive to family life, more leafy, very Parisian without the fluff, very low key, popular with intellectuals, writers, film makers and artists, the home of the likes of Georges Brassens and Agnès Varda, (Coluche was my neighbour), and on and on.

It has preserved an authentic neighbourhood feel, yet within minutes I’m in the Latin Quarter or Saint Germain. The Cité Universitaire and the proximity of academic institutions is a draw to the international community, but its members blend into the area.

They don’t act like tourists and you never get here the clutter of day trippers and school parties that spoil so many of the city’s neighbourhoods these days.

TG: What’s your favorite café?

TV: I don’t have a favourite café and my ‘hangouts’ have kept changing over the years. They also vary according to

my mood, not to mention the seasons of the year or whom I am meeting.

Some are cozy and suitable for wet or wintry days, some have wonderful terraces, some are delightful in the early morning, some are better for drinks in the afternoon.

One of my favourite places, but it’s not really a café, is La Closerie des Lilas, especially at night time, when their pianist adds to the place that extra bit of atmosphere. Plus, for someone like myself, who am immersed in the history of Paris at every step, La Closerie has unique literary and artistic associations as the birthplace of mythical Montparnasse.

I have described the history of the place in my book Around and About Paris, in the chapter on the 6th arrondissement, just as I have described the other historical and mythical cafés of Paris, on both banks of the river. Although the city’s first café was opened on the Left Bank, those on the Right Bank were equally important.

 TG: What’s your favorite starred restaurant?

TV: Again, there is more than one, but in stunning weather like today’s le Pré Catelan in the Bois de Boulogne springs to mind. It’s paradise on earth and their food is out of the world.  I imagine Proust dining there, or Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier in Gigi, for example.

I love the Bristol too, both indoors and outdoors – a gem of a hotel altogether, so atmospheric, refined and atmospheric. I wrote about it extensively in my book Romantic Paris. It had two Michelin stars at the time but I anticipated it would get a third one at some point. The same applies to  Le Grand Véfour.  I picked it for my Three Perfect Days in Paris story, which I wrote for United Airlines’s Hemispheres. It had two stars but was on its way up, which happened a few months later. Le Grand Véfour has meanwhile lost one of its stars, but it remains special to my heart.

They behaved beautifully towards my family on a special occasion — too long a story to expand on here. Most importantly, this was Colette’s ‘canteen’ and whenever I’ve been there, I made sure to dine at her table. It’s the corner one with the best view!

TG: What’s your favorite bistro du coin?

TV: A tough one, partly because, I am sad to say, many of those that used to be my favourites have deteriorated  in recent times. I am wary of recommending places these days, as I am not sure they will still be wonderful by the time my readers try them. When I wrote my book Romantic Paris, I spent a year and a half selecting and trimming down what seemed to me the city’s best gems.  One of them changed hands before the book even went into print!

TG: What’s your favorite market?

TV: This is somewhat an easier one, because  they don’t depend on a given owner and therefore evolve less rapidly (although they do evolve – rues Mouffetard, de Seine and Daguerre, for example, have lost a lot of their food stalls).  There are many wonderful markets in Paris and it’s not easy to establish a hierarchy. Perhaps with a gun to my head I would state the marché d’Aligre.  Le Baron Rouge wine bar, round the corner, still has an authentic feel to it.

TG: What’s your favorite park or garden?

TV: My own Parc Montsouris for sure, although it was better taken care of till a few years ago. In the name of democracy some of its lawns now look more like a wasteland. Like so much of Paris it’s become overcrowded. The best time to come here (as elsewhere) is in the first half of the morning.

After dusk, when it’s locked up for the night, its’ all mine (and the ducks’) from my balcony – truly magical. Of course I love the Luxembourg, le Jardin des Plantes, and the Tuileries (when the tourists are not there), but also the delightful Promenade Plantée and the Parc de Bercy in the 12th arrondissement, les Buttes Chaumont in the 19th, And if I am allowed to step just beyond the boundaries of Paris, then the Jardin Albert Kahn in Boulogne.

Since I have written and lecture about the gardens of Paris, it is almost impossible for me to choose a favourite.  All these questions are so difficult to answer when you are dealing with a unique city like Paris.  I love equally some of those I am not mentioning here.

TG: What’s your favorite time of the year?

TV: Let’s say that unlike the famous song I am not enamoured with Paris in the summer, but then, Paris was a different place when the song was written in the 1950s. I love Paris in early spring, in the autumn when we have an Indian summer and even in winter, especially at night.

TG: Talk about the genesis of Around and About Paris?

TV: It started out as therapy. I had a love-and-hate relationship with Paris early on. I was put off by Parisians whom I found surly, unfriendly and often downright rude and quarrelsome (not just to foreigners but also among themselves).

I didn’t like the pompousness, affectation and formality of the French, the rigidity of the bureaucracy and of the educational system.  And yet, I was mysteriously drawn to Paris and France, couldn’t leave it, couldn’t get it out of my system, and felt compelled to figure out my own contradictory feelings and the contradictions of the French. I wanted to understand, for example, how such creative, talented people could be so rigid in many ways, how such a freedom-seeking nation could give birth to fascism. Since Paris was created by the French, it is a reflection of the French. By exploring Paris I got a better understanding of the French.

Furthermore, thanks to the guiding of my savvy mother, I was brought up to be a traveller, taught by her how to observe the school of life, which Paris lends itself to amazingly. As a result, I was immersed in genuine Parisian life right away and shared my experience with visiting friends and family who appreciated my insight and encouraged me to write about it.

I had never intended or planned to write about it, but then, at some point it just happened. Paris got under my skin; breathing it became second nature; writing about it has become a lifetime commitment.

TG: How has Paris affected your life?

TV: Totally so and from every point of view. Much of who I am today was shaped by Paris, my way of thinking, my way of dressing, my way of eating, my tastes. That doesn’t mean to say I agree with everything around me.  Coming initially from a different culture I can also see them from the outside and perceive their failings (which most French people have difficulty with…).  I stand at a vantage point that allows me to embrace Paris both with love and exasperation.