The B&B La Maison Montparnasse is off the tourist hotspots, in the 14th arrondissement. The Metro was cheap, at EUR1.20. But I had to climb up and down lots of steps to transfer between lines. And it's a hot 20 degrees! The trains are also rickety, and made me think that in time to come these posh Europeans will travel to third world countries to admire their uber-modern infrastructure. Think Shanghai and their maglev trains for starters.
I got hold off the Paris by Arrondissement maps, very handy. The hotel lives up to its tripadvisor reputation. I wandered about the neighbourhood, well this is the 'real' Paris then. Plenty of quaint pattisseries/ boulangeries (don't know the diff), grocery stores and Africans.
Despite the numerous French joints which look authentic enough, I was craving Asian as usual. And there were quite a few around. I had to choose a mistake. Wako, worse Japanese food I'd had in a long time. There was cheese in the sushi! And cabbage.
Anyway, I had to walk off a full belly. I gravitate to bookshops naturally, especially since I was on the lookout for a poetry book for Leona. I love the bookshops in Europe. They are often a labour of love. This particular one has an interesting array of coffee-table books displayed, one on oceans with a spectacular cover, one with Federico Fellini and another on luxury trains.
Unexpectedly a lady appears next to me and started talking to me in French. English s'il vous plait. She barely manages but wanted to know what I was thinking when I was looking at the books, she was intrigued to see me looking at the display. She really made me pause. What was I thinking indeed? Well in quite rapid succession I had wondered if the ocean book was pictorial and hence there was no need to understand it in French, I was puzzled if Fellini was also an artist as the book cover looked like it could have been drawn by him and finally I was just ooh-ing at the interiors of said luxury train.
This lady really was very pleasant, quite unlike the snooty Parisian. Eventually, the questions about where I came from (at least she didn't immediately assumed I was mainland Chinese), where I worked and what I studied are posed. She thinks I work as an economist and can't seem to understand 'audit'. Nevermind, I like being thought off as an economist :)
She says she knows the owner of the book store and once again said she just wanted to know what I was thinking. I said she was curious but she corrected me, saying that in order to have a better future, there should be more interaction between people. I wish we could communicate better so I could understand more what she was trying to convey. I suppose I got the gist, and it was a nice encounter with a stranger.
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