I Want to Be a Tourist in Paris

I’ve never been much of a traveler. I understand the desire to see foreign locations and to lay eyes on things you’ve only ever imagined or experienced at the distance of media. That said, I’ve just never had the desire to travel. I don’t like planes, I don’t like being out of my comfort zone, and being a single man in my 40’s, I have no one who could push me to get outside of myself and find joy in the experience of traveling by having someone to share the experience with.

However, because of COVID-19 and having spent the past 10 months, give or take, in complete isolation due to my status as a high risk patient, I’ve started to come around on the idea of travel. Spending so much time staring at the same several walls, when not staring at some screen directly in my view, has begun to shift my perspective on the notion of travel. Thus, when it is once again safe to travel, I have few ideas in mind. One in particular combines my newfound inkling to travel with my lifelong love of the movies.

I want to be a tourist in Paris.

I can’t begin to tell you the number of movies I have seen in my more than 20 years as a film critic that have taken me to Paris. Movies have been my window on the City of Lights for years and the romantic nature of Hollywood’s love of Paris has undoubtedly rubbed off on me. I’ve never been to the cafes and restaurants or seen the Champs-Elysees for myself, but via Hollywood, each location has become a familiar and welcome sight.

One of my favorite depictions of Paris is unfortunately, slightly problematic these days as it is the vision of Woody Allen. The mere mention of his name tends to drive many to shut down a conversation, and rightfully so. That said, his gorgeous vision of Midnight in Paris, even a decade later, tickles my imagination. Midnight in Paris captures the magic of Paris in a way that speaks to me. Long walks along the Seine at night, cobblestone streets, and cafes, all teeming with the historic significance of the romance created there by artists, musicians and filmmakers alike over centuries and decades.

Midnight in Paris brings that history to life by having the protagonist, played by Owen Wilson, magically transported to the Paris of the turn of the 20th century, a time when artists flourished and the Paris nightlife was alive and vibrant in ways that aren’t even possible today. A place such as the Moulin Rouge is long gone and yet the magic of its presence lingers in the imagination enough that just being in Paris may bring the feelings to life again.

And then, of course, there are the famous film locations of Paris, numerous spots where iconic moments of the French New Wave came to life. Whether these places are still there or not, I would like to search for the places where Jean Luc Godard made Breathless or where Jean Pierre Melville made Bob Le Flambeur, one of the movies that made the French New Wave of the 60’s possible and one of the movies that made me fall in love with movies.

I just want to sit at a cafe near these places and let the history built by my own memories of these films wash over me. Then, if I want a more tangible experience, I can take the advice of famed artist and director, Agnes Varda and visit the outdoor market at Rue Mouffetard, a place she helped immortalize with her 1958 experimental documentary called L'Opera Mouffe. Agnes Varda’s film, art and photography could, on its own, provide a map of Paris just perfect enough for a trip.

So, when COVID-19 is finally under control, a vaccine is readily available, and the world has begun to return to normal, I will be lured from my suburban cave and boarding a plane, which I will hate, to Paris where I will let my imagination lead the way to adventures I’ve only ever seen on the big screen, in the country that has taken hold in my imagination for so many years. I will, in real life for once, become a tourist in Paris.