“After Midnight, Paris Style”

The more I think about it, the more I realize how we really came to choose our apartment solely on the view. We are bathed in sunlight during the day ( a rare thing for a Parisian apartment) – and on both sides! That northern-lit view really is incredible. Unfortunately – and due to dinner guest practicality – my studio is on the other side – facing south. If we were looking the opposite way – towards the south – from our kitchen – we’d have the ultimate view of the Eiffel Tower. But our living room overlooks (toward the north) a slow ascending hillside on the Right Bank – of buildings which include several tall church spires, the Museum of Modern Art, Trocadero, and the Passerelle Debilly which is a pedestrian bridge lit up every night as if to bring in the New Year or some late summer county fair.

Some nights, after dinner, when it is just getting dark (10:30 or so in the summer,) I like to turn off all of the lights in “the media room” (for the French, it is a very large dining room; for you Florida crackers, call it a “beeg” TV room.) I put on some great music and pour a Cognac, Armagnac, or Calvados; open the large, floor-to-ceiling double windows and pull a chair up to catch the incoming breeze. Paris is just calming down and it is so peaceful. There is that incredible purple-indigo Parisian sky that seems almost like an artificial background for a Hollywood set. But you know it is real. Any painter who witnesses it wonders with WHAT color he would interpret it…

Everything is quiet except for choice of music and the radial spotlight on top of the Eiffel Tower that reappears every 30 seconds or so and seems to go with the beat of the music.

Gone are the horn honks, the police sirens, and the ambulance sirens (which initially and ironically sound like, “Happy Birthday to Y…” and abruptly shut off.) At this magical hour, it’s incredibly peaceful and you realize what a great reflective time it is…

Big, billowy, nighttime clouds zoom by the window – and even if it’s an overcast night, the mood is still there. For me, clear nights are usually artistic reflection while foggy nights invite imagination and thoughts of Parisian history. The eerie lights of the river’s tour boats passing by cast strange, double-imaged, animated shadows through the trees onto the apartments across the Seine. You can watch a small path of pure daylight work its way like a slithering snake through the dark trees and buildings as if a river didn’t even exist…

The city becomes quieter and quieter. When you start to feel like Beethoven, it’s time to go to bed.

But Paris is most magnificent when the early morning light first strikes the building facades. Catching that is almost elusive as seeing the green flash during a Gulf Coast sunset.

Maybe one night I’ll put on Debussy, Satie, Miles Davis, The Moody Blues, Bob Dylan – and – the Nine Symphonies for a finale – and stay up late…