BONJOUR PARIS! by Julie Sesnovich

Two weeks ago, I finally realized my dream of going to Paris! In addition to going as a tourist, however, I was also going as a cinephile. Below are some of the relevant highlights.

For much less than the cost of a plane ticket, you can take a mini cinematic journey to France at the Aero on September 23 to see Grand Central and Domestic Life as part of its Young French Cinema series, and check out Paris by way of Hollywood soundstages at the Egyptian's showing of the 1926 film La Boheme on September 26.

  

I hit up the year-old Foundation Jerome Seydoux-Pathe building to see the trippy Soviet silent Aelita, Queen of Mars and peek at some of their artifacts from the early days of cinema. Jerome Seydoux is the current owner of Pathe (a film conglomerate dating back to 1896), as well as the grandfather of Lea Seydoux (star of Grand Central)!



Lumiere brothers cameras



1910s newsreels

Naturally, a trip to the Louvre was in order - though I didn't sprint through it like the characters of Band of Outsiders.

I dined at Polidor, a restaurant dating back to 1845 where Ernest Hemingway hung out - both in real life, and in Midnight in Paris.

And I crossed over the Alexandre III bridge like at the end of Midnight in Paris (no rain for me though).



In Montmartre, I made the pilgrimage to the Cafe de 2 Moulins, Amelie's place of employment. (The inside is now adorned with pictures of her).



I also hit up the Canal St. Martin, where Amelie liked to skip stones.


I visited Shakespeare & Company, the bookstore where Celine and Jesse reunite at the beginning of Before Sunset.

And like Celine and Jesse, I strolled along the Promenade Plantee - a former elevated railway converted to a pedestrian walkway.

But for everything unique about Paris, Saturday night still means Rocky Horror!