Sing-Along

Paris is not my favourite city; but like the middle child of three, who is always the third child (not the oldest, nor the youngest, but the middle), it is special. Like Rome is special, or more recently, Rawabi.

Someone dear to me is in Paris for a break (though I know she brought work with her). According to Parisians, who traditionally vacate in August, it is not the best time to be there. But most Parisians I have met -- the "cultured" ones, the ones who say August is a bad time to be in Paris -- make terrible strangers, so maybe it's moot.

My dear loves French things like Paris, the language, its writers, scholars and artists, and I know she will be happy there. So I wish her well, and look forward to what she might bring back with her. Stories, of course, but also those little things that only she can find in that city's many parks and markets.


Free Man in Paris (1973)
(Joni Mitchell)

The way I see it he said 
You just can't win it
Everybody's in it for their own gain 
You can't please 'em all 
There's always somebody calling you down 
I do my best 
And I do good business 
There's a lot of people asking for my time 
They're trying to get ahead 
They're trying to be a good friend of mine

I was a free man in Paris 
I felt unfettered and alive 
There was nobody calling me up for favors 
And no one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow 
But for the work I've taken on 
Stoking the star maker machinery 
Behind the popular song

I deal in dreamers 
And telephone screamers 
Lately I wonder what I do it for 
If l had my way 
I'd just walk through those doors
And wander 
Down the Champs Elysées *
Going cafe to cabaret 
Thinking how I'll feel when I find 
That very good friend of mine

I was a free man in Paris 
I felt unfettered and alive 
Nobody was calling me up for favors 
No one's future to decide 
You know I'd go back there tomorrow 
But for the work I've taken on 
Stoking the star maker machinery 
Behind the popular song