Paris is like pornography. You respond even if you don't want to. You turn a corner andsee a vista, and your imagination bolts away. Suddenly you are thinking about what it wouldbe like to live in Paris, and then you think about all the lives you have not lived. Sometimes,though, when you are lucky, you only think about how many pleasures the day ahead holds.Then, you feel privileged.
The lobby of the hotel is decorated in red and gold. It gives off a whiff of 19th-centurydecadence. Probably as much as any hotel in Paris, this hotel is sexy. I was standing facingthe revolving doors and the driveway beyond. A car with a woman in the back seat - awoman in a short skirt and black - leather jacket - pulled up before the hotel door. Sheswung off and she was wearing high heels. Normally, my mind would have leaped andimagined a story for this woman. Now it didn't I stood there and told myself. Cheer up.Vou're in Paris