Read Perec, then see Paris differently

A bus goes by, someone crosses the square, pigeons take flight. In An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, Georges Perec turns these small events into the subject of a book. A read to tuck into your suitcase for those mornings when you want to linger a little longer at the hotel.
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Three days in Place Saint-Sulpice

In October 1974, Georges Perec spent three days observing the Place Saint-Sulpice. He noted the comings and goings, the buses, the shifts in light. Reading these lists, you find yourself watching for the return of a bus as if waiting for a character to reappear in a novel. Sometimes, all it takes is for something to happen again for you to start really looking at it.
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A few pages before heading out

It’s a book you can open for a few pages, leave on the nightstand, and pick up again in the evening. In a room at Hôtel Les Deux Gares, it even offers an idea for the rest of your day. When you head out, pick a street corner or a café terrace table and watch for what repeats. The sound of a suitcase on the sidewalk. A coffee being brought to the next table. Someone stopping to check their directions.

Between Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est, you see plenty of people who have somewhere to be. After a few pages of Perec, you’ll gladly take five minutes to watch them go.