PARIS IS A CITY OF THE NORTH, LOCATED ALONG THE SAME 49TH PARALLEL that forms the U.S.-Canada border. That’s why, in mid-July, you still need your sunglasses at 9 p.m. and twilight waits until 10:30 to conquer the day. During their warm and blessed 10-hour summer afternoons, couples and families cluster in the parks and along the Seine’s newly improvised two-mile beachfront. Maybe because this is (according to the newspapers) a stay-home summer for Parisians, they’re all out there filling in for the tourists that the planet’s most toured city is a bit short on this year. The Tuilleries of Marie Antoinette have become the city’s central Coney Island; the bumper cars and the merry-go-round are packed with local children with amazingly extended bedtimes, running past 11 p.m.But when dusk finally does set in, the fun retreats to the neighborhoods where things keep on happening under the lights for which the city is famous. Where people can’t seem either to sleep or to get enough of one another.
Source: News From Up North | L.A. Weekly