July 28, 2000

Americans in Paris

Many Americans have dreamy and romantic ideas about Paris, notions which probably trace back to the 1920s vision of Paris created by the expatriate Americans there. But what's it actually like in Paris if you're an American, without rose-colored glasses?

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Transcript

Wiktor Dabkowski/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION.

Prologue

Host Ira Glass talks with writer David Sedaris at the Louvre in Paris. David's never set foot inside, though he lives just a few minutes away. He says most people go to the Louvre because they think they should. Where he would take them if they wanted to see the city where he's lived for two years is very different. (6 minutes).

By

Ira Glass

Act One

Him Talk Pretty Three Days

David Sedaris takes Ira on a tour of his favorite spots in Paris. He moved to France with no special feelings for the place. His head wasn't full of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein and Sartre and Proust; he was a blank slate. And so the places he's found as his favorites tend to be places where the people aren't mean to him when he speaks French, or places where very unusual and fascinating objects are sold, or place that are unlike anywhere in the States. (27 minutes).

David describes his struggle with daily life in France in his book Me Talk Pretty One Day.

By

Ira Glass

Song:

“Si Tu Dois Partir” by Lloyd Cole (radio)

Act Two

Ca Vie Americaine

We hear from two Americans who live in Paris about what it is that draws the people who love France so much. (6 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Song:

“Comment Allez-Vous?” by Blossom Dearie (radio)

Act Three

Notes From A Native Daughter

Is Paris still the racially tolerant place that Richard Wright and James Baldwin discovered in the 1940s? Janet McDonald talks about whether African-Americans are still welcomed in Paris so warmly, even after a half century of African migration to the city. Also: Why it's sometimes better for her to put on a bad American accent. Janet wrote the book Project Girl. (16 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Song:

“Ni**as in Paris” by Jay Z & Kanye West (radio) & “Au Revoir Paris” by Andy Williams (radio) & “Comment Allez-Vous?” by Blossom Dearie (podcast)

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