“ Historically, the French have had a romantic attachment to their bikes. Though the first functioning two-wheeler is thought to have been invented by a German in 1817, it was the French who popularized… Elaine Sciolino
“ An American writer who had come to visit France . . . asked quite naturally what it was that had kept me here so long. . . It was useless to answer him in words. I suggested instead that we take a str… Elaine Sciolino
“ Consuming alcohol in public is allowed in France, which means drinkers overflow onto the sidewalk, especially on the Montmartre stretch. But it rarely gets out of control. Elaine Sciolino
“ He called him (it was always a man) a flâneur. The crowd is his habitat, as air is for the bird or water for the fish, he wrote. His passion and his profession is to wed the crowd. . . . To be away fr… Elaine Sciolino
“ Paris . . . is loath to surrender itself to people who are in a hurry; it belongs to the dreamers, to those capable of amusing themselves in its streets without regard to time when urgent business req… Elaine Sciolino
