Stories du Moment
Back from Japan, 2 Days in Paris, a 101 Guide, and ex-Presidential theatrics
I was hanging by a fraying thread right up to boarding a night flight to Tokyo on Nov 24. You know that feeling of all-encompassing overwhelm before a vacation? Where despite knowing better, and despite earnest attempts to organize work so that it gradually slows in the run-up to departure, you find yourself crushed by a pile-on— deadlines; unexpected rounds of feedback on a project; a cat with a mysterious bald spot that appeared a week before leaving; and the return of tingling in your foot, a warning signal that the nerve is compressed, you’re doing too much, and you better get it together fast. Replace any of the above with your individual sources of stress; the result is the same. Getting on that plane means it stops. You leave accepting that you’ve done your best and what will be will be.
From the moment my tush felt the warm, soft embrace of the Toto toilet at the Haneda airport bathroom by baggage claim, I knew the stress spiral was worth it.
Wonder kicked in, along with the new-place adrenaline, and set me on a two-week course of absolute awe and renewal. By day two in Tokyo, my husband and I marveled at the quiet. Cars zipped by, cyclists and delivery vehicles too, but there was stillness. There wasn’t so much an absence of sound as of noise. People moved about without friction. Respect for space and for others was a non-negotiable. Runners whispered in conversation as they jogged past me in the Kyoko Gaien National Garden. It was a wide open expanse; they probably wouldn’t have bothered anyone by speaking at a normal volume, but their voices were muffled. Others first.
As the days edged on, the feeling of weightlessness only heightened. Was my cortisol level recalibrating? Was this what it felt like to navigate a city where citizens yield space and make no demands for attention? Without realizing it, I stopped bracing. Moving about Tokyo and Kyoto simply required less vigilance. There were no micro conflicts, no one asserting their dominance. Research on awe and stress suggests that environments that draw attention outward and away from the self can soften stress responses. I can confirm! I had never felt so light!
“They lack main character energy,” said my friend Brandon Presser, who spends several months of each year reporting in the country, of the Japanese. That restraint is admittedly pushed to unhealthy extremes. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down, as the saying goes. Little room is left for individuality. But as a contrast to what many of us experience daily in the West, where individuals and entire nations jostle for center stage, the effect was downright revelatory.
Perhaps the healthy, functional nation-state lies somewhere between France and Japan—one that blends the values of each with a measure of critical thinking and the freedom to dissent. If Parisians, especially, could internalize that pushing, shoving, littering, and sparring at the slightest provocation only amplify their own stress, we might edge closer to the nearly frictionless flânerie and commuting that Tokyoites seem to master so effortlessly. In the end, it comes down to collective responsibility and care, something a society can choose to make possible.
I’m still processing the trip (and struggling to get back on track— so groggy!) but wow, what an experience. Since I’m trying to preserve some of that lightness amid world events that have rocked us yet again in the last few days, this edition of Stories du Moment will be brief on the heavier stuff. I think we’ve all had enough strife and heartbreak in 2025 to last a lifetime.
TWO DAYS IN PARIS— AN ITINERARY! A VIDEO!
I’ve done a fair amount of on-screen work in recent years but this was perhaps the most demanding and rewarding. The Michelin Guide asked me to craft an ideal two-day itinerary around a theme of my choice, and since the bistro is both the city’s historic bread-and-butter and the dining format with the most visible change, I opted to explore four of them1. In between, there are stops for coffee, chocolate, cocktails, and visits to two small museums that I love. We couldn’t stuff everything into the 10-minute video (two days of filming, if you can believe it!) so you can find my full written itinerary (with more affordable hotel alternatives) online here. I hope you’ll give the video above a watch, I’m really so pleased with the final result!
When the email from the New York Times travel editor arrived, asking me to work on a Paris 101 guide, my first reaction was surprise. After all these years of contributing, they were launching a series for first-time visitors to major destinations? Places like Rome, Paris, London, Tokyo—cities that hardly seemed to need a primer. But then I checked myself: did they? It’s easy to dismiss the needs of a first-time traveler when those days are behind you in your own city. Remembering that I was, in fact, among their targets for Tokyo changed my tune.My main concern then became how to shape recommendations and advice that acknowledged overcrowding, history, new ideas, and everything in between—as thoughtfully as possible. As one editor from another publication put it, people are going to keep visiting these cities whether or not the media covers them. What matters is how you direct their attention: which stories you tell, which neighborhoods you leave out, and which shops and restaurants you choose to spotlight.
After nearly twenty years in Paris, this assignment turned out to be an unexpectedly humbling exercise. Writing for first-time visitors forced me to see the city through fresh eyes again and to admit how tricky it is to balance accessibility with depth. Still, I think I found space for a few details that might even surprise the most seasoned traveler. What do you think? Gift link to read.
*I would have loved to add this in my blurb of Hotel Folie, a new hotel I included, but the word count was far too limiting so I’ll share it with you here. In 18th century France, folies were charming country retreats where the affluent escaped the bustle of the city. That’s one definition I came across while reporting but it left out the juiciest nuance: these retreats doubled as discreet pleasure houses for the bourgeois to slip away and meet their lovers, away from prying eyes.
ELSEWHERE
Have you seen the heart-warming commercial for Intermarché? AI was not involved in its creation, a holiday miracle. (Here’s the backstory, Euro News)
Are YOU and IT girl? (By Farrah @Substack )
See also: La Parisienne recycledBrigitte Macron is no ally to women. Related: she needs to find a new crisis communication team because an apology this is not. (The New York Times)
On expat vs. immigrant (By Teresa Bandeira de Carvalho )
“Expat” is not just a word. It is a rhetorical device, a linguistic loophole that transforms someone who is, by definition, an immigrant into someone who merely appears more affluent, and, let’s be honest, is usually imagined as white.Has the AirBnB crackdown made renting in Paris any easier? Asks Katy Lee. The answer might surprise you.
Lauren Collins read Sarkozy’s jailhouse memoir, written in his 20 day stint behind bars, so we never have to. (The New Yorker)
“Le Journal d’un Prisonnier” is currently the No. 1 best-seller on French Amazon, edging out the forty-first volume of a series of “Astérix” comics. Hundreds of adoring supporters turned out for a signing in the Sixteenth Arrondissement, Sarkozy’s Paris fief. On purely literary merits, though, the book is, at best, a mediocris opus. Much of it reads like a padded-out term paper, replete with extraneous detail and word-count-boosting reps. We learn not once but twice, for example, that the prison guards, “many of them originating from France’s overseas territories,” never fail to address him “using the title of President.”2025: not a great year for the Louvre! Strikes, heists, and (forthcoming price) hikes (The Guardian)
Is this the end of the French-American relationship? (Mixed Borders with Mira Kamdar)
Who was the ‘Louvre Detective’ in the fedora? (The New York Times)
Cheese: the dementia-fighting food?! (ABC News)
“It’s an observational study. Cheese and cream may simply be markers of broader eating patterns and lifestyle factors. This is not a green light to dramatically increase intake.” Doh!
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Not starred restaurants! Also, for those who have followed me for a long time, this project doesn’t erase my ambivalence or criticism of the star system or its inequities. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of the restaurants in the big red guide are not starred establishments. I have featured these four bistros/restaurants in my other written work and selected them here because they are legitimately good.
How lovely—you “stopped bracing.” Cheers to more of that no matter where you are!
I literally laughed out loud at the ref to Sarkozy’s jail ‘memoir’: thank you Lauren Collins indeed for reading it “so we never have to” 😆