More Awesomely Cool NYTimes coverage of Paris

Here's another one to file in the "Crappy New York Times Articles about Paris" folder. The travel writer, of "Frugal Traveler" fame, begins his piece discussing how he bought an umbrella for €240.

Intriguing?
Perhaps...where else would someone charge that much for an umbrella?

Authentic Parisian experience?
Maybe. It does rain a lot. On the other hand, I don't know anyone who owns an umbrella that costs more than a few euros.

Frugal?
Not so much...

This narcissistic rambler knows the city fairly well, but, after my half a year here and with help from my Parisian network, I'd hazard to say I know it better. The article gives you almost no history or sociology or demography; it's a play-by-play of supposedly cool stuff that the guy found while wandering around. Since it's his own personal experience, a newbie to Paris doesn't benefit much at all from this sort of travel writing. If the goal is to wander around Paris and discover things you didn't know, you certainly don't need a guide like this. And if the article is supposed to introduce you to the most interesting Parisian sights, wandering around isn't the best way to find them.

After having read a lot of travel writing, I'm still not sure what the high quality kind is supposed to look like, but I'd say it probably doesn't include banalities like this

Almost everywhere I looked in Paris I found this tug between the past and present engulfing me.

...or end with this sentence:

While I discovered a lot of new places on this trip, there are several old favorites I wish I’d gotten back to.

The latter is what I might write to my grandma in an e-mail. (Yes, my 81-year old grandma reads and writes e-mails.) If I write something for publication, I usually polish up my prose a little.

This phenomenon, of course, is nothing new. For years, I've noticed that the Grey Lady's travel writers have an ideal of travel that baffles me. Their travel writing generally falls into two categories: narcissistic ramblings and unaccessible fineries. This article clearly falls into the first category, the musings of an ignorant egotist. The second deals more with artsy, expensive places available to a very small fragment of the world's population (many of who do live in Paris and New York, admittedly). The reaction of all the ex-pats and French people that I know in Paris is, "I wish I had the money to do that."

If I were writing a travel article about Paris, I would focus on three things. First, I would vastly expand coverage of sites available to an average middle class traveler. It should pass my Parisian friend test--they've actually done it and like it. Secondly, I would include more history, sociology, and demography--trying to help a reader understand why Paris looks the way it does and why Parisians act they way they do. Most travel writers can't seem to grasp just how diverse and immense Paris actually is. I seriously wonder if they have any command of French sometimes, let alone Arabic or Kabyle or Portuguese or any of the numerous other languages I regularly hear. Finally I would try to give the reader an idea of the city that doesn't revolve around the Manichean division between the poorest of banlieues and the finest the rich can afford. Trust me. There's a lot in between.

It's what most of us Parisian residents live and enjoy every day.