Image: I Still Shoot Film
Text: Guillermo Martinez de Velasco
1-Don’t go to the Eiffel Tower on New Year’s Eve
2-Actually do that thing where I pick an area of the Louvre per week, and visit it very attentively
3-Buy a bicycle and throw away my carte imagineR
4-Actually go to Château de Vincennes, not just talk about going
5-Promise to go to one of the presentations/lectures/workshops at Beaubourg or the Fondation Cartier per month
6-Don’t cheap out on French Vogue or Egoïste
7-Finally get my membership for the Hôtel-de-Ville Library and The Bibliothèque Fornier / Go study in these libraries
8-Get photographed by The Sartorialist, at least
9-Volunteer at Shakespeare and Co. (But also check out the Abbey Bookstore)
10- Promise to learn more about wines, it’s embarrassing that you always go for the 4-5 euro Bordeaux
11-Not being afraid to ask what something means when I don’t know
12-Start playing chess at the Jardins de Luxembourg until men with berets know my name, and better yet, have a nickname for me
13-Have a date at the Musée de L’Art Brut
14-Find someone French to have a date with
15-Go eat tiny portions of microwaved macaroni and cheese at the Palais de Tokyo like some spoiled 16ème kid
16-Go to the police station and get my Carte d’Identité
17-Actually getting my food either at the Bastille or Barbès markets
18-Having lunch with a friend at that community centre in front of the Goutte d’Or library
20-Spend more time in the Goutte D’Or instead of walking up and down the Canal St-Martin
19-Go watch at least 3 musicals at the Théâtre du Châtelet
20-Stop complaining about the French
21-Going to the Maison Rouge more often
22-Having a picnic at every major park, from Belleville to Monceau
23-Going on those neighbourhood tours offered by the city of Paris/Finding out what else the city of Paris offers
24-Jump into the Seine (Or at least dip my foot inside and then run home to wash it)
25-Watching every single Nouvelle Vague film set in Paris and then walk around the neighbourhood it was filmed in
26-Finally get over the Nouvelle Vague image of Paris
27-Go to one of those secret and illegal metro tunnel parties
28-Get that UGC/MK2 membership and go watch one film per week
29-Learn how to roll a cigarette while talking
30-Start reading Le Canard Enchâiné
31-Go to the Invalides Museum, even though it’s boring. Just go. Just once. Then it’s over. And you can have lunch on that cute little park next to it. Or better yet, in the Rodin Museum
32-Stop complaining about the weather. For god’s sake, it’s much better than where I come from!
33-Go to the monthly book swap party at Le Carmen in Pigalle
34-Like Ricard
35-Give the the 6ème a chance