Paris with consequence

Like many other noteworthy artists and expats, Varda Ducovny has come & gone, but unlike most Americans who go abroad, she's returned to Paris for good. This memoir chronicles decades of experiences, unique to the lucky few, who can thrive between the fantasy of La Belle Époque and the fact of paying the landlord.

She first saw Paris as a child in 1932, years before the Nazi occupation. Later, as a savvy young New Yorker, she became pals with Allen Ginsberg, opened as a singer for Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village, and had a love affair with Charles Van Doren of 'Quiz Show' infamy. Although the Big Apple shined for her, she felt drawn to that special magic in the City of Light. Ducovny followed the call back to ride the New Wave - but she was rarely breathless, except after being arrested for the crime of offending a waiter at a café in St Germain by confusing a pâtisserie with maraschino cherries.

In 1953, at Café Select in Montparnasse, she gave in to her homesickness for New York City and all that jazz. Forty years later, in 1993, she returned to the same terrace with the love of her life Ami, to experience Paris without consequence, on the Left Bank. At that same café, Varda Ducovny sat down and began to write.