Paris...je t'adore!

Paris just makes me smile. It's one of the few cities that isn't dreary even when it's overcast and raining. It's also a hopeless place to try and eat healthy with all it's tasty temptations -- eclairs, palmiers, macarons etc. And then, there's the bread. Just when I started to think that globalization has turned city travel around the world into one homogenous experience, I am reminded that it's the little things that distinguish one city from the next. For me, Paris is all about baguettes, slathered with a generous amount of slightly salty French butter. Japan is about the Toto washlets. Every time I visit Japan, I've wondered why Toto washlets don't dominate the toilets of the world like McDonalds dominates fast food. Argentina is about dulce de leche and I found my favourite alfajores in Bariloche. Hong Kong is all about the dim sum; I would not eat dim sum anywhere else in the world.

So as I catch up on my posts this week in Paris, I'll be indulging in all the edible goodies this city has to offer over cups and cups of cafe creme. I just wish that Parisian cafes would install free wifi (but I suppose that would take away from the Parisian experience, where penning thoughts into a Moleskine notebook seems more appropriate than twittering on an iPhone). Unlike Buenos Aires, public access hotspots, free or not, are hard to come by in this city. I did chance upon one hotspot though, where I managed to do a few mobile uploads to facebook while standing outside chatting on the phone:

myberry on rue Vieille du Temple in Marais: one of the few places with free wifi and one of the few low-fat indulgences on this street of patisseries, artisanal chocolate and gelato shops.

SGN airport: free wifi!

Got this 4.5 hour transit between Saigon and Nha Trang. I am soooo thankful for free wifi at the airport (makes up for the idiotic transfer between international and domestic terminals where my bags were x-rayed 3 times within 5 minutes)! Otherwise, it's pretty much an desert here, especially in the domestic terminal where I don't even have access to the Vietnam Airlines lounge (no agreement with CX). So at least I've been able to clear through this morning's inbox and take care of a few urgent items as well as get on Skype and MSN. Now I just have to find a power outlet. Maybe the intel Core 2 duo kiosks will have a spare outlet.