Anais Nin had not been to Paris since she left in 1940, and she returns in the fall of 1954.
She once lived overlooking Montparnasse Cemetery, and since that time, she has lost both her father and her mother as well as Dr. Rene Allendy and Dr. Otto Rank.
She sees a cafe with small round tables, just big enough for two people and two glasses of wine, just right for intimacy. The cafes are crowded with people who have time to sit outside and have interesting, engaging conversation.
She stays in Hotel Crillon, where, like the cafe, it is not new and glossy as it would be in America, but lived in, human, with the feel of people who had lived richly, deeply.
She walks along the Seine, where she sees hobos and a small bookshop and barges and boats on the water.
She seeks out her houseboat, La Belle Aurore. It had been moved from Paris to Neuilly by her before she left Paris in 1940. It was no longer in Neuilly, so she looked in Bougival but couldn't find it.
She walks the streets for hours among the small and intimate art shops, bookshops, antique shops, bookstalls, with their displays of creativity and style.
The Paris Anais Nin knew is still alive and well.
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