We'll Always Have Paris (36 page)

This book took shape slowly and many people helped it along the way. I owe the hugest thanks to Patrick Walsh for handholding, cheerleading and general loveliness, and to George
Morley for her endless patience, wit and reassurance as well as editorial brilliance. Thank you to Carrie Plitt for her invaluable assistance and kindness, and to Laura Carr, Nicole Foster, Nicola
Evans and all at Pan Macmillan for making a real book out of some repetitive muttering about éclairs.

Thanks for shrewd professional advice, well-timed shoves and touching generosity to Laura Cumming, Trish Deseine (and Karl), Sarah Franklin, Tamara Gausi, Harriet Green, India Knight, Charlotte
Mendelson, Eireann Lorsung, Jojo Moyes, Marina O’Loughlin, Alice Wignall and Sasha Wilkins.

Thanks to my magnificent friends for the solace of shared complaint, animal videos and gin, past, present and future: my precious first readers Helen Brocklebank and Fernanda Moore, Nathalie
Bouhana, Benjamin Brust, Laurie Horwood, Tom Houser, Kate Jaram and Maija Krastina.

Thanks to all from the blog, a true fellowship of hilarity and shared crapness. Thanks particularly to Frau Antje, BB, Carolinefo, the Cephalopod correspondent, Patience Crabstick, Cruella, the
Fat Controller, Jane, Kath, Lee, Lydia, Margot Leadbetter, Nimble, Non-Working Monkey, redfox, Soleils, Xtreme English and Z, and apologies to all omitted in haste and stupidity. Thanks to all the
anons, lurkers and emailers and special thanks to Wanstead Birder for the subtitle.

Thanks for dinosaurs, facepasta, my sanity and everything else to Madevi Dailly.

All love and thanks to my family for patience, support, babysitting, gnomic texts, lemon sponge and taxi money: Joe, Julia, Dad, Caroline, Yves, Jacqueline, and to Les and Rob, my
almost-family.

Thank you to my sons, Theo and Louis, for making me laugh, usually at my own expense.

And for everything, always, Olivier.

After ten years working as a lawyer, Emma
Beddington is now a freelance writer,
who has contributed to:

ELLE
The Times

Sunday Times

GUARDIAN

O Magazine
RED

She is also the author of the acclaimed blog
Belgian Waffle (www.belgianwaffling.com). She lives
in Brussels with her husband and two sons.

First published 2016 by Macmillan

This electronic edition published 2016 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-4472-8578-6

Copyright © Emma Beddington 2016

Cover Design and Illustrations by Justine Anweiler
‘Paris’ Cover Lettering © CoCorrina
Author Photograph © Natalie Hill

The right of Emma Beddington to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The publishers gratefully acknowledge the following for permission to reproduce copyright material:

© Christine Rochefort,
Les Petits Enfants du Siècle ©
Editions Bernard Grasset, 1961.

By W. G. Sebald, translated by Michael Hulse, from THE RINGS OF SATURN, copyright © 1995 by Vito von Eichborn GmbH & Co Verlag KG. Translation © 1998 by The
Harvill Press. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

‘
Méfiez-vous de Paris
’, words and music by Joseph Kosma and Jean Renoir.
Published by Peermusic (UK) Limited.

Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred
to in or on this book.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital,
optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be
liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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