Tuesday, 1 November, 2022 – Three dinners in a row now, Elias has eaten something other than “traditional” French food. He had Chinese today, which he said was “solid.” Not a 10 but better than fast food Chinese.
This is the picture he took of his dinner.
It will be interesting to find out if he grows tired of Asian food while he is in Thailand, since I expect he will have it everyday, all day. I do not remember having anything but Thai, Chinese, Laotian, sorts of food while we were in Thailand. Then again, that was a long time ago and there were no McDonald’s, that I recall. There were definitely McDonald’s in Hong Kong in 1986. I am a little ashamed to admit how much I loved going into McDonald’s in ShaTin and getting french fries. I was homesick and it felt like home, okay?
Apart from finishing laundry and packing, Elias walked around Chinatown in Paris today. He walked around during the day, went back to his hostel to clean, pack, etc., and then went back to Chinatown for dinner. (I am not sure why I so like that image of him going twice in one day but I do.) It makes there is a Chinatown in Paris, though I am not sure I thought about it until Elias said he went. There was a Chinese diaspora, not unlike the Jewish diaspora in certain ways. The Chinese dispersed for slightly different reasons. Or maybe not. Persecution and desire for a better life are common themes. It does seem every city has a small community of Jews and Chinese. Am I just imagining that? I don’t think so.
I looked it up to see what a French Chinatown might look like. It has a website, fittingly named Chinatown Paris.
Here’s where Chinatown is, in relation to where Elias is staying. It is almost 5k from his hostel.
I grabbed only two images from Google, though there are many, many images, in the same vein.
