Cecily: Horizontal mobility would suit me just as well as upward mobility in this life. I have already reached a level of refinement and class unrivalled, and now I seek to enrich my experience, broadly and without apology.
paris
Two friends, on world domination.
Arnaud: The world is mine!
Cecily: I want Paris.
Arnaud: No.
Cecily: In that case, I’ll have to seize it by force or charm. I have all of the men of Paris on my side. What do you have? The female waitstaff of your favourite café?
Two friends, waiting by the phone.
Cecily: You offended the hell out of her. Why do you think she is going to call you back?
Maurice: Because I believe in miracles.
Two friends, on Paris.
Alexander: What I need is to return to Paris and find a husband.
Cecily: Paris is Paris. Even if you don’t find love, it’s the best place on earth to experience loneliness.
Cecily, having a midnight dilemma.
Cecily: I am desperately in need of a midnight snack, but a) I don’t want to get fat, b) I don’t want to get up, and c) I don’t even know if I got up whether there would be anything to get fat with.
Alexander, on vodka.
Alexander: I drank an ungodly amount of vodka last night. I fear the only way this hangover will be cured is via exorcism and therapy.
Cecily, waltzing through the Tuileries.
Cecily: Oh just listen to the jingle-jangle of the mini Eiffel Tower key rings and see the glossy skin of the unnecessarily handsome African salesmen!
Cecily, on coffee.
Cecily: I only take my coffee “allongé”. It’s the only way to properly stoke malaise.
Two friends, on love.
Alexander: Love is an illusion, death is inevitable.
Cecily: Love is not an illusion. Marriage is inevitable. I will be happy.
Alexander: The very existence of love, or indeed any sentiment, is questionable. Marriage is a social construct. Happiness is rampant hedonism.
Alexander, reading The Economist.
The Economist: When France imposed a state of emergency in November, following the terror attacks in Paris, it implied some constraints on liberty. But the freedom to smoke was probably not one many observers had in mind. Fully 32% of French 17-year-olds admit that they smoke daily, and by law pupils can do so only outside school premises. Yet head teachers now fret that, by letting them out of the school gates during the day to light up, they face a greater threat: terrorism. Improbable as it seems, the country’s biggest head-teachers’ union, SNPDEN-Unsa, wrote last month to the Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, demanding clarification. Did the ban still apply under the state of emergency, as the health ministry insisted? Or, given the security risk of gathering on the pavement, could head teachers make an exception, as the education ministry seemed to suggest, and allow smoking on school grounds? This, argued some, was the lesser danger. “Between a cigarette and a Kalashnikov, the risk is not the same,” said Michel Richard, a head teacher at the union.
Alexander: Under threat of being denied cigarettes, I’m afraid I’d have to take my chances with the Kalashnikov.
thedailymails 