Stuff Parisians Like

May 9, 2011
"Tepid city for a tepid people" is this satirical survey's sniffy verdict on what is apparently the world's dullest cultural epicenter. Magny, the sommelier at a Paris wine-tasting school, nods at felicitous urban stuff (Berthillon's ice cream shop, the Place des Vosges), fashion dogmas, and quirky idioms (putainâ"whore"âis the all-purpose intensifier in his Euro-trashy circles), but these are rare respites in a comprehensive attack on Parisians' rancid characters and deluded mores. The author insists that Parisian women are sexless and uptight, that Parisian men all seem gay, and that both sexes are haughty, nasty, neurotic, hypocritical, and maddeningly hard to fire. What they really like, it seems, is pretentious conversation, feigned angst that passes for intellectual depth, being coddled by bureaucracy while longing for more entrepreneurial climes, and feeling superior to tourists. At the heart of Magny's critique is his boredom with Paris, its lack of a singles' scene and dearth of "cool bars" and "fun clubs"âa complaint that sets up a self-serving plug for his own wine bar. This book is essentially a party boy's snide polemic against a city that values intelligence and seriousness. Photos.