France, Paris. L’amour, l’amour, toujours l’amour

France, Paris. L'amour, l'amour, toujours l'amour Yesterday it was hip and trendy Brits and glamorous financial towers along the Thames; today it’s the City of Love and the art of living along the Seine. Only in Europe can you find two such contrasting cities just a few hundred miles apart. France and its capital city Paris were the 19th stop on Christa Klickermann’s European journey … and a place she was returning to after a 38-year absence. Back then the newly-qualified hotel manager spent a few carefree months at the international language school in Rambouillet, partied out on the streets until well past midnight, chattered away for hours with portrait artists on the steps of Montmartre … and fell in love for the first time. As an homage to those wonderful few months spent here in 1976, she decided to once again make ‘love’ the leitmotiv of her visit – but this time without the rose-tinted glasses. In the narrow streets of Paris, on the banks of the Seine, in quiet museum halls and secluded parks, she goes in search of the legendary French l’art de vivre and discovers just how passionately the French feel about their language, their fine cuisine and their German neighbours. On her travels, in her Europeans at Heart book series and in her intercultural panel sessions/readings, she tries to gain a closer understanding of people and their cultures, whilst promoting a peaceful and humane Europe.