這趟旅行來到巴黎，我嘗試在觀光客通常不會去的角落裡，尋找這個城市與原法國殖民地國家之間的文化連結。
This is my third time in Paris, and I tried to make it different by focusing on the city's connection to former French colony cultures.
第一個下午來到市中心北方約10公里處的St Denis。這裡是巴黎傳統上的相對貧困區，雖然擁有埋葬了幾乎所有法國國王的教堂，卻因為給人治安不好的印象，幾乎不會有觀光客到訪。在這裡，我遇見了許多非洲裔的移民及其後代，街上可以見到屬於非裔移民的文化象徵——理髮店，而門口掛著的竟然是加勒比海國家海地的國旗；市政府前遇到了剛完婚的新人竟然就在廣場前和親友直接奏起樂跳起舞來，而那音樂也不是電影裡看到的那種歐洲民間音樂，反而充滿北非風味。
I visited St Denis, 10km north from the city center. Its a relatively improvised area within Paris. While almost all French kings were buried here, due to the stereotype of unsafely, very few visited would come here. I encountered numerous African French here, and saw a few barbershops -- a symbol of African immigrant community. One of them has a Haiti flag on its door. Right in front of the city hall, I ran into a newlywed who were dancing, singing and celebrating with their friends. The music, full of North African influence, was quite different from what you think you may hear in Paris.
既然來了巴黎，美食是一定要有的，但是在美食的選擇上我們也沒有忘記初衷，於是特別選擇了連在美國都很少有機會接觸到的寮國菜。從19世紀後半到20世紀中，中南半島上的越南、柬埔寨、寮國都是法屬印度支那（French Indochina）的一部分；即使二次大戰之後這些國家脫離法國獨立，他們的文化、社群以及飲食在巴黎仍然不難見到。我們三個人點了原本屬於東南亞的春捲、酸肉、米線，以及漢人移民帶到東南亞的潮州魚肉粥（和台灣南部的虱目魚粥87%像），那是我這幾次來巴黎吃過最好吃的一餐。除此之外，附近購物昌商場裡接連出現的泰文、高棉文以及拉丁化越南文字也讓我看的相當興奮。
Cuisine is part of everyone's Paris experience. Aiming to taste the ethnic diversity here, we chose a low-key Laotian place at an Asian foot court. From the second half of 19th century to mid 20th century, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were parts of French Indochina, the French colony in East Asia; while these countries gained independence after world war II, their cultures, communities and cuisines are still quite visible in Paris. We orderled spring rolls, Laotian sour pork and Laotian, rice noodle soup, plus Teochew rice soup with fish (which is very similar to the rice soup in southern Taiwan). It was the most impressive meal I've ever had in Paris. In addition, the Thai characters, Khmar characters and Romanized Vietnamese alphabets in the food court really excited me.
