Empty

People are pouring out of Paris, en route for their summer vacation destinations -- beaches, mountains, faraway places. Each year from mid July to mid August, Paris seems empty. Many shops close for a month, markets get smaller, phones go unanswered. But the pace slows, traffic disappears, parking becomes a breeze (for my husband -- I don't drive -- more on this later), and I like to imagine that I have Paris all to myself for a short while.