Tokyo | particular artist | construction site | decrepit-looking paint

I would highly recommend the Palais de Tokyo. What it is is a kind of destroyed building that's superdeconstructed. You just kind of wander around in what appears to be a construction site. The shows the museum has are really extraordinary. There's a fantastic cafe, too, and an outdoor area where people go to read the newspaper, and you can get drinks there. When I was there last, the floor of the cafe had been painted by this artist, so people were walking around on a piece of art. The gift shop at Palais de Tokyo is unlike any museum gift shop you've ever been in. They have little handmade sock puppets, made by a particular artist, that you can only find there. There's also a really incredible bookstore. It's a huge building, so it's a great way to get exercise. And you know, half the time the walls are maybe raw concrete or kind of decrepit-looking paint, half falling off. And you're looking at it and wondering if this is part of the exhibit or if this just happens to be the wall.

WANDERLUST
In a way, Paris is the New York of France. People are brusque and moving pretty quickly through their day. And if you're in the way, you're in the way. I'd say it's become much friendlier to non-French-speaking people in the past six years, though. But it's still a big city. And it's everything you'd imagine it was if you'd never been … to the 10th power. It is that romantic. It is that civilized. The parks are that unbelievably lovely. And the way the city has melded its history with the 21st century and more modern ideas is really, I think, to be applauded.

I'LL TAKE THE RAIN