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. Our Fearless Expat Reporter Robin Sparks in Paris

. Robin Sparks is looking for a country to call home. She is traveling around the world looking for the perfect spot. This month she is in Paris, meeting with old friends and meeting new ones. Join Robin Sparks in each issue of the Escape From America Magazine as she travels around the world in search of a country to call home.  If you are an expat living somewhere that you'd like to tell Robin about, you can contact her by email at: RobinSparksD@aol.com - Robin is also at work on a book about looking for the perfect country.  .

I'm  at the King William IV Tavern and Inn in London drinking a substance which was  blamed  for most of France's ills and the ruin of many like Van Gough who cut off his own ear. It was outlawed in the early 1900's in all but two or three European countries, including England. Recent studies cast doubt on that association however and absinthe is once again back in favor.

As is London, a city which is busy preserving its past while reinventing itself for the future.  The last time London occupied center stage  was in the 60's when it defined the world of music and fashion. Over 10 billion dollars have been spent in recent years In what is London's biggest building boom since Queen Victoria's jubilee a century ago. Many of those dollars were spent constructing the Millennium Mile, a walkway along the southern Thames containing the Millennium Dome and the world's largest ferris wheel. 

It's changed from a mostly Anglo city to one which is a fusion of cultures -- of Indians, Colombians, Bangladeshis, Ethiopians, Pakistanis, Russians, Melanesians, and Malaysians.  Steve Ricks, travel guidebook author,says that most people are amazed when they come to the 600 square mile urban jungle and find that its 9 million people are so "un-english?". Fifty nationalities with more than 5,000 ethnic communities like Bangla Town,  make London home. Some 300 languages are spoken. By 2010, it is estimated that the population will be made up of 30 percent minorities, most of them born in the U.K. 

. The Cultured Life Of London

London, as headquarters of Europe's biggest financial institutions, is the economic de facto capital of Europe. Even Air France has its European call center in London.   More than 437 billion dollars flows through its foreign currency markets every day, far more than any other city in the world. It's economy, valued at $162 billion, is larger than that of many countries, including Singapore and Switzerland. With 539 foreign banks, it is the biggest international financial district in Europe.

As for culture, where else but in London can you check out the printed treasures of our civilization -- ancient maps, early gospels on papyrus, manuscripts from the early Middle Ages, the Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, excerpts from Leonardo's notebooks, original writings of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, and Wordsworth, and music manuscripts from Beethoven and the Beatles? Where else can you stroll past historical monuments and buildings like the Westminster Cathedral and the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace  and  choose between a Radiohead concert and a Pavarati performance at the Royal Festival Music Hall on the same night? 

But what about the dreaded cuisine, better known as Pub Grub? I decided to check out  the  much touted Noord restaurant called BELGO in the Camden Locks area of London. Trappist monks in black frocks served  mussels from Brussels and wild boar sausages and true monastic brews. The decor was  avant garde, edgy, innovative.  And the food? Good, but not great. Some things are harder to change than others.

After lunch, I sauntered through what is one of London's busiest and bizarre of Saturday markets in Camden Locks. My daughter in Berkeley, I kept thinking, would feel at home there with the parade of fluorescent hair in every shade of the rainbow, hairstyles and clothing that haven't even made it to California yet, pierced body parts, and retro clothing shops. 
 

At Dolly Rockers, a two story retro clothing store, I thumbed through rack after rack of "never worn" 60's garb. Owner Jackie,  an American married to a Brit, has jet black straight hair with bangs, ruby lips, and pale powdered skin. She  met her husband in Los Angeles six years ago when he was  touring with a rock group.  When I asked her how she likes living in London, she said that the weather sucks , but otherwise she likes it. As the wife of a British citizen, she had no trouble getting working papers. "My first job in London was as a presenter on TV.

. London Pub .

A job like that would have been impossible to land in L.A. she says. "And it's easier to make a success of a store like this where the competition is not as strong."? But, she adds, "I wish there were more fast food restaurants in London. Someone could make a killing if they built and marketed a good IHOP-type of restaurant near here."?   (Please Londoners. DO NOT listen to Americans.)

n another store named Breathless  I stared (breathlessly) at the neon colored rubber wear hanging on the racks. There were row after row of fantasy costumes, medieval looking weapons and.... toys?  A  poster on one wall announced that  at the Torture Garden on Saturday, DJ Techno Castrati would spin discs. And that the Dungeon playroom would feature erotic 6 ambient music and visuals.   "Enforced Dress code" the fine print at the bottom said. "No casual street clothes. Only exotic fancy dress, burlesque, body art, uniform, lingerie, glamour, burlesque, rubber, leather, and fantasy fetish clothing allowed." 

Across  from Victoria Station there was a line snaking out of the Easy Everything Internet Cafe into the street. People of all ages were waiting for for their turn to pay to sit and stare and click away at one of 300 computers screens of the 24-7 establishment.

In Victoria Station, I entered the Underground on an escalator which transported commuters up and down the "Tube" on conveyer belts. Warren-like tunnels were clearly marked making it nearly impossible to get lost.  "Mind the gap," a voice announced repeatedly overhead as a bullet shaped train screeched to a halt in front of where we stood. Most of the passengers inside were reading -- some the London Times, others paperback books, and several the tabloid Star with that days headline, "Jerry Hall Bares All."   I emerged moments later above ground on the other side of the city, and wondered why in the western U.S.there is no  public transportation system remotely resembling the efficiency of this one. 

Classical music and opera venues abound in London, but the latest musical fad centers around the skippy drums, cut-up vocals, and hard bass lines of what is called UK garage, a spin-off of the field raves of the 90's. Champagne is the drink of choice in garage clubs, and far from wanting to drop a pill and veg out, the garage crowd strives to keep its cool, dance well, and  look great. At a nightclub called Ends Up, a group of perfectly turned out, well dressed young men, suddenly and simultaneously leapt into action throwing  joyful, eye-popping moves.  Girls in all shapes, ages, and colors, were similar only in their  rejection of unnecessary clothing.  In the Ladies Room the air was filled with positive comments like ˜Hey girl! - Lookin good!" Nigel Blunt who manages  a London record label says, "For years, we were left behind by America. They had the best hip-hop, R & B, soul, house music. Now we've come up with our own unique sound. Let's just hope it's got enough legs to trot over the Atlantic and kick some arse." 

Looking At London

Back at the King William IV Tavern and Inn, it's 11PM -- the hour that British law mandates pubs must close. It's a law that was put into effect during the first World War in an effort to increase war output. Matt shoos all but the hotel guests and staff out of the King William IV Tavern and Inn and locks the door behind them.  "The appliance of science!" the blonde freckled Scottish man says as he prepares the next shot of Absinthe for his wife, Annie, a striking, statuesque South African. Matt and Annie aren't the first racially mixed couple I've seen in London. In fact I was beginning to wonder if hooking up  with a different race partner wasn't a requirement in London.

At midnight Matt suggests we all walk Catia, the young female bartender, home. We step outside and are joined by several of the local boys who were locked out over an hour ago. "Come on you hooligans," Matt says. They fall into step with our parade along the paved path through the walkup houses under the stars over London to see Catia home safely. The night before, I  expressed surprise to Matt about  two young  men I saw leave to escort an 80 year old woman home. He said, "Are you kidding? It's what we've always done in London ."

Thank God that in London -- a city which is a synthesis of old and new -- some things haven't changed.
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