A funny thing happened on the way to Paris

The first time, I mean. When I first moved to Paris in 2009, it was to replace another American writer at Ogilvy. Rosecrans Baldwin. He was done with living abroad and moving back to the States. I never met him in person, but heard great things about him. We became Facebook friends, commiserated via email a handful of times, and I knew through the grapevine that he was writing a book. About Paris. And Ogilvy.

Jump cut a couple of years. I got my hands on an advance copy of his book, brilliantly titled Paris I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down. I laughed out loud, tracing the characters in his book to mine—our colleagues in Paris. I got to relive the giddiness of my first months at the office all over again. I was secretly envious of his book and the cool way he described everything.

And then another funny thing happened. Today. A piece I wrote for NPR’s 3 Books, which included Rosecrans’s book came out. As did a roundup on Vogue.com that included both of our books.

How uncanny that we shared such similar experiences: being recruited by the same guy to come write ad copy in Paris, spending shy of two years being alternately seduced and slapped by the city, and then returning home and writing books about our experiences? The story of fate continues...