Strange Interview

As Teri will testify, Rick Steves is my favorite travel writer. Ever. On our first trips to Europe we followed Rick's intineraries from his travel books fairly closely. Teri got tired of hearing "Rick says to see this" or "Rick says to go there" as we traveled to France, Italy and the UK.

And Teri can further testify that David Sedaris (see picture) is one of my favorite humorists. In fact right now I'm reading his latest book, When You Are Engulfed In Flames.

For several years Sedaris has been living in Paris, Normandy and London and his latest book largely revolves around his adventures in Paris.

Rick Steves has a public radio program on travel, which I download on I-Tunes. So imagine my delight when I discovered this week that my all-time favorite travel writer was interviewing another one of my favorite writers about living in Paris.

The result is just hilarious, although not always intentionally so. Actually, I thought the interview was pretty disastrous. The Paris of David Sedaris has very little in common with the Paris that Rick Steves writes about. For example, having lived in Paris for years, Sedaris still has never set foot inside the Louvre. Rick has written a big chunk of a book about European museums dedicated to the Louvre and the art in it.

Sedaris does discuss his favorite fast food joints, to Rick's bafflement.

It was uncomfortable at times listening to Rick struggle to find common ground with Sedaris and failing pretty miserably. In all fairness there are some moments in the interview that are both genuinely funny and enlightening about France and the French.

If you want to hear it for yourself, here's the link:

Rick Steves interview with David Sedaris