Who knows the way?

Sometimes I receive fan mail. So far it's all been Kylie Minogue's...








Dear Matteo,

It's great to get messages like yours that come to Doktor Weingolb all the way from France. France makes me think of so many wonderful things -- wine and food of course making it immediately to the top of my mental list.

But you say you are from Italy originally. I wonder how you find Paris compared to where you grew up. I've never visited your homeland but I can imagine it being a fantastic place, especially if you are into wine and food, like I am.

It was food and wine that prompted me to describe how I tracked down the real-life Michel Gondry/Kylie Minogue set in Point du Jour. (Well, perhaps it was mostly the wine that did it.) Either way it was an adventure that occupied an afternoon in a way no form of orienteering could. I used landmarks from video stills and analyzed the angles of 3-way street intersections shown on maps. Needless to say, it would be just as much of an adventure trying to repeat the feat two years later. Which is basically the reason you wrote me. So here goes...

I have a old map of Boulogne-Billancourt. If you click on it, I have marked it up to the best of my memory. (If the circle I've drawn is wrong, then move southwest along Rue du Point du Jour two blocks towards Place Jules Guesde -- I have a feeling that this is the real site and it's tricking me since that corner is not officially in the Point du Jour division of the neighbourhood though it is on the Rue du Point du Jour.)

It goes without saying that you should avoid taking my route, which as I remember it today, was entirely Kylie-less and meandering until the last moment. In fact, even when I found the intersection it was so unlike the "World" created in the video that it was hard imagining the footsteps Kylie took there. But with any luck you will find it. Perhaps the boulangerie (pictured, right) will still be there -- one of the few buildings that appeared as it was for the video shoot -- and you can confirm to yourself that you've got the right location.

Next time I cross the ocean I will have to ask you to tell me where to find authentic Italian cooking in Paris. I hope you will have simple directions.

Yours truly,
Marcus