1. Manhattan didn’t feel like a strange place to live, when I was younger, but it’s certainly a strange place to have grown up in. What felt so normal when I was young and knew nothing different is striking and odd when I return. Case-in-point: skylines combining such a bizarre-yet-beautiful hodgepodge of old-and-new.
2. Meanwhile, the bit of New York – and the rest of America – that most bemuses the Country Boy is the flags. They’re everywhere. In France, flags are associated with two things: the very-far-right Front National, and the World Cup. Other than that, you’ll very rarely see a French flag flying anywhere.
3. There are also elements of my hometown that are new to me, when I return. Living in a city thousands of years old has made me all the more interested in the bits and pieces of history that line New York’s streets. Down near Fulton Street, for example, is an old cemetery with graves dating back to the 18th century. That’s fairly recent, by Parisian standards, but it’s still interesting to consider that this tombstone was carved before the United States were founded.
4. And I love this reminder of New York’s former name. New Amsterdam seems, to me, an appropriate moniker: after having visited the old version, I can attest that there are still parts of Manhattan that resemble the Dutch city, if you know where to look.
5. Some of the newer elements of the city I once called home are a bit tougher to swallow. I was 14 the day of September 11, 2001. I’ll never forget it. I have yet to visit the memorial inside the new 1 World Trade building, though I have wandered around the fountains that mark the places where the former Twin Towers once stood.