InTouch Travel

Now, you could do what tens of thousands of visitors have done over the years: pick up the phone and invite yourself for dinner. You'd meet dozens of interesting people, eat good food and drink some decent wine.

Or you could do more and spend a couple of days with Jim as he makes his way around Paris.

"Some people go to Paris to see the Mona Lisa, to Athens to see the Acropolis, to Tokyo to see the Imperial Palace, to London to see the Tower. I travel to participate in the daily lives of others — known and unknown to me — to share time and space with other human beings. I enjoy the random meetings and the not so random ones." Call Jim an optimistic existentialist.

"Typical tourists are uninvolved," Jim writes. "They observe, they keep their distance. On the other hand, I seek involvement. I wish to contribute something, even if it is nothing more than picking up litter."

PARIS … UP CLOSE WITH JIM HAYNES

What do you think it's going to be like, spending time with Jim Haynes, a man with an insatiable appetite for making human connections? Well, first of all, you're going to walk.

"It has always seemed absurd to me that in order to speed the relatively few car-owning suburban-dwellers out of Paris to their beloved non-urban life, we destroy Paris for the millions who live here and for the millions who come to visit our city. In this way, alive, organic, walkabout cities like Paris are becoming rarer and rarer."

And what will you do? Perhaps you can work on one of Jim's pet projects: a guide to ice creams. Seriously. He claims 30 years of independent research.

"The book would contain ice cream stories and tall tales, and list the 'best' ice cream parlors around the world. The first edition would invite readers to submit their selections and subsequent editions would include this reader's guide. An ice cream Jury would be nominated to award Golden Scoops to outstanding parlors… a guidebook for pilgrims in search of a better soda, milkshake and sundae."

Every turn is likely to bring adventure. "The other night on the metro I debated with myself: to get off or to continue homeward. I got off and bumped into two old friends. Traffic in, traffic out. We meet each other, linger together a few moments, and then move on. Making waves. All of us. All of the time."

"Jim Haynes has been having 70 people to dinner at his Paris home every Sunday for the last thirty years. And the best thing is, you can just ring up and invite yourself along."

— Judith Wardle, Paris Guide

"I suspect Jim won't be happy until he has everyone in the world in his address book."

— Heathcote Williams, New York

"Jim Haynes is the ultimate people person's people person."

— Jonathan P. Bowman, Dublin

"The most original and important meeting place in Paris for many English and American writers and artists visiting Paris."

— John Calder, London