The problem with getting older was not so much that one got stuck on the past, Vivi often thought, but that there was so much more of the past to get lost in.

Le Marais?’‘It’s a little district in the centre of Paris. It is full of cobbled streets and teetering apartment blocks and gay men and orthodox Jews and women of a certain age who once looked like Brigitte Bardot. It’s the only place to stay.

I will never, ever regret the things I've done. Because most days, all you have are places in your memory that you can go to.

If all we are allowed is hours, minutes, I want to be able to etch each of them on to my memory with exquisite clarity so that I can recall them at moments like this, when my very soul feels blackened.