Paris

In ABC's new thriller "Missing," a former CIA agent whose child has been kidnapped springs out of retirement with guns, martial-arts skills and primal parental passion blazing. If that sounds familiar, well, it was also the plot of the 2008 film "Taken," which had Liam Neeson tearing through Paris to extricate his daughter from the clutches of a sex-trafficking ring. In "Missing," the gender roles are reversed. When Michael (Nick Eversman), a student studying abroad in Rome, goes missing, his mother, Becca Winstone (Ashley Judd)

Gene Kelly on Film "An American in Paris" Kelly sings and dances to Gershwin tunes in this 1951 Oscar best picture winner "Anchors Aweigh" Kelly meets Tom and Jerry in this 1945 musical, for which he earned a lead actor Oscar nomination "Cover Girl" Kelly and Rita Hayworth dance up a storm in this 1944 musical-comedy

THE BEST WAY TO PARIS From LAX, Air France and Air Tahiti Nui offer nonstop service to Paris, and Delta, American, KLM, Lufthansa, British, Continental and US Airways offer connecting service (change of plane). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $416, excluding taxes and fees. Pierre Hermé, 72 Rue Bonaparte, Paris; 011-33-1-43-54-47-77, http://www.pierreherme.com . Open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays-Fridays; 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Saturdays. Café Lenôtre, 10 Avenue des Champs Elysées, Paris; 011-33-1-42-65-85-10, http://www.lenotre.com . Open noon-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.

Cineastes who enjoy ebooks will want to check out "Inside the Script," a new series of illustrated ebooks from Warner Bros. that focuses on four famous films. They feature shooting scripts, production notes, storyboards, candid photographs and interactive gallery of costumes, stills, movie posters, set designs and behind-the-photographs. Four titles have just been released by Warner Bros. Digital Distribution on iBookstore, Kindle and Nook: "Casablanca," "Ben-Hur," "An American in Paris" and "North by Northwest," with more titles in the series to come.

London will be rocking this summer, and Paris is always abuzz, but in the spring or fall? You get to see a city as a truer version of itself. This deal from Gate 1 gives you both cities at a good price. The deal: Gate1 Travel has an Eight Day London & Paris by Rail package priced from $1,479 (based on double occupancy and New York departures) that includes roundtrip coach air (including taxes and fuel surcharges); six nights' accommodations in a mid-range property; breakfast daily; train transportation from London to Paris through the Chunnel.  Tours and upgrades can be added at extra cost.

Paris to the Past Traveling Through French History by Train Ina Caro W. W. Norton: 384 pp., $27.95

If you go Some shops have multiple locations. Jacques Genin, 133 Rue de Turenne, Paris; 1-4577-2901 Jean-Charles Rochoux, 16 Rue d' Assas, Paris; 1-4284-2945, http://www.jcrochoux.fr Cacao et Chocolat, 63 Rue Saint Louis en L'lle, Paris; 1-4633-3333, http://www.cacaoetchocolat.com Servant , 5 Rue de Sèvres, Paris; 1-4548-8360, http://www.chocolaterie-servant.com

Colette draws them to Paris Susan Spano has done it again! What a great article on Colette ["Chez Colette," May 30]. It made me want to rush to the local bookstore and then catch a plane to Paris, taking along a book bag. I plan to take Spano's story along on my next trip to the City of Light. It will be a great guide. Richard Mason, Redondo Beach Thank Susan Spano for the fascinating article about Colette's life in Paris. For more than one reason, it made me eager to return to Paris.

'From Paris With Love' MPAA rating: R for strong, bloody violence throughout, drug content, pervasive language and brief sexuality Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes Playing: In general release

Paris is known for its high life and high prices, particularly when it comes to hotels. Travelzoo has an amazing deal on Corcorde hotels that start at $149 a night for selected fall and winter dates. The deal: Travelzoo offers discounted rates at Hotel Concorde Lafayette ($149 for a superior room and $199 for a club room), Hotel Concorde Montparnasse ($149), Hotel Concorde Opera ($149) and Hotel Lutetia ($249). Daily breakfast is included. Dates at these rates vary from hotel to hotel.

Have you started your International Jazz Day shopping yet? A global collaboration among the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Herbie Hancock and the Thelonious Monk Institute, the first International Jazz Day is scheduled for Monday. Envisioned as a day of education and performance, the celebration actually begins Friday with a concert in Paris that features jazz luminaries such as Hancock, Hugh Masekela and Terri Lyne Carrington. The day itself aims to deliver 24 hours of jazz around the world, including in Los Angeles with a jazz session at Herb Alpert's club Vibrato in Bel-Air on Monday night featuring a variety of local artists, including Anthony Wilson, Bob Sheppard and Peter Erskine.

He's been blind since age 15. But nobody can say that Mason Ewing lacks vision. Overcoming a nightmarish childhood, Ewing, 30, has been a successful fashion designer in Paris. For the last six months, however, his mind has been set on Hollywood, where he hopes to create a teen comedy and a dramatic series for television. Born in Cameroon to an American father and a Cameroonian mother and raised in France, his own life has been filled with drama. His mother, a seamstress and dressmaker, was murdered when Ewing was 4, he said.

"I always had an acting bug," Clara Mamet declared recently during a rehearsal break at the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica. The confession wasn't exactly startling, coming from the newest member of a growing family dynasty of writer-performers. Clara Mamet, the daughter of actress Rebecca Pidgeon and author David Mamet, grew up reading a play a day and watching her parents shuttle between stages and film sets. One of her half-siblings, Zosia Mamet, also is an actress, portraying Joyce Ramsay on "Mad Men"and the nerdy Shoshanna on "Girls,"HBO's new outer-borough retort to "Sex and the City.

Here's a different way to see Paris: Every Sunday afternoon, thousands of rollerbladers of all skill levels take to the streets with police escorts.  The route changes weekly and is posted here . . . . In 2011, nearly 20% of U.S. flights arrived more than 15 minutes late , Bureau of Transportation Statistics show. In January, Tampa had the best on-time performance of U.S. airports; San Francisco the worst. For all sorts of consumer-related travel stats, click here . . . . It may not be Paris, but San Diego has a steamy past.

NEW YORK — Try following Mikhail Baryshnikov up a flight of stairs sometime. He doesn't run or even leap. He glides, as if he is as at home in the air as he is on the ground. It's like trailing a 12-year-old boy. Or an impala. Baryshnikov knows these stairs well, taking them every day he is in New York. They belong to his baby, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, which stages productions by up-and-comers and such established artists as Peter Brook, Robert Wilson and Philip Glass. "I'm very proud of this project," he says relaxing, as much as he can relax, at a conference table.

One hundred years ago today, on March 18, 1912, two men dressed in black crossed the Seine in Paris to pay a call on their younger brother, an artist who lived alone in his studio on Rue Amiral-de-Joinville. Half a century later, the artist would vividly remember the dark clothes his brothers had worn that day, as if they had come to challenge him to a duel. The visit, it seems, was brief. Once his brothers had departed, the artist locked up the house and took a taxi by himself to the Quai d'Orsay, where the Salon des Independants was scheduled to begin later that week.

For French auteur Cédric Klapisch ("When the Cat's Away . . .," "L'Auberge espagnole") the success or failure of his new film, "Paris," came down to a question of real estate. To make his love letter to the City of Light work, Klapisch had to find just the right apartment -- with a balcony, of course -- where his protagonist, a dancer named Pierre (Romain Duris, in his sixth film with the director) could watch working-class denizens go about their daily lives. Klapisch found his ideal flat "very close to the Père-Lachaise Cemetery," says the 48-year-old filmmaker on the phone from New York City.

Savoring good times in Hanoi As a frequent Hanoi visitor, I thoroughly enjoyed Jessica Gelt's accurate article on its food ["Savoring Life and Noodles in Hanoi," March 11]. Philip Flores Hagatna, Guam :: Loved it! Having lived in Hanoi for a few years in the '90s as founding editor of a U.S.-based magazine called the Vietnam Business Journal, I was taken back to some of my favorite haunts and food, and I was glad to hear they sound as great as ever. Josh Levine Watchung, N.J. Seasonal advice In response to Catharine Hamm's On the Spot column on seasonal rates in London and Paris ["Timing Is Key in London and Paris," March 11]

Question: When do London and Paris go into off-season fall/winter rates? Stuart Fink Los Angeles Answer: This topic seemed easy at first, but in talking with several travel experts, I learned about exceptions to exceptions to exceptions. To begin: Off-season is generally ("generally" being the operative word) whenever these conditions occur: Kids are in school (that's probably going to be late August-early September to mid-May to late June, unless your kids are on a year-round schedule or you live in some parts of the South)