Wednesday in Paris, with Cara Black.

RHYS BOWEN: No travel week would be complete without a trip to Paris and what better guide than my good friend Cara Black. Cara has become THE definitive writer of mysteries set in Paris and her many fans look forward to guessing in which part of the city she will set her next book. The wait is over and Murder at the Lanterne Rouge takes place in Paris's Chinatown (which is interesting because we are about to tour together and I'll be promoting the paperback of last year's Molly book, that took place in New York's Chinatown.

So welcome Cara and tell us :What drew you to Chinatown?

CARA BLACK: I follow your lead Rhys comme toujours. In Paris, my friends live around the corner from a small Chinatown at the northern edge of the Marais. Intrigued I discovered that this warren of several medieval streets contains the smallest and oldest Chinatown of the four Chinatowns in Paris. The inhabitants come from Wenzhou, a southern province below Canton and engage in selling wholesale bags, luggage and costume jewelry. They’re ‘entrepeneurs’ and quite different from the Chinese population in the other Chinatowns. As I walked these narrow streets I heard the slap of Mah Jong tiles and pounding of machines from behind closed doors and in the old courtyards. There’s a whole substrata below the surface of sweatshops with illegal immigrants who come to France to work but become almost indentured slaves to pay off their passage. A conversation with a man in the Renseignements Generaux, the RG, which is the domestic intelligence service really sparked this book after he told me ‘No one dies in Chinatown.’

RHYS: People always tell you such good things! So how many more arrondisements to go?

CARA: Twelve down, eight more, Rhys. But of course each arrondissement is composed of four quartiers. So in theory I could go on well, until I’m a hundred?

RHYS: And what we all really want to know:. Will Aimee ever find a steady guy and settle down?

CARA: Poor girl, she’s unlucky in love. Her fiancé, Yves, the journalist who she thought was the 'one' was murdered a few books back. Ever since it’s been a rocky course - relationships are a mine field for her. Alors, she likes bad boys. But she’s attracted to Melac, a homicide inspector in the Brigade Criminelle despite her experiences with the police - her father was a policeman before he was drummed out of the force on trumped up charges. Aimée’s made a rule that she won’t get involved with this homicide inspector who’s job takes him on all night stakeouts in danger and might not return. Now, she’s broken it. Just when her relationship with Melac seems steady, in Murder in the Lanterne Rouge, they’ve planned a long weekend together he’s called to a new assignment, a clandestine surveillance that takes him away for he doesn’t know how long. He’s been promoted to a job he can’t talk about ‘or he’d have to kill her’.

RHYS: Did you get a thrill when you saw "your" detective agency appear in Midnight

in Paris?

CARA: Yes, I actually saw the film in Paris and jolted in my seat. It was funny because I was determined NOT to see it even though lots of French friends were raving about it. Then one night on my street, rue Delambre in Montparnasse behind the famous La Rotonde, Le Dome and La Coupole cafe’s where Hemingway and the ‘Lost Generation’ of writers and artists hung out I relented. The film literally was about to start so I bought a ticket. French movies theatres are so fun and old fashioned they even have a lady selling candy in the aisles. When I saw Duluc Detective flash on the screen and the real interior of the detective agency I laughed. I interviewed Madame ‘Duluc’ (her married name is different) years ago in Duluc Detective when I was coming up with the character of Aimée Leduc. I shamelessly used parts of Madame Duluc’s story of inheriting the agency from her father and grandfather who’d been with the Suréte and gave Aimée an interesting history.

RHYS: Since this is Red's travel week, tell us one thing about Paris that would surprise us.

CARA: There’s a lot actually. But what’s wonderfully convenient is that you can buy your car registration sticker at the local cafe-tabac - no waiting forever at the DMV and those long lines. You can drink an espresso while you wait, very civilized. Also, the Hotel de Ville, the main Paris town hall, has a clock minder - it’s a real municipal job - he repairs and keeps all the several hundred old clocks in the huge 19th century building running. It takes him two days to wind all the clocks!

RHYS: What's your favorite Parisian meal?

CARA: I’m not an escargot fan nor of raw chopped steak tartare. I love the fish dishes at La Marine, a bistro on Canal Saint Martin - a simple filet dorade with a light caper sauce. Or oysters on the half shell, fresh from Brittany, served at the wine bar le Baron Rouge near the marché d’Aligre one of the oldest markets in Paris near the Bastille. There’s always a line and it’s a wonderful convivial place with fresh-this-morning oysters. The meal would be topped by limon-cassis sorbet from Bertillon on the Ile Ste-Louis, the best ice cream place in the world.

RHYS: I've made a note of both for my trip to Paris this summer! And while we're on my trip to Paris, if I wanted to buy one of Aimee's little black dresses where should I go?

CARA: Didier Ludot’s boutique in the Palais Royal. He only sells little black dresses; vintage couture in mint condition. So grab your YSL clutch and prepare to pull out a big wad of Euros but the dresses are classic, timeless and worth the investment. As French women say ‘you can’t go wrong wearing a little black dress.’

RHYS: Bonne chance with the new book, Cara. MURDER AT THE LANTERNE ROUGE comes out on March 1st and Cara will be speaking and signing all over the West Coast. Some of those signings will be with me but if you want to know Cara's crazy schedule, check it out on her website, www.carablack.com