Road to Elsewhere, Excerpt #24*: The Past Isn't Dead. It's a Stop on the Paris Metro

Faulkner's history lesson is included in every ride.

FROM THE MOMENT I heard Madame Chalomet, my French teacher at the Alliance Française in Paris, pronounce the words “Porte de Clignancourt”—translation: the flashing door!—I was eager to hop a Metro out there.

The stop is just south of the Boulevard Peripherique, Paris’s ring road, and provides access to the Marché Aux Puces de Saint-Ouen, the world’s mo…