To help with understanding and getting my head around the story I have just write up a quick summary of the story.
Summary
The Diamond Brothers win a dream holiday in Paris due to an award from a yoghurt company. On the train, they meet Erica Nice, a French baker, and Jed Mathis, a Texan oilman. The Diamond Brothers mention to them that they are staying at Hotel Le Chat Gris. The steward drops some coffee at hearing this. As the Diamond Brothers get off the train, they are met by the steward who tells them to beware of someone called the Mad American and hands them a sugar sachet. The steward is later pushed under a train. the hotel, they see a man in gray who seems to be interested in them. Whilst sight seeing two thugs, Bastille and Lavache, threateningly them demand to know what the steward gave to them. While trying to get away from them, Nick and Tim jump from a bridge into a passing bateau mouche. They are locked up by the gendarmes but when they mention Bastille and Lavache they are hurriedly released. They return to find their hotel room has been turned upside down, soon after they are kidnapped and interrogated. They realise they are in a drugs factory, and Nick guesses that the sugar sachet must contain drugs. The criminals try to kill the brothers by giving them an overdose, but fortunately they are taken to hospital just in time, as the Police were out looking for them. The man in grey, who is from the Sûreté, asks for their help. He is revealed to be from a French company fighting against drugs, and says Le Chat Gris is sometimes used by the Mad American, meaning he thought the Brothers had come to buy drugs. Nick remembers some things about the place they were held and realises the place is in the Jewish Quarter, due to a blue star he saw, and they track down the Mad American - who turns out to be Madame Erica Nice. She is arrested for running a drug smuggling racket after Nick and Tim knock her out with a giant cake when entering her cake shop, 'The French Confection'.
I have gone through and noted down the description that I would think would be good to create.
First is just the a description of Paris overall
- Paris is a big city and a lot prettier than London, with its narrow streets that lead onto many other side-streets. The heart of Paris is a busy place, full of car, cyclists, tourist but when you take a side street things become less hectic.
- The narrow quiet antique streets are fill little antique shops, with brasserie's everywhere and hidden side-street cafes.
- There are cars parked everywhere on the streets on the pavements, you cant tell which ones are parked or which ones are stuck in traffic.
- Other places that a stated are the Eiffel tower, the Notre Dome, Champs Elyse, Jardin de Tuileries, River Seine.
Secondly it the description of the exterior of the hotel
- Le Chat Gris was in the Latin quarter, a dark busy area on the south side of the River Seine. Here the streets are fill of students and the smell of cheap food.
- It was a small narrow building, wedged among a art gallery and a cafe.
- A metal cat, more rusty than grey, hanged over the main entrance and there were brightly coloured flowers in the front windows. On closer inspection they turned out to be made of plastic.
- Just down the street there is an old-fashioned, artistic sort of cafe. La Palette, which is the very same cafe that the steward asked the brothers to meet them.
Third is the description of the place where the Diamond brothers were taken when they were kidnapped which is also the drug factory .
- It was a grey building, three storeys high. Most of the paint had flaked off and there were scorch marks, as if it had been involved in a fire. About half the windows were shattered, others had been bricked in. the place look derelict, it was supposed to look this way so that it blend in with the other building that surrounds it.
- This building is located in the Jewish sector of Paris Le Marais. Which was originally a swamp, the Marais has gone to become one of the most fashionable areas of Paris. Its narrow streets are filled with shops and boutiques including some of the city most elegant cafes and cake shops. The Marais is home to the Jewish quarter with numerous synagogues and kosher restaurants based around the Rus des Roisers.
- It has dozen of roads but it was not the biggest place in Paris.
- At the start of Le Maris, is the Place Vendome, is one of those Paris squares where even the trees look expensive. With a big, elegant building that turned out to be the Picasso Museum is placed just off the square.
- There is a series of long, narrow streets with buildings rising five storeys on both sides.
- With the star of David placed in every kosher food store and restaurant in every area.
- Usually street of an area called Rue de Sevigny lies the brunt face of the building, the broken windows, the ugly chimney stacks. And there was an archway that and there was a courtyard on the other side which is were the white van had been parked.
- The biggest drug factory in Paris was right in front of them, just sitting there among a cafe and a cake shop, right in the middle id Marais.
- In the window of the cake shop was the sign "THE FRENCH CONFECTION" in bright red glowing letters.
Now that I have got the descriptions sort out there is quiet a bit that I could research into to hep with the development of this idea.
