The good doctor takes a book to a park in Paris and observes the 21st century around him in his latest Takimag column. Dare I say, quintessential Dalrymple?

In Paris, however, they have not yet opened the parks or gardens, for fear, I suppose, that people would fail to keep their proper social distance. Better, then, to let them crowd in the streets and breathe all over each other: Such is the faith that the government places in those it is called upon to rule. A modern democracy, we should not forget, is a people of the government, by the government, and for the government.