An idea I've had for years is to travel to Paris for the 50th anniversary in this book in 2024, and see if and how things felt different.

When I first had the idea, I'm not sure I thought much deeper than "things will be different because technology". To the extent that's true, the biggest change may be that I have less patience to stay focused on the task when I have my phone available to distract me at any moment.

At this point, I'm much more curious to know how capitalism has affected the square. Have real estate prices driven certain kinds of residents and businesses out? Have the few and simple advertisements Perec seen been replaced with larger and gaudier billboards?

Perec only mentions people who appear to be homeless once—it seems hard to imagine there wouldn't be more people taking refuge in the square now (at least without invoking more recurring appearances by policeman no. 5976).

A final difference I wonder about is the implied whiteness in the square of everyone other than Japanese tourists. A case where things have changed but Perec's account seems already anachronistic.