As a foreign film buff, I had high expectations when I decided to go to Los Angeles for the first time . In the end I discovered a lot, but not exactly what I was expecting.

First, there is that excessive need to see the most famous capital letters in the world. Your insider friend tells you during the ride from LAX International Airport: “You see over there on the hill that little white spot? That’s it, that’s the Hollywood sign.” Then, after 40 minutes in the car, you get closer, you see what the invisible owners of these expensive houses see everyday, you see it and it is really an amazing experience.

I don’t know if Americans realize the importance of the impact their movie industry has on the rest of the world. I am 24. I have been raised among some of Hollywood's biggest productions. The main chewing-gum brand in France is called “Hollywood Chewing-Gum.” I have learned to worship the 9 white capital letters more than the name of God. Now I am there, and even if it’s objectively an illusion, I feel like I have been promoted; I am in Hollywood.

In every bar and every restaurant, every waitress is an actress and every bartender is an actor. Everybody talks about movies. The one they are currently working on or the one they want to work on. You arrive on the roof-deck bar of The Standard and even before you are struck by the view, you feel the crowd’s hope for a positive answer to that audition they had gone to earlier this afternoon…

You know that only a few of them are a part of it or “are gonna make it,” but you don’t say anything. Breaking someone’s dreams is like confessing that yours are not fulfilled either.

To be continued…