The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Paris Summary & Analysis

Bauby is sad to realize that his old life is fading away—it “burns within” him sometimes still, but his memories are slowly, surely turning to “ashes.” He recalls two medical trips to Paris made “since taking up residence in [his] diving bell.” On the first, looking at the city through the windows of the ambulance transporting him, he became emotional when he passed by the high-rise building which housed the offices of Elle magazine, where Bauby was once the editor in chief. On the second trip back to Paris, he felt “unmoved” by the sight of the office building—the city streets appeared to him as a “movie background,” a set from which he was the only thing missing.