An Innocent Abroad in Mark Twain’s Paris

Photographs by Benjamin Malapris

For as long as Paris has existed, a group of people known by many names—derelicts; lollygaggers; scammers; bums—have sought to pass time there at no cost to themselves. Once, some 2,000 years ago, so many such personages (then known as barbarians) came to Paris simultaneously that the city was destroyed. Today, their descendants are politely called writers.

One of the most successful to ever do it was a larkish American steamboat operator. In 1866, when he was 31...