As an international theatre director and performer, Robert Lepage spends a lot of his time on planes. A necessary evil, you might think. But his frequent flying has prompted a number of unusual observations.

"It's always interesting if I fly over Paris and I fly over London and look down," he says. "You can see how the two cities are representative of their languages. The French language is all overdone, overelegant, too many words. Then there is the urban sprawl of London and all these little pockets of meaning and twirly-whirlies."