Tag: Paris
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Your perfect weekend in Paris: The Marais edition
For giggles, let’s imagine you’re spending a long weekend in the City of Light. My three-day itinerary is perfect if you love: excellent food, natural wine, bar-none (vintage) shopping without the couture price tag, art history, and mysteriously reading in cafés. Because that’s all kind of my thing. My husband and I will be in…
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French faux pas: How not to be an ugly American in France
Congratulations! You’re an American traveling to France. Here’s how to act (and how not to act) so that you don’t offend every French person you meet. Must do’s in French politeness: ‘Faux pas’ en France / How not to act in France Come to the South of France with me! I’m a Francophile. I love…
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The best brunch in Paris
Look. I’ve been to more than 100 of the hippest, coolest restaurants in Paris, but this one brunch spot takes the cake. Not only do most Parisian restaurants not really serve American-style brunch, but the breakfast food you’ll find on offer at most Paris bistros is a croissant and an ‘okay’ cup of coffee at…
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The secret to Parisian (women’s) confidence
Parisian women (Parisiennes) are famous for their confidence, their beauty, their elegance, and their approach to life, art, and fashion. This image of Parisian elegance and confidence is a bit stereotyped. It’s a bit cliché. It’s pretty thin and white-washed. And it’s a bit watered down. Parisiennes, just like their city, are complex and a…
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The best coffee shops in Paris
The coffee scene in Paris has progressed in leaps and bounds in the last ten years. (Not to mention the last fifty, as post-war Paris clung with a certain intensity to chicory long after the ration years of World War II had passed.) The most joyful part of these coffee shops for me? That the…
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How I navigate international travel as the daughter of two moms
During a wine tasting we attended in Paris’ 11th arrondissement my partner and I met lots of lovely expats. Over the course of our conversation I learned that my neighbor had just gotten engaged to her French girlfriend. So, naturally I brought up my family: my queer, non-heteronormative, two-mom family. She asked the questions that…
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How to allow yourself rest while traveling
Originally written Sunday November 13 Yesterday I went to hot yoga and afterwards met my partner, Ernie, for lunch at Bouche in Paris’ 11th arrondissement. From brunch we wandered around what is becoming a familiar region of Paris to us: the Marais and Canal St. Martin in the 11th, 3rd, and 4th arrondissements. Once the…
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The Paris Syndrome
Paris Syndrome is an extreme form of culture shock that tourists, particularly Japanese tourists, experience on their first trip to Paris. The main symptom (though not technically classified in the DSM-V) is a paralyzing and overwhelming feeling of disappointment sometimes accompanied by nausea and dizziness. The Paris of tourists’ imagination (presented in movies like Amélie…
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How to enjoy Parisian art museums
Art is best enjoyed over time. Seated. Quiet. Notebook and pen in hand. I’ve always been drawn to write l for as long as I can remember, even scribbling in a notebook alone in my room, “writing” if my moms asked me what I was doing. My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Reitzel, was the first person in…
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The luxury of the metro
I expected to write every day in my journal or notebook from quaint Parisian cafes, pen in hand. Instead I’ve written mostly in the ‘in-between times’ on the metro. The metro is a meeting of peoples and cultures. Of phones ringing and people speaking in French, Hindi, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, and Wolof. Some people…
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Parisian café vignettes
The view of Parisians’ lives that I have is largely a public one. I see Parisians bustle from one engagement to the next. The spill onto café sidewalks, coffee in one hand, cigarette in another. They squeeze onto the metro at rush hour and read their books. So much of their lives have to happen…
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Yoga classes in Paris
Missives from a rainy, Parisian Sunday Yesterday I went to a yoga class in French at Paris’ Modo Yoga. I’ve practiced yoga in the United States for 15 years now, but I had never taken a yoga class in French. How better to improve my French than to jump in with both feet and learn…