The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

Suspended

It's a long holiday weekend here in France -- All Saint's Day is tomorrow and many people have Friday off as well. We (Georges et moi, bien sur) have some things planned, starting with a little trip tomorrow to the chateau at Chantilly. As a result, expect that blogging will likely be very light (if not non-existent) until Monday-ish, but I will have new photos and stories to tell to make up for my absence. Enjoy your own weekend plans, enjoy the Halloween theme blog "look", and I'll be back with you in a few days. A bientot! Read more →

Masqué

Masks (or masques) originated in 15th century renaissance Italy and were worn at bals masqués or during Carnival celebrations. Their popularity spread across Europe over the next several centuries. This photo is from a shop window in Venice. The tradition of wearing masks at Halloween is rooted in the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, which celebrates the end of the harvest season. "The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the spirits or placate them." [Source: Wikipedia] Halloween is a huge deal in America, as we all know, and it has been commercialized like so many other holidays. It was slow to make its way to America because of the Puritan beliefs in which the country was rooted. It was the Irish potato famine in the mid 1800s, and the subsequent migration of two million Irish that brought the holiday to America. But... Read more →

Another "right place, right time" moment

It was worth getting caught in the sudden shower without a parapluie. How often do you see a complete double rainbow, and over La Tour Eiffel, no less? Read more →

Love Song in the Key of "G"

Up until three weeks ago, I had very definite ideas of what I thought a loving relationship was supposed to look like. Most of these ideas were rooted in memories of past relationships, and what I thought worked (or did NOT work) for me in those situations. I guess this is normal; sometimes you can only imagine something based on your own experiences, your own frame of reference. It's not easy to visualize something even better when you have no first-hand experience of "better" to which you can compare and relate. So, if you tend to settle for less, it is only because you simply didn't know any better. Now, I know what "better" looks like. I know what it feels like. It is when you can lock eyes with someone and know you can trust him with your heart in the first 30 seconds. It is when you can see, reflected in his eyes, your own best self, the person you want to be but don't always feel you ARE; yet he sees that in you, even when you don't see it in yourself. It is when he tells you he loves you, and you know these are not... Read more →

How do you say "meltdown" in French?

Well, it's been nearly a year since I came here and in all that time I have not had a single "frustration meltdown" over my ability to communicate in French. Mainly because I haven't really hit a situation where I couldn't at least make myself understood, even if my French wasn't perfect, especially in terms of having to accomplish something important. Until today. Today, I had to try and make a doctor's appointment. I have been dreading this, truly dreading it -- trying to deal with the medical profession when I don't speak the language. I started by getting a referral from a friend to a clinic she really likes, newly renovated and very modern, and also got from her the name of her doctor, whom she likes although he does not really speak English (at least to her - she's fluent in French), plus another doctor she knows of at the same clinic who supposedly speaks very good English. She coached me on some of the words I would need to request the appointment and tell the receptionist what it was for. She said, "You can do it!" and I so wanted to believe her. I phoned the main... Read more →

Mon Seul Desir

My one year anniversary of moving to Paris is coming up in a couple of weeks -- wow, hard to believe! -- and I was leafing through some photos I've taken in the past but never posted... sort of reliving the year in photos. This is the "finale" in a series of tapestries hanging in the Cluny Museum, known as "The Lady and the Unicorn". The tapestries are described as being: "among the most beautiful art treasures of the world. They were woven c.1500, probably in the workshops of Flanders, in the medieval style of mille fleurs, a "thousand flowers." Since 1882 the tapestries have been housed in Paris in the once medieval cloister, the Musée de Cluny. The tapestries represent the six senses — Hearing, Sight, Touch, Smell, Taste, and Love." While at the Cluny on the day I took this photo, I was browsing in the museum's gift shop and noticed a small novel entitled The Lady and the Unicorn, written by Tracy Chevalier, the writer of Girl with a Pearl Earring which became a film starring Colin Firth as the great Dutch painter, Vermeer, and Scarlett Johannsen as "the Girl". No one really knows the complete history... Read more →

Something cool I did not know about Paris

The stores on the Champs Elysées are open SUPER late on a Saturday night (and for all I know, maybe other nights as well, it being a major tourist hub). In a town where most stores close at 7:30 pm or 8pm at the latest, and for someone who is used to being able to hit the mall until 10pm, it's nice to discover, after nearly a year of living here, that there is ONE place in the city I can go if I need a shopping fix. It was fun being able to check out some new makeup and perfumes at Sephora at 11pm after the movie. So shoppers, if you are here and longing for some late-night shopping -- whether it's makeup, clothing, the latest CDs at Virgin, or even a new sports car at Renault, Peugot or Citroen, I guess this is the place to hang. Just don't expect to get a cheap drink in the WAY overpriced bars right on the Champs -- head down one of the side streets for that. And any day now they'll be lighting up all the trees with the white holiday lights. It's super touristy, the Champs, but still a... Read more →

And lest you think I am completely out of touch

I am actually going out tonight, to a movie, with a good friend, just us girls. We're going to see "Stardust" up on the Champs Elysées and then hang out for a while afterward. Sometimes, you need the girl talk. Read more →

Timeless

I was re-reading the text of the early chat sessions between Georges and I, from the very first one up until the hour just before we met in person. It now feels so far in the past that it is almost like observing two other people altogether... and yet this is the record of how we began. What strikes me, upon reading through these chat logs, is two key things: These are two people who are on the verge of an amazing journey, and They do not have a single clue what is about to hit them. The first few chats are what I'd call lively banter. Nothing too flirty, but just some witty conversation between two strangers. A better-than-average chat experience, certainly, but nothing really to hint at anything incroyable to come. Then an invitation from him to meet for lunch the following week, readily accepted by me. Both acknowledging how much we are enjoying the great conversation and finding more things in common. Mainly we seem to be enjoying each other's virtual company, and coming back for more. And then, things started to take a more interesting turn. Some personal information revealed and shared: where we both lived,... Read more →

Overwhelmed

In the past when I have been in a relationship, one of two things has happened: Either (a) the new man in my life would be emotionally distant, unpredictable in his affections (except when sex was on his agenda), and inconsistent in his attentions outside of the bedroom. Or (b) he would be not quite so distant, rather affectionate (and even more so, when sex was on the menu) and fairly consistent in his attentions to me outside of bed, which meant he would actually have a conversation with me as long as the game wasn't on. I know what you're thinking: that I wasn't doing a particularly good job of picking the right guys. And you'd be right. I have had a track record of being with men who were always unavailable to me in one way or another, the kind of guys whose behavior -- while never abusive in any way and not even horrible by most people's standards -- would push every button to trigger my baser insecurities and deep-seated abandonment issues (yeah, I've read all the self-help books and done the therapy, so I know the big words). And whenever I would get the feeling the... Read more →