The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

Don't stop believing

The first article, on March 3rd on a "French news in English" site, came as a total surprise to us. They didn't ask to interview us for the piece, but they did a good job reporting on our then-tiny campaign and the site comments went berserk with the debate - locks, or no locks? Six days later, we were asked to write an OpEd piece on a different "French news in English" site. Then, a French news site did a great on-line piece about us; their editor called the topic "cadenas-gate" (a cadenas is the French word for padlock). A day or so after that, we were interviewed along the Canal Saint Martin by 20 Minutes. The piece ran that night online and the next day in print. And then the insanity really began. Since that first week, my friend Lisa and I have probably given, between the two of us, something like 50 interviews, and only three of them involved both of us. I have personally been summoned to "that damn bridge" (as I have taken to calling the Pont des Arts lately) more than a dozen times, plus I've been over to "that other damn bridge" (Archevêché, behind... Read more →

Orage

Storm clouds approach. Not a good time to visit the Eiffel Tower. Read more →

Up!

Up on la Tour Eiffel. Read more →

Working Girl

I am coming up to the end of my fourth week of being gainfully employed in France. So far, it's been going very well. The people I work with are still great. I am most likely the oldest person working in the entire company, at least in the Paris branch, but other than the odd moment where I realize I don't know any of the music these "kids" are listening to in the office, I don't feel old being around them. I just never thought I'd ever be in a situation where I was the oldest person working in a company! (Being self-employed doesn't really count.) The work is easy to do, it's just a matter of learning their system for taking reservations for the types of tours they do. I wish I could talk in more detail about the great tours they offer because I am actually very impressed and the company has a great reputation, and with good reason. But I made a decision, when I decided to look for a job, that I would not give out too much information about my employer, even if it was all positive. There are just too many ways to slip... Read more →

Symbol of Paris

And I'll bet you thought there would be a picture of the Eiffel Tower here? No, actually the symbol of Paris, which comes from the official Coat of Arms of Paris, has long been a ship! This dates to 1358 and the reign of Charles V (NOT 1111 as is listed on the English version of this Wikipedia page, according to one of our French readers; it's so frustrating when Wikipedia gets it so blatantly wrong). You will often see the ship on public buildings, such as this elementary school, and I've also spotted them on the elevated tracks of the line 2 and line 6 metro. Next time you're in Paris, see how many ships you can count! Did you also know that the reason the French flag has the tricolore theme of blue, white and red? It's because the colors of Paris are red and blue (the red for Saint Denis and the blue for Saint Martin), and the white was the King's official color. Read more →

Another reason to improve my French

Picture, if you will, the look on my face one day about a week or so ago, when I showed up on a corner near a little park to meet a man I thought was the journalist from M6, a French TV station that wanted an interview about No Love Locks (we have over 5200 signatures now, by the way!) The reason I say "picture the look on my face" is that I arrived there assuming this guy, standing next to his motorcycle, was there to interview me. That is, until he handed me a spare helmet. And gestured towards the moto. I thought for a moment my brain had just had some sort of stroke or seizure, because SURELY he did not mean that I was supposed to get ON that contraption and GO somewhere for this interview? He MUST be joking. Please, God, let him be joking. Because. I. Do. Not. Ride. Motorcycles. EVER. No, he was serious. They were waiting for me with a camera on the bridge. And thus, I realized that I had been screwed over again by my own inability to accurately comprehend a conversation in French on the telephone. The producer who had... Read more →

Working Girl

So, my new job has been going very well so far. My coworkers and my supervisor are extremely nice, and as they are predominantly American or British, there is no culture-gap to be bridged. Unlike in most French workplaces, when we come to work in the morning or leave in the afternoon, there is no need to do the 2-cheek bises thing to everyone. I was almost expecting it anyway (there are a few French who work there and many of the people working there are married to French spouses), so it was actually a surprise when I saw no one doing this on my first day. It's a tourism company so with tour groups coming and going all day, tickets to attractions to be purchased for 90 days out in the future and reservations to be processed all day long, you can imagine that things are really hopping there. The office space is a bit cramped as they are expanding their reservations team, and they have new space picked out for us just adjacent to the existing office but it won't be ready until around the end of this month. To this end, we are sometimes working in a... Read more →

Where work takes me

I'm not working here, exactly, but my job took me to the foot this week... And tomorrow it will take me to the summit! The job may not pay well, but there are great people and great perks! Read more →

Going to work

Not a bad commute. Read more →