When Okan asked me about my Paris I was smiling inside. I thought to myself, having a Paris account, wandering around Paris and smiling on the photos he must be thinking we have always had a great relationship with Paris.
My story is a little bit different, and I am happy to share it with you.
I was never an “Emily” or a “Carrie” in Paris. Respected the culture, loved the books and writers, was a fan of movies because of the realness, bluntness… but I was never a oh my Goood I have to go to Parisss type of gal.
To tell you the truth I was dreaming of Kefalonia, Ischia, Florence, Rome, Amalfi or even clubbing in London more than Paris 😊
Then a coincidence brought me to Paris in 2002. I didn’t like Champs Elysées, I didn’t like Foquet, I didn’t like Café de Flore I found the coffee cold, the famous hot chocolate too sweet,overpriced and even then I asked about Les Deux Magots the café nearby, which I still love by the way. If I weren’t a huge fan of Simone De Beauvoir Café de Flore was like another touristic café where no one speaks French. I hate shopping so Galleries Lafayette besides the marvelous architecture meant nothing to me, by the way again no one speaks French in there. I loved Musée du Louvre and went directly to see Italian paintings hence my real wish of going to Florence and Rome. My first impression of Paris was: “the city is beautiful with magnificent buildings but too much “made” everything is prepared like a movie platform” That was exactly the reason why I literally ran away to Naples, Rome, Athens soon enough to find real life.
Years later when I came back, I told people guys don’t take meto those touristic places, I don’t want to do that Champs Elysées, Eiffel Tower, Avenue Montaigne cliché, take me to a breakfast where you would usually go, show me what you do in real life. I am sure none of you goes to Queen and dance in bubbles which is by the way really 90s.
One of them said I know where you will go and fall in love directly and we went to Place des Vosges, started walking around little streets, took a coffee in a real French café. I discovered Jardin des Rosiers where people with naked feet reading a book kissing their “amoureux” I sat on the street and enjoyed a falafel 😊 And for the first time I enjoyed being in Paris far from the “I came to Paris so I have to go to Ladurée” crowd. I discovered Bastille, Oberkampf, Cour du commerce, Musée de la Vie Romantique, Maison d’Isabelle, Passage de l’Ancre, Musée Rodin, all the small streets of Montmartre.
I discovered the word “caviste” from a friend who used to say Mon caviste told me to drink this with that each time he brought wine to an apéro. Never I had a caviste before 😊 I met the guy and he was like for me a savant, a magician 😊
I learned that in Paris people love talking about food, men love cooking and most of the time they are the ones who give you a great receipt. I also learned that in Paris women don’t talk about their beauty secrets like a Turkish girl would talk about her coiffeur, her intermittent fasting schedule but that doesn’t mean that they don’t care. I started to have great massage, hammam, beautician, hairdresser addresses and that they are all for Paleo diet. They wake up at 7 to brush their hair and pretend like they just woke up and left the house in a hurry.
I found out that they don’t like chain supermarkets much they love going to the local markets, touch and smell the food they want to buy.
I discovered Balzac’s home, my father loved Balzac and mom and dad’s flirtations were all about the Lilly of the Valley😊 It became my happy place very quickly.
I discovered all the streets where my favorite French movies were taken. I fell in love with the bridge of Alexandre III, had a girls night out on a péniche and played babyfoot, read a book lying on the sofa of Shakespeare & Co bookstore, waited at the waiting rooms of the doctors who are always late, I met French administration where you have to ask 5 people at least to have one right information, I had a bank person who is in charge of my account! I have never entered in a bank in my life before, we just did everything online. It was such a funny experience.
I waited in line because that boulangerie is the best in town for baguettes and that fromagerie has the best goat cheese. Eating is not a joke in Paris. You can’t go to a chain coffee shop to drink coffee because it is not real coffee, you can’t grab a sandwich for lunch you should savor whatever you eat, these match me so well. I learned that Parisians are also like me not a real fan of I love Paris wouuuww exaggeration and don’t really go to all those Do it in Paris stuff.
The more I met them the more I liked them. Like me they are against everything, they express themselves loudly, I love the strikes, manifestations, the fact that they never let go off anything.
I love that life stops at 4 o’clock for a huge Pavlova or Religieuse because it is goûter (tea time).
I love the doors in all the colors and shapes and sometimes I stop by to take photos of them. I love taking a walk towards St Germain, asking advice to my caviste (oh yeah, I have one) and on my way seeing my neighbors and gossiping about the politicians.
All this is to tell you that Paris and I shared lots of fun and sad stories, sometimes melancholic sometimes sunny after all those years still a lot to uncover and always very beautiful in Septembers my dear Paris you are home. 😊