This has brought back so many memories. My sister used to live near Pantheon for over 10 years and I loved visiting her and discovering the city, it feels like a second home. And it's funny how it has a very distinct character from London, especially on warm and sunny days. People in Paris take to the streets, the terraces, there's even more street music than usual... In London they just go to lie naked on the grass and drink warm beer. Not the same.
my heart longs for what you describe. I recall my journeys to Paris with my wife, born and raised in Belgium and very familiar with Paris, who would guide this New Yorker to so many lovely places. Your remembrance and the magic carpet you create has brought tears to my eyes. Thank you.
Wow, this read like the "write five things" exercise threaded into one completed piece. (I am participating in your A year of Writing Dangerously workshop.) I would love to know the process behind this.
I especially loved the part about some people wearing spring clothes too early. I actually had the opposite experience. Tokyo has already observed cherry blossoms blooming (the earliest in the entire country for how many years in a row), so spring is (un)officially here. I, being from New England, went out wearing corduroy pants, turtle neck shirt, a quilted jacket, and a hat and felt out of place.
Oh thanks! Glad to have you in the workshop. This was just me sitting down to write a letter about my day after dinner (it then refused to send, which was annoying). Maybe doing five things for so long has influenced how I string my thoughts together.
That is so early for the cherry blossoms! The Parisians are pretty good with transitional dressing, but it's still mostly winter clothes.
I like how you describe this as writing “a letter about my day after dinner.” I have a blog elsewhere (not on Substack) and that’s generally how I like to write for it. Like a letter to friends, a one-way conversation, a glimpse of my world. Although I have been known to use Five Things for my blog posts too 😉
Anyway, thank you for this. Your writing reminds me of all the walks I took when I lived in San Francisco in the late 80s. It also makes me hope that I’ll make it to Paris someday.
I feel like NYC has a cousin kind of day, but it always feels longer, because you have to travel farther to get to the park, and everything is always a little more exhausting there.
Paris has the advantage over New York of many charming, smaller parks. Very near the hotel where we stay, there's a little triangular park called Square Boucicaut where Raspail, de Sevres, and Babylone converge. It feels to me like very much a neighborhood place. And the size is just large enough to give me a sense of being away from the street and small enough for me to feel peaceful.
Thank you for sharing!!! We are still weeks away from our first warm spring-like day here in Maine, so I am living vicariously through yours lol. One of the things I really like about substack is the world-wide smorgasborg of writing to choose from. I've never been to France, and I don't know that it's in the cards for my life, but through your writing I am able to experience just a little piece of that world. Hoping you feel better soon!
I don't recall seeing ponies at the Luxembourg Gardens in the years I lived in Paris, but then I wasn't looking for them as I would have been too big to ride them! I have a dim and sweet memory of riding a donkey in the Tuileries when I was about 4. That would have been 1969. These ponies don't look unhappy.
Glad you checked on pigeon malignant feet as a result of environmental factors like feet getting tangled in human hair as well as city conditions vs cleaner country conditions where less malignancy is found.
It sounds like a beautiful day! I'm headed to Paris (en route to Orquevaux) in May and cannot wait. I'm already just imagining the writing inspiration (for AYOWD)!
I so loved reading this, having coffee in my favourite bistro. I walked with you, shared the bench, soaked up the burgeoning smells and sounds of almost Spring. Aren’t we all willing it to be? Beautiful picture painted in words, get well soon and thank you. I’m there with you.❤️
I had to check whether these were the same musicians I recorded outside the Musee D'Orsay in October 2017. I don't *think* any of them are the same, but I'm not certain. https://photos.app.goo.gl/JiBk7E9JEAjJEucE7
Summer - Loved this glimpse of a strawberry spring day in Paris, when a single of day of spring seems to jump ahead in the calendar, just to let us know that it is indeed coming back soon.
Those strawberry spring days are fleeting but magical. Thank you for bringing us with you on this day.
This has brought back so many memories. My sister used to live near Pantheon for over 10 years and I loved visiting her and discovering the city, it feels like a second home. And it's funny how it has a very distinct character from London, especially on warm and sunny days. People in Paris take to the streets, the terraces, there's even more street music than usual... In London they just go to lie naked on the grass and drink warm beer. Not the same.
😂
my heart longs for what you describe. I recall my journeys to Paris with my wife, born and raised in Belgium and very familiar with Paris, who would guide this New Yorker to so many lovely places. Your remembrance and the magic carpet you create has brought tears to my eyes. Thank you.
Thank you Jeff!
Wow, this read like the "write five things" exercise threaded into one completed piece. (I am participating in your A year of Writing Dangerously workshop.) I would love to know the process behind this.
I especially loved the part about some people wearing spring clothes too early. I actually had the opposite experience. Tokyo has already observed cherry blossoms blooming (the earliest in the entire country for how many years in a row), so spring is (un)officially here. I, being from New England, went out wearing corduroy pants, turtle neck shirt, a quilted jacket, and a hat and felt out of place.
Oh thanks! Glad to have you in the workshop. This was just me sitting down to write a letter about my day after dinner (it then refused to send, which was annoying). Maybe doing five things for so long has influenced how I string my thoughts together.
That is so early for the cherry blossoms! The Parisians are pretty good with transitional dressing, but it's still mostly winter clothes.
I like how you describe this as writing “a letter about my day after dinner.” I have a blog elsewhere (not on Substack) and that’s generally how I like to write for it. Like a letter to friends, a one-way conversation, a glimpse of my world. Although I have been known to use Five Things for my blog posts too 😉
Anyway, thank you for this. Your writing reminds me of all the walks I took when I lived in San Francisco in the late 80s. It also makes me hope that I’ll make it to Paris someday.
Love those kind of days. Lived in Paris for 5 years and this kind of days are not the same elsewhere ❤️
I feel like NYC has a cousin kind of day, but it always feels longer, because you have to travel farther to get to the park, and everything is always a little more exhausting there.
Paris has the advantage over New York of many charming, smaller parks. Very near the hotel where we stay, there's a little triangular park called Square Boucicaut where Raspail, de Sevres, and Babylone converge. It feels to me like very much a neighborhood place. And the size is just large enough to give me a sense of being away from the street and small enough for me to feel peaceful.
Thank you for sharing!!! We are still weeks away from our first warm spring-like day here in Maine, so I am living vicariously through yours lol. One of the things I really like about substack is the world-wide smorgasborg of writing to choose from. I've never been to France, and I don't know that it's in the cards for my life, but through your writing I am able to experience just a little piece of that world. Hoping you feel better soon!
Thank you Samantha! I love that about Substack too.
I don't recall seeing ponies at the Luxembourg Gardens in the years I lived in Paris, but then I wasn't looking for them as I would have been too big to ride them! I have a dim and sweet memory of riding a donkey in the Tuileries when I was about 4. That would have been 1969. These ponies don't look unhappy.
Donkeys in the Tuileries! I hope these ponies are okay. They seem very sweet.
Thanks for this.
Has meanings to bring memories back from, yes 1980. A poem comes to mind, to be written, describing my walks through Paris...
Glad you checked on pigeon malignant feet as a result of environmental factors like feet getting tangled in human hair as well as city conditions vs cleaner country conditions where less malignancy is found.
Great read. This so reminds me of the month I spent on a writing retreat in Paris. Thanks for sharing.
I might have to go pet the ponies myself 😂
Same! I guess for me it works to just look at them.
It sounds like a beautiful day! I'm headed to Paris (en route to Orquevaux) in May and cannot wait. I'm already just imagining the writing inspiration (for AYOWD)!
Wonderful!
Thank you for sharing your hoping spring day. Here in the states it's still too cold for anything budding. Hope you continue to feel well.
Yes, I am the woman with the bare legs too soon in the season. Always.
Will they let adults ride the larger ponies? Ponies are sturdy!
I think it depends on the size of the adult!
I so loved reading this, having coffee in my favourite bistro. I walked with you, shared the bench, soaked up the burgeoning smells and sounds of almost Spring. Aren’t we all willing it to be? Beautiful picture painted in words, get well soon and thank you. I’m there with you.❤️
Lovely! (And thank you, I'm feeling better.)
I had to check whether these were the same musicians I recorded outside the Musee D'Orsay in October 2017. I don't *think* any of them are the same, but I'm not certain. https://photos.app.goo.gl/JiBk7E9JEAjJEucE7
I think they are different, but I see what you mean!
Summer - Loved this glimpse of a strawberry spring day in Paris, when a single of day of spring seems to jump ahead in the calendar, just to let us know that it is indeed coming back soon.
Those strawberry spring days are fleeting but magical. Thank you for bringing us with you on this day.