I can't believe I've been here a week (tomorrow); unbelievable!
Today was very quiet. I got out for a few hours and walked around the 6th and 7th arrondissements in Saint Germain along (and around) Boulevard Saint Germain (the place where I got all twisted around the first day I was here).
Today, everything is 100% more familiar and I have a much better sense of direction - thankfully! I'm definitely in one of the more (if not the) swankiest arrondissements in the city - lucky me! The shops around here are amazing! Etro, Sonia Rykiel, Armani, oh my. There was an oversized shiny, metallic silver handbag in the window of Sonia Rykiel that stopped me dead in my tracks. I licked that window for a very long time...
I saw the Eglise Saint Germain des Pres up close. It's the oldest church in Paris - and it looks it! Then I strolled (yes, strolled) by Brasserie Lipp, Les Deux Magots, Le Cafe de Flore - all stuffed to overflowing with locals and tourists. I remember reading in A Moveable Feast that each of the ex-pat literary figures of the Lost Generation would stake claim to one of these three cafes (all within spitting distance of one another) and it was pretty much verboten to cross over onto another's turf. Hemingway was more than a little peeved when he saw Ford Maddox Ford (someone he loathed) perched in his beloved cafe (though it escapes me which one now, darnit!).
As a hack writer, I'd had fantasies of finding my own little cafe; one that might inspire me to get some writing done. It's impossible. Too noisy and worse - too interesting. I'm a people-watcher in one of the best places to people-watch so I will have to write otherwheres.
I ended up catching a cold - grrr. I sat here and sneezed about 13 times in a row - no lie. It's a French cold, though, so while I may be sick - it's a chic sick.
-Shannon
Today was very quiet. I got out for a few hours and walked around the 6th and 7th arrondissements in Saint Germain along (and around) Boulevard Saint Germain (the place where I got all twisted around the first day I was here).
Today, everything is 100% more familiar and I have a much better sense of direction - thankfully! I'm definitely in one of the more (if not the) swankiest arrondissements in the city - lucky me! The shops around here are amazing! Etro, Sonia Rykiel, Armani, oh my. There was an oversized shiny, metallic silver handbag in the window of Sonia Rykiel that stopped me dead in my tracks. I licked that window for a very long time...
I saw the Eglise Saint Germain des Pres up close. It's the oldest church in Paris - and it looks it! Then I strolled (yes, strolled) by Brasserie Lipp, Les Deux Magots, Le Cafe de Flore - all stuffed to overflowing with locals and tourists. I remember reading in A Moveable Feast that each of the ex-pat literary figures of the Lost Generation would stake claim to one of these three cafes (all within spitting distance of one another) and it was pretty much verboten to cross over onto another's turf. Hemingway was more than a little peeved when he saw Ford Maddox Ford (someone he loathed) perched in his beloved cafe (though it escapes me which one now, darnit!).
As a hack writer, I'd had fantasies of finding my own little cafe; one that might inspire me to get some writing done. It's impossible. Too noisy and worse - too interesting. I'm a people-watcher in one of the best places to people-watch so I will have to write otherwheres.
I ended up catching a cold - grrr. I sat here and sneezed about 13 times in a row - no lie. It's a French cold, though, so while I may be sick - it's a chic sick.
-Shannon
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