Last night I had drinks with an old colleague back from the days I advertised sugar kids cereal. He is from LA and our working relationship was mostly by phone at odd hours and then we'd spend a few weeks here and there if we were doing commercial shoots in LA. He was in Paris after spending a few intense weeks in Europe for various production projects and we met up at his hotel near Etoile.
Luckily it was so close to our apartment that I was able to walk there in less than ten minutes. What I realized while walking there is how there is so much of the surrounding streets around our apartment that I don't know at all. I took a back way to the hotel in an effort to walk down a random street and found:
I found two small cafés that look like perfect places for an apero once the weather warms up. I found an independent bio store that had a relatively good variety of bulk items - including walnuts - which are more difficult than you would expect to find, bulk or not bulk. I found a crappy sushi place that maybe will be good for a cheeky take-out lunch.
What I also discovered is that there is so much of my neighborhood that I really don't know. It's like once I found the few convenient places, I quit exploring and I'm not sure why. There is something about exploring here that I have hesitation about. I'm not very good at it. Maybe I was never good at it and since I was never really good at it, I'm even worse at it in a foreign language. Maybe it's because I have "more" time to explore and so do less exploring. Or is it that I feel guilty exploring when I'm trying to create something that is more of a normal job type schedule. I'm not sure.
What I do know is that I need to make more of an effort - even if it's just once a week - to walk around my neighborhood more and explore what's in my own backyard.
I wish I had an opportunity to explore a neighborhood. My neighborhood took me about all of five minutes to explore and I did that months ago. It's so boring. (can you tell I'm itching to get to a city asap?!)
ReplyDeleteYou advertised sugary kids cereal?! That's really hard for me to imagine!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder that I should spend more time exploring my neighborhood. I'm usually in such a hurry to get all the mundane stuff done (grocery shopping, market, bank, etc) that I always take the shortest route from point A to point B. As soon as the weather is warmer, I'll have to spend some leisurely afternoons strolling and see what I can find.
I noticed that as well -- when I first moved into the Marais, I found a couple of decent restaurants and figured out the main streets, but that's about it. It took me months of short walking trips to get the real lay of the land, just in the 3eme.
ReplyDeleteNow that I'm vagabonding around Paris, I've started to force myself to take a long walk around whatever neighborhood I'm staying in for the week/month. It's helped a lot, and all of the neighborhoods have such different personalities.
There's something to be said about exploring your own hood, and I know what you mean about feeling guilty for what would otherwise be viewed as mere wandering. My neighborhood is a bit like yours, quiet and bourgeois, but if you look around a bit, there are some cute spots.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Sara Louise and I are thinking of doing an LPV Fashion Week, we'd really need you to consult with the planning!! We're so joking...at least I think so.
: )
My Paris rule is that I never take the same walking route to and from my destination. Kind of forces me to explore and helps me keep my finger on the pulse of my 'hood.
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