Paris’ 6th arrondissement is a special little corner of the city. Yes, it does have a touristy side (hi, Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore), but it’s also just the classic Paris you envision when you think of the city. Picture-perfect buildings, florists with flowers spilling onto the sidewalks, grandeur and art somehow seamlessly […]

Just before jaunting through Provence, Sarah, the picnic hostess to end all picnics, threw a Midsummer celebration in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont in the 19th arrondissement. There was an heirloom tomato and burrata salad and bundles upon bundles of flowers as we gathered to celebrate summer on an ironically cloudy and eventually rainy Paris […]

The train rolled into the station and I reached into my pocket, searching for my phone. I was already running late and it was a little drizzly, so I was trying to figure out what exit to take for Belleville. To my dismay, which turned to anxiety, I realised that in my rush to get […]

I was not always the biggest fan of Montmartre, Paris. It was rather far from where I was living at the time; there are too many hills and not enough escalators; it’s a little gritty; and on the other hand also very touristy. I find myself always on extra alert for pickpockets, especially near the […]

There’s a delightful surprise in the Latin Quarter, something wildly unexpected and out of the blue — or, rather, the appropriate expression is “out of the Haussmann architecture.” It’s la Grande Mosquée de Paris. There is a small admission fee, but if you love architecture, this is such a treat. It was built between 1922 and […]

We marched along, gravel crunching under our shoes, flip-flops; ballet flats; hiking sandals; les baskets rounding out the mix. The lilliputian chateau diminished into the trees as we found a quiet spot for our pique-nique in view of a fountain. Wildflowers swayed violently in the breeze, a seeming haphazard arrangement of nature, but, in fact, very well thought […]

[As the 14e is quite large, this post will be updated as I explore more. I made an artist friend today, on my first visit, and he said he’ll take me around to all the good spots.] When I think of Paris, the 14e is not what comes to mind at all. A little gritty […]

There we sat, in the pleasant afternoon summer sun, under the sign that read “Baladobus.” Supposedly, it would take us to the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay. It was 45 minutes past two, the hour at which this supposed bus was to arrive. One of our travel companions had stretched himself out on one of […]

When I was in university, I was obliged to read Chateaubriand. While it would be very nice to wax about all the lovely things I learned and how marvellous he is, the truth is that I remember very little. Even that is a generous statement. I remember nothing. My level of French at the time […]

Humid sunshine and ominous clouds greeted us as we tumbled off the train in front of the minuscule train station. We had arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small village where the public transport comes only once an hour. We were already slightly sticky, and the sun high in the sky, as we followed the only road, […]