What is your favourite city in the world? And why is it really your favourite city?
For me, it is Paris yet everytime I sit down to write about Paris I just don’t know how to explain this city. I struggle to find the right words and right combination of words. I can’t even pinpoint what exactly I like about Paris as it’s not just one physical building or area.
To put it even more abstractly, it moves my soul.
I think it’s the culture that I like. But as an outsider, can I truly understand what the French (or Parisian) culture is? Perhaps it’s what I think the culture is or what the culture that is presented to the rest of the world is. Or is it some sort of obsession for my inner Francophile?
It’s the accessibility of second hand bookstores and the Bouquinistes that line the Seine with their classic Parisian prints and old books.
A hommage to what once was yet still is.
And all this, is expressed on every street and every turn. This external placing is almost as if it’s to stimulate the inner life and inner thought.
Maybe it’s knowing great artists of every kind once walked these cobbly streets and sat in these same cafes looking out to the world passing by. The journeys and stories that travel in the expansive tunnels under this city and on the streets.
Maybe it’s also the relationship to food. Enjoyment in the time it takes to create food- the longer the better. All the al fresco dining and how busy every cafe always seems to be at any time of the day. Humans simply enjoying the day. It’s enjoyment.
Enjoyment of food, time and the arts.
It is time and connection. A melange of past, present and future all co-existing ironically and purposefully. Remembering and keeping the arts alive like perhaps it is needed in all the blood that runs through us today.
It’s the symmetrical apartments with their red flowers tumbling over the iron railings from the tiny balconies. Lines that lead the eyes on a building, towards a building and across town. It’s the little architectural blemishes on lamp posts, doors and bridges. The attention to detail and willingness to make something beautiful.
Not only for the eyes but the soul.
Is it all this and more or do I have my rose coloured glasses on?
Other posts you might like: - Sightseeing Around Paris - Trying A Croissant Baking Class in Paris - Provence In A Day - Mon Premier Post En Français
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