After I moved to Paris, I stopped reading Paris-based literature for a while. I read a couple of Paris memoirs – women who moved here and had glamorous new lives with fun international friend groups and impressive careers and endless disposable income to try wine and enjoy travel.
That just wasn’t my experience when I moved to France, and to be honest, it made me a bit jealous. I was a student, on a laughably modest salary, and I just found it depressing that I wasn’t having the “right kind” of Paris experience by living as a student. And I often felt that I was missing out.
As a “real” adult, I can now confirm that Paris is much more fun when you can experience restaurants and wine bars and museums – and picking up some Paris literature again has brought me back into seeing how beautiful and historical Paris is, even when living here feels hard.
The administrative challenges we navigate daily with our clients – and the cultural differences of getting annoyed at some things that are just so French can make Paris feel heavy, so I have learned to seek out reminders of why I love living in this city.
It’s why I was delighted to read Janet Skeslien Charles’s beautiful prose in The Paris Library, and her telling about the German occupation of Paris during World War II. The rich history of Paris, and of the American community in Paris, was beautifully rendered, and I was so excited to have her as my podcast / webinar guest last week.
Living in Paris, or anywhere in France, can get hard sometimes, no matter how much you love it, so remember to find ways to bring back your appreciation for the life you’re creating here.
Here are this week’s announcements:
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