1: Amuse-bouche

one year in Paris, again

Sep 05, 2022

This feels familiar

Reviving this blog for yet another stint in PARIS (as if I spend any time anywhere else). I guess I wouldn’t be too mad if my only online footprints traced me back to this magical city.

Tucked in with a good book on the plane (Out by Natsuo Karino, highly recommend for a crime thriller), I pondered on some goals for this second stint. I love airplanes for this reason: you reflect on your entire life with absolutely zero expectation to act on any of the life-changing revelations (because I refuse to pay for in-flight WiFi). Shuffle your angstiest downloaded Spotify playlist and just brood…

Despite this prime setting and seemingly “profound” new beginning, the only goal I could come up with was to speak with the flight attendants in French rather than English on this exact flight back home to NC come end of May.

Had to get a La’s Du Falafel within the first 24 hrs.

And I wanted to bring this blog back. I will seriously be missing (and lacking) that Cordon Bleu content - and the buddies I used to romp around Paris with.

But in Paris, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

But Different

I have so many new freedoms this time around that I simply did not get to enjoy two years ago. EXCITING!

Window-shopping pastries in my new neighborhood 👀

Missing New York… maybe just a little bit.

The freedom to EAT in RESTAURANTS and experience Parisian CAFES will be revolutionary for this blog and its content.

Bye-bye, 7pm curfew for 6/7 months of my stay. No more listlessly looking at shackled cafe chairs, longing for the day I can finally sit in one. In Paris Part 2, this one-to-one euro to dollar conversion rate enables as many cafe au laits and croissants as a student budget can buy.

And this second chance to live here ushers in a better relationship with food in general. Despite feeling much older and wiser and healthier now, one thing has remained the same: I still adore writing about food.

My school schedule doesn’t involve rolling out puff pastry or lining a tart mold anymore (just a lot of French and Art), so I got to get my fix somewhere.

Learning French be like:

How I’ve felt walking around the, albeit considerably more crowded streets in this 80-degree (sorry, 26 Celsius) heat being horribly rusty in my French - after promising myself to practice all summer.

But, just like this sculpture of a boy riding a turtle in the Louvre, I need to embrace the adventure, the language, and all of the changes to this city and myself that this year will bring! #deep

I promise you that this blog will cover my only most ~glamorous~ eats, but these bananas spotted in my homestay (yes, living with a French family) kitchen were too funny not to include. This will be interesting.

More to come,,, restaurant reviews, pastry tours, European travels - stay tuned & à bientôt❤️
Chloé

Accent on the E

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