There's a certain bliss in wandering Paris' streets by foot, in that moment of discovery when you uncover a little path, garden, museum, or café. While in New York, you may be inclined to embrace the crowds, here in Paris, it's all about finding your own intimate place for conversations, work, and play.
On Saturday, I headed towards the 2nd arrondissement for a rendez vous with a potential partner for The Paris Collection. E had launched a similar site herself, and was here from Russia working in a startup in the intersecting fields of what I also thought was going to change the world: marketing, media and digital. We met at Mure, for some hearty organic greens that tasted as good as it felt afterwards, and began chatting about all the possibilities of the future. I was so happy to have found someone as passionate as I was about Paris and the digital world. There was so much that could still be done.
After we parted, I continued to wander around. After so many months of working on The Paris Collection, I felt like I've gotten to know Paris so well, yet there were still so many little streets that I had yet to discover. It was on those streets, I was sure, that the most precious places were to be found. Part of me couldn't wait to uncover them to the world, yet the another part wanted to keep them a secret, local and authentic as they are now.
Not soon after, I received a message from J about how she was in town from Lyon. We knew eachother in college, and were probably the only ones who ended up in France after graduation. There was too much to catch up on. We met in Café Suédois, this intimate little café in a courtyard opposite a garden. There was something utterly irresistible about drinking coffee outside while bathed in an glorious afternoon sun. J and I soon discovered that we had way more in common than our first names. We even kind of looked like sisters, we half joked.
It's true that there was something about Paris that I adored - It's a place that naturally nurtures relationships in a way that makes you want to make them a bigger and deeper part of your life than anywhere else.
Curious about New York? Read about Spring in New York from exactly one year and one day ago. :)