On the Cusp of Spring | Paris

We waited so long for the beginnings of Spring, so ready to shed all traces of Winter. But once Spring officially arrived, it told us to remain patient still... so we sit on the cusp of two opposing seasons however far our feet dangle over the edge ready to leap onto the other side. The temperatures are slowly ticking upwards, but ever so slowly. Soft sunlight beckons us in the morning and tricks us into believing we can fling open the windows.

These days of transition are paralleled all around us, our societies in a constant state of change. And for me, at home, my boys are getting older, becoming more and more independent, more unlike little boys, also making that shift from one stage of boyhood to another. This beautiful bittersweet ballad plays on and on and on...

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Paris: A City to Call their Own

So on this Autumn day in October, the boys did what children are designed to do when let loose in a sprawling little city... they maneuvered through it like it was one giant obstacle course. Holding my breath as they weave through and around crowded boulevards and cobbled walkways (to the dismay of tourists, rollerbladers and strolling Parisians who'd prefer not to be sideswiped by a meter high torpedo), the boys are becoming more and more at ease within the streets of Paris, their scooters gliding through the city like crayons along a drawing, "feeling something deep and native within them expand and enlarge and illumine*..."

Some of their favorite spaces to ride their trottinette are pictured above - between the stone columns inside the arcades of the Palais Royal, the wide sidewalks on the perimeter of Jardin du Luxembourg and the southern end of the Place du Carrousel against the backdrop of the Louvre. I remind them what a great privilege it is to have such a playground, the former space of royals... and for now I skip  certain details like when there was once a menacing guillotine on the very plaza they just ran through (I leave that to their teachers ;). 

* a quote from Global Mom, the book I just finished reading and wanted to share. It is a wonderfully inspiring and thoughtfully engaging memoir by Melissa Dalton-Bradford about her experiences of settling in and being unsettled in various global locales (including Paris) with her large family. Despite the stumbles and struggles, she beautifully illustrates how to define home and thrive within a community. Melissa's writing is wise, warm and full of wit and humor.

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Rentrée and the First Signs of Fall

School is back in session... and so we return to the jolting rhythm of schedules and routine. The shift is sudden and surprising, even if it happens every year, my family never seems to get used to it.

There is alas a season for all things, and now we rise before the sun and have breakfast with the dim glow of dawn. The boys have readied their desks for homework and reading, and my eldest is already having to memorize poems from Jean de La Fontaine...

The light and temperatures have also signaled a change, Fall is certainly making its way into the landscape. Are you ready?

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Visiting Summer in Paris...

The official start of summer break for the boys is in a few days, and they're doubly excited this year because they get to mark it with the arrival of their beloved uncle and aunt from the States! It is also the first of hopefully many family visits from across the big blue ocean.

We plan to share with them a more intimate Paris, the more familial city that is for now our new home. The one that includes regular runs to the boulanger and fromager, leisurely walks along the Seine, stops at our favorite neighborhood cafés, and maybe even a picnic or two.

We'll also be heading out to the Loire Valley and the Champagne region as well. If you'd like to come along, I'll be posting on Instagram @catherine_goron :) a bientot!

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Frolicking | Paris

For their first week of spring break, the boys enjoyed frolicking around the city under an uncharacteristically warm April in Paris. Excuse my enthusiasm, but the weather was spectacular this past week - sunny seventy degree days! Comfortable enough to keep coats and gloves home, perfect temperatures for running around without breaking a sweat, but still cool under the shade.

What surprised me were the Parisians... as soon as the thermostat hit the low 70s, they shed their coats and so much more. Out came the sandals, short sleeves and summer dresses - it was a stunning show of skin! I think this was a way of exhaling from a long gray winter and because (like we experienced last summer) we don't know how many warm summery days there will be this summer, so take advantage whenever and as soon as you can... Il faut profiter!

As I write this though, Paris has quietly shifted back to cooler slate colored days starting this morning... which makes for a perfect time to change scenery. Ever since Paris became our home base, my family and I have vowed to try and discover other cities around Europe when we got the opportunity, so we'll be heading to Portugal soon.

If you'd like to come exploring with us, I'll be sharing photos on Instagram at @catherine_goron :)

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The lovely and talented Adrienne of My Memory Art, who spent 12 years in Paris with her family, recently started posting wonderfully nostalgic photos of her family during their time here. And this has instilled a greater urgency for me capture the precious moments of my family in the city. As a parent, given an opportunity like this for which I am so grateful, I am profoundly compelled...

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Maman's Paris

I was recently asked how I see Paris as a mother,… and I thought the best way to answer is through photographs. A few images for now that begin to scrape the surface of an evolving answer. I see a city that I thought I knew so well unfold before me from a three foot high perspective of wide-eyed wonder and punctuated play. Faded into the background is the Paris soaking in my sentimentalities, it becomes instead a jungle of extraordinary play spaces and boundless immediacy.

What my boys allow me to see is far more than what I see without them. I feel so very fortunate to be able to capture these magical vanishing moments of them against the timeless backdrop of Paris...

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This post is dedicated to my beloved brother Paul [#leica]

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The Paris Apartment | Home

We emptied the last plastic bin the other day, and with that final gesture of unpacking (10 months later), the feeling of being home finally and truly sunk in.

So we invited the family my husband has known since his childhood for a little housewarming combined with a celebration of two birthdays. And all at once, the apartment we moved into - our physical address, our dwelling place, where we keep our things - unfolded into the space where deep lasting memories are created and we could at last comfortably call home...

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Words & Le Mot Juste: Dépaysement

Dépaysement [day pay eez manh]: disorientation or the unsteady feeling of being displaced,
in unfamiliar surroundings, away from your origin (or simply a change of scenery)

Looking back at my recent posts, I appear to be a hopeless tourist in love. And admittedly I am… Paris is Paris, and by her very nature she draws you in even when you’re too busy looking down or away.

Behind the scenes, however, I have experienced moments of extreme dépaysement - that feeling of tumult after moving from your home country to forge a new home in another. It's the mental and emotional exercises I've been going through during this time of change and adaptation, to feel understood and comfortable and connected. It's the twinge of dislocation I feel when my boys talk about missing friends and family and asking why there wasn't a real Halloween. It's all the why's and other big and small things that make up settling in and settling down somewhere new where the society thinks, acts and talks differently. It's being forced to bend your brain, adjust your perceptions and figure out who you truly are, what really matters and what you believe about the world, for real.

My husband and I joke that living in France makes us feel at times like we're muddling through during the Middle Ages and made to believe we're the ones who need to evolve. As if the country's long and arresting history is weighing down on us. Believe it when you hear that the greatest assets you can have here are patience and a sense of humor. Lots of it, easy to access and then some stocked away for when you get depleted.

But we realize this is all because we now live in another context, another culture, another world. The differences are more pronounced some days, but at some point we'll hardly notice them... that's when the differences will cease being good or bad, they'll simply be differences. And we'll discover that in what makes us dissimilar from our new neighbors lies our similarities - the preservation of customs and need for certain freedoms for example.

My feelings of dépaysement or homesickness are not of the I-miss-home-so much-I-want-to-go-back kind. Not at all. I'm grateful for every second I'm here and get wistful at the thought of leaving. It's just sometimes when everything feels like a foggy reality that I long for no more guessing or confusion, where things are familiar and easy… this is when whispers of wisdom echo in my head "but life is not meant to be familiar and easy." Ah yes, yes of course.

I know there’s not much to complain about living in Paris. Transitions take time and I accept that...with a glass of wine in one each hand  ;)

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Autumn in Paris | Jardin du Luxembourg

For one of the most visited parks in Paris, Jardin du Luxembourg sometimes feels, during certain days under certain weather conditions, like you received a special invitation to enter this magical space and explore its gardens and promenades in all its tranquility... it felt very much like this last week when I went with my boys on a chilly October morning after the grey clouds finally broke.

Like a dream awake, I still find myself easily startled by the reality of where I am, my surroundings and moments like these...

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“...by observing things with a great deal of attention you eventually wrest some of their secrets from them, 

making them utter what they would most like to keep to themselves.” - Julien Green

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