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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Chasing Light around the Latin Quarter...

Drawn to the scattered light beginning to peek above the buildings of the lower Latin Quarter, I detoured left on Rue L'Homonde instead of passing through Rue Mouffetard where I normally go to buy fruit at the bottom market before heading home to work. If I hurried, I could catch the dappled sunlight before it disappeared again to reappear much later, as it's in the habit of doing on Autumn mornings...

So I made my way within the maze of narrow streets and passageways in the search of the glow. And there, in the quiet of morning, I felt the faintest brush of bygone ghosts accompanying me along my walk, leading the way.

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Autumn in Paris: La Vie en Orange...

After a short heatwave in July followed by a brilliant Summer of warm sunny days, Paris, as brazen and impetuous as she is beautiful and beguiling, decided before the end of the season that it was a fine time to switch wardrobes... and so just like that we fell into Fall and autumnal rituals - hot chocolate, thicker blankets, added layers, the crackle of falling golden leaves underfoot.

Here we go ready or not!.... have you cozied into the new season?

p.s. To celebrate Fall, enjoy 20% off your purchase at The French Kiosk! As always, free shipping worldwide. Use code "FALL20" at checkout.

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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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Traveling towards Home...

Do you find that throughout your travels, no matter where you go, you discover a piece of Home... a plane of wider context, a connectedness and familiarity, a space that leads you closer to who you're becoming and reveals how marvelously you fit into this amazing world.

Au revoir August and new discoveries and slow summer days with my boys... until next year. 

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