Autumn in Paris

Before Fall slips away into Winter (or becomes entirely overshadowed by the tragic events of late), I wanted to remember and share how extraordinary it was this year, how the city was flooded with warm light and leafy golden pathways, how every turn was a reminder of how marvelous Paris in the Fall looks when we pause to take it all in.

"...the light can be impossibly bright and blindingly beautiful when we turn towards it. 

I hope we’ll collectively turn to the light" - Photographer David du Chemin

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One Humanity

There are no simple words to describe the terror of last Friday's attacks in and around Paris, the violence, the horror, the grief and sadness that now cloaks the city, its country and the world... how can it be summed up when there are too many words of anger and too much sorrow.

Though shocked and deeply horrified, as bullets and grenades went off across the river Seine, thankfully my family was safely inside our home. The following morning we heard from neighbors and friends whose boyfriend or teacher or friend was at the stadium, concert hall or restaurant, making us feel not so removed after all... and with France in a State of Emergency, the school outings planned for my boys have been cancelled for a while and stricter security measures are in place all around the city and throughout the country.

What's most unsettling and disheartening really is knowing that above all this turmoil and intolerance and fear, we are all one humanity, all of us made up of flesh and bone and a beating heart. One humanity with a myriad of skin colors and languages and landscapes that can, if we try, live peacefully on our one planet. If I have learned one thing living in France these past 20 months, it is that because of our differences, we gain connection and understanding and become one community under the umbrella of one humanity.

Last weekend a friend described a television program they saw about a group of artists promoting love as the answer to war, and my friend questioned if indeed the answer was this simple. Of course not! It is much too complicated, overly entangled in ideology and politics and on and on... I don't know the answer, but history tells us more fighting is clearly not.

I just wish we didn't live in a world where our children risk dying on any given day from being outside having dinner or enjoying a music or sports event; where they have to witness the unspeakable horrors man can inflict on one another, followed by war and then repeated.

Could we somehow learn to live in the manner in which we respond when violence touches one of our communities - with compassion and an open heart. But just as I write that it reverberates with simplistic idealism... as do all wild and hopeful imaginings. Alas why not try...

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"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

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* Thank you so very much friends for reaching out to express your concern for me and my family - xo

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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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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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