Vol. 7, No. 7 | Paris, Nice to Meet You
Hey Ya’ll!
Right before the pandemic, I started feeling this inexplicable pull to Paris. While many people love the city, it was never high on my list. Then all of a sudden I couldn’t shake this feeling that I was supposed to go or that I would go. I wrote about it briefly in April 2020 and then a year later I started my role with St~Germain. When we found out we’d go in May for our team summit I was thrilled and France didn’t disappoint.
Here are the top thoughts that I had while in France:
One of the main reasons that Paris is magical is because the sun sets so late. On my first jetlagged day, I didn’t venture out until 6pm and I was surprised by how much day I was left with. The sun didn’t set until close to 10. Overall, this is the thing that I miss the most because it served as the perfect backdrop for all the adventures that I had.
Paris reminds me a lot of DC. Walking across the Seine felt like I was in Georgetown. The architecture was very similar and I just felt the same there as I do in DC. I can’t put my
Black Paris is incredible. These aren’t the images I normally see and I was pleasantly surprised by all the culture that oozed from the city. I went to a cool little Jamaican dancehall on my first night and I was pretty much set for the trip.
My favorite meal was at a Cape Verdean restaurant named Celeste Caffey. I’d never had Cape Verdean food and was very pleasantly surprised at how much it reminded me of Brazilian food.
My favorite thing that I ate was this stuffed brioche like thing called La Praluline from Pralulus. Forget croissants…ok not really…but this is defintely better than any croissant that I’ve had. I was trying to bring one back but they were closed because almost everything is closed on Sunday.
We had a lot of second dinners. What is second dinner? Well, we’d have regular dinner about 6/7pm and then have another full meal at 3/4am. The scale told me later that this was a bad idea, but eating a whole fish at 3am is just an experience I can’t regret.
A large suitcase is a mistake when traveling by train. People will not be pleased as you’re trying to lug a massive suitcase down the stairs as they’re trying to get off.
You will not be pleased as you’re running 400 feet with a heavy suitcase because you didn’t know how to figure out where your train car would stop.
But definitely hop on the train and move around the rest of the country. We went down to Marseillan to visit Noilly Prat and I still haven’t figured out how to put this experience into words.
I realized that I’ve had a very French mindset for a very long time. I think that’s why Paris reminded me so much of DC because that’s where I refined this mentality of enjoying every moment of life. It’s just deeply who I am as a person.
Hope you’re all well! Clearly, Friday was the winner for the newsletter release day. See you next week!
Shannon