by Rebecca Earley | Nov 28, 2015 | Paris |
It has been two weeks, but when I close my eyes I can still hear the sirens. I was sitting in a café on rue de Bretagne with three friends visiting from the U.S. and England. They had just finished telling me how they had almost canceled their trip to Paris, because they were nervous about traveling alone without their boyfriends. “What if the Airbnb host kidnaps us? What if we end up in a dangerous neighborhood? How do we know we will be safe?” These were their questions, to which I replied, “Come on, don’t be ridiculous. It’s Paris.” That is when we heard the sirens. We looked outside and saw that the street was packed with unmoving cars, and a woman frantically ran out of the café. I asked the owner what was going on, and he replied in English, “There has been a fire. Just a few blocks from here. There were gunshots.” I knew he had made a mistake in English. There are no gunshots in Paris. He meant to say a fire. I instantly switched to French and asked him again. He replied in French, “There was a shooting. People have died. Just a few blocks from here. There are hostages.” I looked at my phone and saw 3 missed calls and 7 texts from my boyfriend, as well as a text from a friend in London. My body went cold. I tried to catch my breath. There are no gunshots in Paris. This was a terrorist attack. We tried to hide in the back of the restaurant, except all of the walls were...
by My Paris Story | Apr 26, 2015 | Paris, Paris tips |
What gets one out of bed on a Sunday morning? Well, if you’re in Paris, the choices for how to spend the day are not only plentiful but also relaxing a restorative. Here are a few tips on how to spend your Sunday… Stop by any of the local marchés to pick up raw snacks and a baguette for a picnic later. A leisurely stroll through St. Germain. Even though most shops are closed on Sundays, it’s fun to window shop (or faire du lèche-vitrine!) and avoid the crowds that fill the sidewalks the rest of the week. Head to Parc Monceau on the border of the 8th and 17th arrondissements, where it will be filled with children playing and picnickers. Plant yourself with a loved one beneath a beautiful tree and sprawl out for hours as you take in yet another beautiful scene of our beloved...
by My Paris Story | Mar 6, 2015 | Paris |
Beautiful Pont au Change and the Conciergerie from the quai many years ago, Sometimes all you need is a walk along the Seine and to see the sparkling Eiffel...
by Margot Nightingale | Jan 22, 2015 | Paris |
SHOCK I’ve been here before. I know this interruption to the morning routine, this onslaught of news and information blaring from the television and radio like jagged spears. I’ve heard the siren song rushing across town. I’ve choked on smoke and ash, tasted the detritus of aftermath. The crushing pain and loss of innocence under a burning blue sky. On a grey day in Paris, years later, a red sea of fury is released. An amalgam of red and grey and black flames. Violence and chaos being the last refuge of a tired mind. Murder, confusion, protest. Tout est pardonné. One who knows his devil knows his God Do they? Do we? Je suis confused. I’ve had a few heated conversations with close friends since the attacks in Paris on Charlie Hebdo. We are all pained for the senseless loss. We feel untethered. But deeper into the conversation, differences emerge. Freedom, it turns out, is an incendiary concept. I’m not confused about what feels right in the nettle of my bones and I express it in company. Over dinner, at coffee, in the street.. everybody is expressing their expectations and boundaries of freedom. I feel as though I’m wrestling no grey matter about liberty and freedom of expression. But I must be, on some abstract level. The only way to set our eyes apart from propaganda, blasphemy, or provocative editorial is to possess enough education to know the difference between dogma and intellectual resistance. Those who wish to be offended, will take offense. Then they will take prisoners and the spiral begins. Of course this is the crux of the problem. Education. From Malala...
by Rebecca Earley | Jan 19, 2015 | Paris |
Note: I refrained from posting this in light of the recent Anti-Charlie events and the violence surrounding them. I had written this post before they occurred. In the end, I decided to still post it. I’ll let you, the reader, decide if you agree with my decision or not. You know how you will always remember where you were on September 11th? Well, now I will also remember, very vividly, my 29th birthday. It was near lunch time on January 7th, when I received a BBC notice on my phone saying that two people were shot at the Charlie Hebdo magazine office in Paris. I looked up and asked my French co-workers, “What is Charlie Hebdo?” They looked at me and answered quietly, “a French satirical magazine that is often targeted by terrorists.” I quickly searched for the Charlie Hebdo website to see where the office was located, but the site would not load, making me wonder how quickly the shooting news was traveling. It finally refreshed for a second and I saw a glimpse of the area code “75011,” which is near where my boyfriend and friends’ office is. I frantically kept refreshing the page until finally I was reassured that the office was far enough away from anyone that I knew and started packing up my things to head to lunch. At lunch my co-workers and I were all laughing and keeping the mood light discussing birthday and new year plans. I grabbed my phone to show them a photo, when I saw the latest BBC news update: 12 dead at the Charlie Hebdo attack. By the...
by My Paris Story | Jan 12, 2015 | Paris |
