Do, Eat & See in Paris
A few things I've enjoyed recently
The next Leaving America feature will run at the end of the month, stay tuned! Thank you for ALL for your enthusiasm around the series.
ONE MUSEUM OUTING
I’m a big believer in solo dates and have always enjoyed my alone time with a book (and as
recently wrote, reading dates preserve our brains from too many screens and keep us away from the news for our sanity) but I’ve long struggled with museum-going on my own. I find it helpful to discuss what I’m viewing and question what it makes me feel, if anything. Perhaps I’m distracted or I’ve unwittingly put up barriers in my mind that stop me from taking it all in, or maybe it’s my chronically online, overstimulated brain, but I can more easily absorb beauty outdoors or in film. It’s with this in mind that I’ve committed to seeing more art this year, on my own. If anyone has any prompts to aid in this process, I’m accepting recommendations!What renewed this desire was my Christmas morning visit to the Jacquemart André with my friend Amy, who visits museums the way I visit coffee shops (😅), the only art institution open that day. We went to see the temporary exhibition featuring the masterworks from the Borghese Gallery which you still have time to catch as it has been extended through Feb 9! Even if you don’t make it by then, there are plenty of extraordinary works and objects, many from the Renaissance, in this private house museum, which reopened last year after refurbishments. Read more about the exhibition.
Jacquemart André museum
158, Boulevard Haussmann, 75008
ONE UNUSUAL (FOR ME) ACTIVITY
I love Paris deeply, even when my body doesn’t. It makes me feel alive while simultaneously wearing me down. The commotion, the agitation, the crowds, among other urban realities, are not an amazing help to my fragile nervous system. As I was writing this, double-paned windows tightly shut, I was disrupted by screams of fils de pute! Société de merde! je l’aurais tué! I peered over to assess the situation and discovered the deep, raspy yelling voice— and I mean, full-bodied, coming from the gut yelling— was coming from an older woman with long white hair and a slight limp. She seemed to be directing her ire toward the bus driver who didn’t see her or intentionally didn’t wait for her to reach the stop to let her on. Nothing major, just a normal day in city living.
Anyway, add professional and normal life stress and the toll on my body is palpable. Sometimes the solution is skipping town for a weekend or as simple as napping with my cats. Other moments require different fixes.
For much of December, the electric boiler in our Paris apartment was on the fritz leaving us without heat or hot water. Bad timing, the temps had finally become truly wintry! A comically incompetent handyman sent by our landlord fiddled around one day, returned to fiddle again the next week when we informed him the problem was worse and, coincidentally, there was now a leak, and then stopped returning my texts. After a few red alert messages to our landlord and a gentle reminder about the impending holiday, and we had an appointment with our building coop’s heating specialist for two days later. That was still two days more without a hot shower and with a body completely overtaken by muscle knots, however.