Paris, Mon Amour!

”I fell in love with Paris long before I saw it. I had the fixed idea, when I was little, to become a French teacher. I had fallen in love with the language, I was reading French authors, I had a French teacher I adored. In the rather dull communist landscape, she was an apparition that inspired me: she dressed differently from the other teachers, had a perfume that enchanted me, some diamond jewelry, and a short haircut, as I imagined the women must have been at Paris then. Paris was for me since I was a student, art, culture, style, fashion, freedom, ease, history, good taste, the finest perfumes. Immediately after the revolution I participated in a college competition and arrived in France.

I will not forget my first lunch in a bistro on Rue de Rivoli, where someone was playing the piano by Francis Lai from the film Un Homme et une Femme (my favorite film, then). Everything seemed to be just like my imagination.

Paris has never disappointed me in the 30 years since I visited it, and I do it quite often.

I discovered Paris on foot, walking on so many streets, for hours on end, to soak up the atmosphere of the most beautiful city in the world.

I have been to many other cities, from Canada, the United States, to Brazil, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Emirates. I love NY, Singapore, HK, Tokyo, London, I have great memories of Capetown, Prague, Munich, Barcelona, ​​I worked a little in Malaysia, India, Atlanta, Istanbul, Amsterdam. My favorite city, where I always feel better than anywhere, where I feel at home, even if I’m at the hotel, is Paris.

Here are some ideas on what you can do in Paris:

• Go for a walk in the Jardin du Luxembourg

• Sit at a cafe on Boulevard Saint Germain, where existentialists used to go, and read, watch people: at Cafe de Flore, at the Aux Deux Magots cafe

• Go to dinner at Le Dome, where Hemingway, Sartre, Modigliani, Max Ernst, Anais Nin, Picasso went

• Admire the symmetry from the Arc de Triomphe in Carroussel Square to the Obelisque de Luxor, the Arc de Triomphe from Charles de Gaulle and La Defense

• Pamper yourself under the dome of Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussman

• Go to the Opera Garnier, where your eyes hurt from too much beauty

• Experience the perfume museum at Fragonard

• Take the oldest street in Paris, Rue St Jacques, in the 5th arrondissement

• See the evening of the Tour Eiffel at Trocadero

• Walking through the artists’ district, Montmartre, for a whole day or two or whatever, you still thought it wouldn’t be enough

• Enter Mariage Freres for a tea, one of the most sophisticated tea brands in the world

• Do what is called in French ‘du leche vitrines’, be inspired by the showcases of luxury brands on Rue Saint Honore and Avenue Montaigne

• Drink a glass of wine at Train Bleu, in the atmosphere of a novel or movie of the period called ‘la Belle Epoque’, in a transitional place, La Gare de Lyon

• Enter the futuristic space created by the famous architect Frank Gehry at the Louis Vuitton Foundation

• See the most beautiful stained glass windows at the Gothic cathedral Sainte Chapelle

• Stroll through the narrow streets of the Ile de la Cite, surrounded by the Seine and considered the ancient cradle of Paris

• Go to some of the best chocolatiers in the world, Jean Paul Hevin or Pierre Herme, for example

• Feel around the carefree air of the student, to relive some emotions, together with the students from Latin Quarter

Paris is the place where, although I was alone, I never suffered from loneliness. There is too much beauty around, too much history, too much art, inspiration, to have time to think about something negative. This city goes through a kind of catharsis every time – if you give it a chance to show you, to amaze you, to transform you. It is like a great love in front of which you open your soul, you cry with joy, which you can miss so much that it hurts. It is that great love that will be there whenever you want.

I like to travel alone, I like to be with other people. I need to be alone many times, when I travel, it is my space of peace, cleansing and recharging energy. The few days when I am alone and, at the same time, with so many people, are good for introspection, imagination, creation.

Many people are afraid to travel alone, they feel inadequate. It’s good for me to be alone, it’s just as good to be with someone. But I’m sure I feel inadequate with someone, a group in which I can’t find my place. I think it’s better to be alone than with others, just to fill a gap. If you are good with yourself, alone, anywhere in the world, you will be good with others. I think that many times we surround ourselves with people, we occupy our time as much as possible, so as not to hear the voice of our own loneliness, which scares us. It’s not scary, it’s just integrated, you’re still you, weather at home or in Paris.

If I were to define Paris, I would say that it is love for everything: art, history, architecture, music, fashion, perfumes, joie de vivre. If you haven’t come to love this city, you haven’t been with the right people when you need them.

There are many places that are dear to me. One of them is Cafe de Flore. I read about this place long before I went there. I have the feeling that I find Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Raymond Queneau, Apollinaire, to name just a few of the writers who frequented the cafe. I like to sit there and read, to watch the world show. Also, I like to go to the Georges Pompidou Center, where I can sit on the steps, on the grass and see the performances staged by street artists.

As I said, I knew a lot about Paris and its places before I went there. I found them every time as I imagined them and, at the same time, always surprising. In Paris, wherever you go, you find something that deserves attention. You can get lost there, you will still discover something that will enrich you, something that is worth visiting.

Beyond Paris, however, I visited many places. I set out to go to at least one country with each letter of the alphabet. I only have a few more.

Travel has not only educated me, but I have also learned to be more tolerant, to accept differences more easily, to understand that I am a human of so many others, that none of us is the center of the universe, that there are so many ways to look at something. I remember a stopover I had at the airport in the capital of Ethiopia about 8 years ago. I then wrote a message to my colleagues in which I told them that it was like a return to the communist period in Romania, when you could not find much in stores, in the airport there was a ‘shop’ with perfumes full of dust that you could only buy cash, in dollars. I realized that, although we are critical of how much Romania has evolved, it is good to see the progress made; not out of a misunderstood positivism but for a balanced approach.

I learned in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, what it means to respect the customer; in India which means lucidity, humility, appreciation of what I have, what I do, what I am. Emirates are for me a model of courage, of vision: to dare to make such buildings where there were only sand and water, it seems to me that they represent the prerogative of some visionary leaders. If they can think what seemed impossible to many, it means that the limits are, most of the time, in our minds.

I first arrived in Paris in 1990 and I can say that I was quite scared, impressed, like someone who had not left the country until then and the first place is one of the most full of history. I discovered it step by step, little by little. I was a student then and I was amazed by the beauty of a world I had no access to.

In the meantime, however, I was a tourist, I took classes there, I had business meetings, it was the place where I met friends from other countries, where I stayed a few days before and after each week at Insead. I think what is different from the first meeting is that although I am just as excited by the spirit of the city, I feel at ease anywhere, I feel at home, alone and with many people around, with so many possibilities, with so many ideas. , as for several lives. Big cities can scare some. But what would it be like to say to ourselves: I am walking arm in arm with myself to discover the world?”

via: Revista Psychologies