Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [281]
Statues of Liberty
I like walking through the Luxembourg Gardens and coming upon the Statue of Liberty there. The first time I saw it, it came as a complete surprise. Likewise, when I saw the other one, on the Île des Cygnes, a man-made island in the Seine at the Pont de Grenelle, I couldn’t believe it (and I think I got a little teary eyed). I was reading Gertrude Stein’s Paris France and I completely latched onto her remark that “America is my country and Paris is my hometown.” It’s a beautiful and almost startling moment to see a Statue of Liberty in Paris.
Le Système D
The D stands for débrouillard—resourceful—or for the verb form, débrouiller—to untangle. Think of le système D as “winging it” or “getting by,” but it can also mean “beating the system.” Ross Steele, in his book When in France, Do as the French Do, explains that it is a French “national pastime to find a way around a government regulation or administrative decision,” and he notes that the expression says a lot about the French temperament. From the French point of view, “the chaos of a French line is a logical consequence of a mass of individuals untangling the knotty problem of getting to the head of the line.” Anyone who has witnessed the French inability to stand neatly in line knows that this is true. Le système D is present in nearly all aspects of French life, and one of the highest compliments in France is Il/Elle sait se débrouiller (He/She knows how to get things done). As Steele notes, this is “always sincere and expresses admiration for a person’s resourcefulness.”
T
Le Thé des Écrivains
The name of this original shop in the Marais, Le Thé des Écrivains (16 rue des Minimes, 3ème / thedesecrivains.com), translates loosely as Tea of Writers. Founder Georges-Emmanuel Morali has created an incredibly appealing concept that weds tea with writers and readers. There are, for example, canisters of teas blended to evoke Russian, Japanese, American, French, and English writers, alongside a terrific assortment of handmade journals, photo albums, and notebooks. I have a great memory of the first time I stepped into this shop: it was an uncharacteristically overcast, chilly day in late September, and I was offered a complimentary cup of tea brewing in a samovar at the back of the store. I soon discovered one of my favorite souvenirs on earth: a carnet de voyage composed of three notebooks and one accordion folder housed in a handmade paper case held together with an elastic band and a brown bead. I’ve bought about a dozen carnets since then, filling up three and giving the others as gifts. The handmade notebooks come in a great range of bright, cheerful colors, and the store’s Collection Vacances features luggage and gift tags. If you love reading, writing, tea, or all three, you will not want to leave this shop.
Travel Journals
I’ve never been the kind of person to record daily personal entries in a journal, but I’ve known many people who find that “Dear Diary” approach meaningful and positively addictive. When I’m traveling, however, I want to record as many details as possible—where and what I ate, what the weather was like, how much money I spent, how a site, monument, or event made me feel. Recently, I’ve also borrowed a habit from my good friend Arlene, who likes to record a quote of the day in her journals. This can simply be a funny or memorable remark, uttered by a traveling companion or, really, anyone encountered on a trip. Sometimes more than one quote is worthy of inclusion on a given day, and these are great fun to read after a trip is over.
My journal is indispensable to me