I confess that I have never been a journal writer - never been the type to ritualistically sit down and detail my day, or feelings, or those thoughts and dreams that come to us in the dark of night when there is no distraction, no escape. A journal is a soul laid bare and defenseless, a hidden treasure for all the world to see. My journals have always been poems and my treasures have always been photographs, and between the two I have never been wont for expression. And yet I feel a stirring to share my time abroad with more than my camera and my pen and my paper, perhaps if only to leave a record somewhere of what transpires, and perhaps to nuture a growing passion for journalistic expression. So I write this first post entitled Au Lecteur, because I'm hoping that perhaps you might like to read it and I write this blog Flânerie à Paris (Wanderings in Paris) because I will be wandering, away from two homes, and I'd like something of me to wander back and say hello, on occasion.
Home in Parisian form will be not 500 yards from La Place de la République, on the border of the 3rd and 11th arrondissements (Right Bank of the Seine). Home will be a little school where I'll take 3 classes in the 6th arrondissement, home will be the museums I visit for my art history course, the cafes I sit in for lunch, the little streets I get lost on only to open my eyes in wonder at what is around me. With no delusions of romantic grandeur or poetic greatness or stereotypical quaintness, but every hope for an experience with all three woven into it, je pars, mon lecteur. Bienvenue à ma flânerie à Paris.*
* I leave, my reader. Welcome to my wanderings in Paris.
~Maggie
I'm excited to read about all your adventures in France!!
ReplyDeleteBravo Maggie! I'm so excited for you! I can hardly wait to read your next entry... "Je suis arrivé!" ...or some title far more original. Now I can go wandering with you through Paris from my armchair. Merveilleux
ReplyDelete-meb
I love this format for allowing all of us left behind to "share the ride".........
ReplyDeleteA couple favorite quotes come to mind....."Experience is the only possession that matters"
and "Being born entitles us to nothing, but affords us the opportunity for everything"
Have fun, be safe, and smile......