Tag: parisian

Hannah Wilson

Wandering Wednesdays

1 Comment Paris, Wandering

Last week, I took a 4 hour-long walk through Paris, which is about 3 miles, according to the google map I made for myself.  The objective: photograph some specialty pastry shops for a blog I just started writing for (here’s an article I wrote for them).  I did end up finding the pastry shops I had intended to visit, but a couple of them were closed for the summer holidays (damn you, August!).  More importantly, I thoroughly enjoyed wandering somewhat aimlessly through smaller streets.  I made sure to wear comfortable shoes so that I had no reason to cut my day short.

The weather was absolutely crazy, the bipolar kind of crazy.  Every 30 minutes, there would be a sudden shift between sunny and stormy, and vice versa.  I think I managed to capture the extremes in these photos.  Since I took so many photos that day, I’ll just include half of what I captured; the other half will come next wednesday!

P.S. Two things I learned from editing these photos:  I really LOVE doors and windows.  Something about the possibilities that lie within, I suppose…

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Hannah Wilson

Wandering Wednesdays

Comments Paris, Wandering

I’m sure you all have been positively aching for some charming snapshots of Parisian streets, so I’ve hooked a sister (or bother) up!  :p  To be honest, this collection of photos didn’t actually require much “wandering” at all – they were all taken within a couple blocks of one another, on streets I’ve visited many times before.  But that doesn’t mean they’re familiar to you readers!

Odette is one of the cutest pastry shops in this city, so much so that it almost warrants the use of the term “adorbs,” but I won’t subject you to that kind of debauchery at this time.

As for the song above, it’s a classic from my high school days.  The song reminds me of summertime, so it was an obvious choice.

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Hannah Wilson

Wandering Wednesdays: Latin Quarter & Hydrangeas

Comments Paris, Wandering

I’ve been trying to get myself out into Paris at least once a week lately, as the home-commute-work-commute-home routine gets old really fast, and I’ve succeeded so far.

First, I wandered around Beaubourg and stumbled upon AntiCafe, which you can read about in my previous post.  Great Success.

Then, on different day, I met a friend at Place Monge, indulged in a crepe the size of my head at Au P’tit Grec on rue Mouffetard, the interior of which is hung with vines, and then strolled through the surrounding streets while UBER-overindulging on a Nutella crepe for desert.

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Hannah Wilson

Visual Diary – Anonymity of the Crowd

Comments Diary, Paris

It seems like I can’t start a blog post without mentioning the weather.  It’s been a strange combination of rain and sun, like the sky just went through a breakup and is alternating between debilitating depression and sheer joy of what possibilities lie ahead.  I’ve never experienced a true spring, but I think this might be it.  I’m starting to miss the sun of California a little more now.  I’ve been slacking on the blog, feeling unmotivated, discouraged, and uncreative since I started a babysitting gig.  I haven’t been enjoying myself the past few weeks, but I’ve managed to gather some images for this Visual Diary… they are one of the easiest and most natural types of posts for me to write.

These pictures show the bipolar nature of the weather over the entire month of May, but I think they also reflect the detachment I’ve been feeling lately.  Only one image contains evidence of a human presence, instead focusing on solitary motifs or inaccessible constructions.  I’ve been feeling invisible in the world lately, when I’m in the busses and trains, I can just fade into a corner and almost not exist.  The foreign conversations around me mean nothing, so that it all becomes white noise; I avoid eye contact in public transportation because supposed cultural rules taught me that looking at a person in the eye can come across as either creepy or flirty; I walk past the same restaurants, shops, and train stations everyday, but I don’t know anyone; I see little windows on buildings bedecked with flowers and wonder who could possibly live there and what their lives could possibly be like, and if they’re happy; I’ve become annoyed with the French people and their way of life; and I wonder why I’m here and no longer really believe that I’m strong or interesting or cool for moving here.  Even though I blend into the crowd, looking and acting like a Parisian, I feel more disoriented and alien than ever.

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Hannah Wilson

Wandering Wednesdays

1 Comment Paris, See & Do, Wandering

Did you know that in French, one walks in a street, and not on one? I think that’s quite poetic. To be in a street suggests that the road, the buildings, the trees, the people, are surrounding and enveloping you. You’re not just present in a place, but part of it.

If you couldn’t tell by the large title image, I’m starting a recurring series called Wandering Wednesdays. I can’t say that I’ll have pictures of miscellaneous Parisian street scenes every single week on Wednesdays, or that I’ll literally be doing the wandering specifically on Wednesdays, but it made for a good title, so I’m sticking with it! And when I do have some lovely pictures to post, I’ll post them on Wednesdays!

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