#21. Month in Review: April
Yes, it's already (late) May, but I've been good-busy.
Somehow late May is here, which means it’s almost June, which means…time is timing. This is the first moment I’ve had since the start of the month to really sit down and look back on what happened in April - so thank you for your patience with me!
April started with a day off in France (Easter Monday), which is my favorite way to kick off a month - by sleeping in. I had coffee at my favorite café (Partisan) and read, got myself flowers, and wandered for hours. Wandering is by far my most favorite activity in Paris - seeing where the wind takes me, where a friend tells me they’re getting a coffee, where the sunshine is. I always have a book with me (at the time it was You Be Mother by Meg Mason, I recommend) in case I find a sunny spot or café, which, incidentally, happens quite frequently.
My dad came to visit soon after, and we got in a few relaxing days in Paris (full of cherry blossom blooms, a delicious seafood dinner at Soces, and a visit to Bourse, which I’d never seen before!) before we set off for Normandie! One of his friends from high school (yes, they’ve been friends a very long time) has an ancient home there with spare bedrooms and invited us to stay. We took the train and spent three days there, which was just about the right amount of time. We’d hoped for decent weather to explore the beaches, but it rained on us and was incredibly windy - at least there were oysters. I still managed a couple of nice, sunny walks (while listening to an audiobook, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, I recommend).
When we got back to Paris, we set off into full tourist mode, visiting Musée d’Orsay’s Impressionist exhibition marking 150 years of Impressionism, having ice cream every night (our favorite was Venchi on rue Montorgueil - it’s a chain, but it’s a good chain and the server asked me if I was French so it gets an A+ in my book), eating crêpes (one of my favorites is called Chez Suzette in the 2e, I don’t know why but it’s just SO good), checking out new-to-me restaurants (Liza was excellent for Lebanese food), and generally being tourists. During my dad’s visit, I also managed to celebrate several friends’ birthdays, lose my phone, realize it was stolen, file a police report and get a new one, get a haircut, AND run into the person who gave me my very first job in New York in 2007.
It was a very, very active few days.
But I wasn’t done yet. One friend came to visit with her family (we got dinner at Bleu Bao), another friend from the MBA came to visit (we got drinks at Chez Vous), AND The Tortured Poets Department came out (I got drinks to celebrate and my favorite wine bar manager played the album for me until a patron asked him to turn off this depressing sh*t (probably what the patron said)). The day the album came out, I listened to it first thing, took notes as I listened to each song, cried (a decent amount), and made the TTPD album cover my status on Slack. My manager actually asked me if I was OK because he didn’t know what the status meant…I told him and he rolled his eyes. Fair enough.
I went on friend dates to wine bars and lunch spots, I took myself out on a date to coffee shops, I spontaneously apéro’ed at more than one friend’s place. I started Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (I finished in May, I recommend), took Pilates classes, and wandered more streets of Paris. What’s new.
The weather started to improve just in time for me to head to Sweden for a conference. The conference was interesting and I enjoyed getting to spend more time with my colleagues. My flight back, however, was canceled due to an air traffic controller strike at Paris airports…which was not ideal because I was supposed to be back on Thursday and leave on Saturday for the US, and due to the strike (on Thursday), I couldn’t get back until Friday, leaving me very little turnaround time!!!!
The travel was (thankfully) very smooth, and I flew from Paris to Boston where I had an 18-hour layover. I got to catch up with friends who used to live in Paris (thank god for their spare bedroom and espresso machine) and have a Dunkin’ donut and coffee (judge away, I needed it). I got to Florida the next day (a Sunday) and spend the rest of April with my brother, sister-in-law and nephews. I was either at the beach, in the pool, snuggling with my baby nephew, reading to my 3-year-old nephew or singing “This is Halloween” with him, napping, or trying to not get sunburned (I succeeded until the last day). It was the perfect way to wind down April and kick off May, and I can’t wait to see them all again very soon.
Places I mention in this post:
Museums:
Bourse de Commerce: Modern art collection of Arnaud Pinault housed in the old grain exchange building with a gorgeous painted ceiling and excellent works
Musée d’Orsay: Incredible art in an old train station, home to many beautiful impressionist paintings already, but the Impressionist exhibition was next level
Coffee shops:
Partisan Café: One of my favorite new wave coffee places, always packed but well worth it
Candle Kids: A cool cafe with great filter coffee and cinnamon buns
Restaurants:
Soces: A great seafood restaurant (you should also get the margarita shooter + oyster amuse bouche)
Liza: Leveled-up Lebanese food
Bleu Bao: Part of the Bao Family of Chinese restaurants, reliably good
Ferment: A lunch spot not far from my work, every dish features something fermented (the kombucha was delicious)
Bars:
Chez Vous: One of the very first bars I visited in Paris when I moved here in 2017, just off of rue des Martyrs, very fun vibe, especially in summer
Le 18 Oberkampf: A wine bar I love
Bar Principal: A vibe-y bar with good food
Snacks:
Venchi: A gelato shop with locations all over
Chez Suzette: A random crêpe place I like
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