places and people

Recently I spent one week in New York City and the unavoidable question arose, NYC or Paris? Two cities replete with culture, activity and energy, in unique and varying degrees. And both cities now considered my home. I was fortunate enough to discuss life between NYC and Paris over dinner with friend, francophile and New Yorker Amy Thomas. She well articulated this dilemma that many a New Yorker who moves to Paris experiences via HiP Paris Blog in New York or Paris: Une Bonne Question. A question far more complex than ‘bagels versus baguettes’.

Did we arrive to the conclusion that you can live a simultaneous love affair with both cities? Yes.

What became quickly apparent as I caroused the streets of this city that never sleeps (clearly evident in my 6am jetlag induced walks in the East Village), was that is it not the city but the people that create the feeling of home. It was not the trendy new restaurants, art exhibitions and fashion boutiques that I was eager to indulge in. It was the people that had composed my life for so many years. The unique faces that became friends had made my life in New York feel like home. And the backdrop of a vibrant city with endless possibilities, only enhanced the moments we shared.

As the days passed I filled them with as many warm faces as possible. Catching up with friends for even just a New York minute, playing with their babies, attending the wedding of the dear friend I moved to NYC with so many years ago… and celebrating friendship with a well needed girls night.

I began to look at NYC the place as a former love that I will forever cherish. It was NYC the people that held my heart. And shared it with Paris.

motherly love

On the occasion of mother’s day, considering I recently made a dedication to my own mother, I would like to honor my many friends who are new moms. Certainly one of the most important roles in a woman’s life. A few heartfelt thoughts about ‘being a mom‘ from the lovely mamas in my life!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Being a new mom….is the greatest and most natural sensation in the world – oh the love, love and more love!! I’m fabulously obsessed with my little “bout’chou”! – founder of Paris Popcorn, Nirit Sumeruk & Sienna

Being a mum definitely comes with its challenges but there are moments each day when my heart nearly bursts with love, pleasure and pride.  Every day I look at our little boy and feel like the luckiest person in the world…what could be more wonderful than that? – Kirsten & Conor

Becoming a mom has been the most overwhelming (physically, mentally, emotionally) and definitely the most all-encompassing feat I’ve ever attempted.  I’ve said again and again that I cannot believe that Regular People do this!  And even then they sometimes do it again!?  But when you’re in the thick of it and at these precious certain moments, you understand: it is, hands-down, the best thing that there ever was to do.  This precious person is YOU, only better – if that makes any sense.  You care about them more than you do yourself, you love them so much it physically hurts.  It’s hard to think of anything else, even and maybe especially when they are not with you…they become a part of you in the most inseparable and incredible way.  In motherhood, you give and finally live, what life has to offer. – Elena & Matias

Being a Mom asks you to be the best person you can be, every day, no days off.  And, in return, your child will smile at you each time you walk in a room, hug you anytime you feel blue and love you absolutely, without condition or judgement. – Mariel & Noémie

Being a mom is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done to date.  I now have an entirely different view of the world and the all of the mothers who make it look effortless, especially my own mother.  However, I know that the universe has it all figured out because on the days when I am so tired and I have not eaten anything or done anything on my to do list…there is always a moment when my son looks at me and gives me the biggest smile and I melt and I forget about anything other than how happy I am to be his mom. – Emily & Alan

The moment my son Teo was born I felt I became a mother. She never existed before. The woman existed, but never the mother. Being someone’s mother meant that my role in the world had changed – I wasn’t just the same old me trying to be a new, improved version. I as a mother, really and truly and forever, and the question was, what kind of person, what kind of mother would be reflected in my child’s eyes? – Khrystine & Teo

Having a baby is like falling in love- almost every day! It is not easy to balance personal goals and needs with babies. But ultimately you realize that jobs come and go, but you will always have that love in your life. – Karen, Elanur (left) & Meyra (right)

One of my first feelings as a new mom was an overwhelming sense of fear for how precious my babies are – being scared for how much I love has given way to a warmth for my whole family that goes deeper than anything I experienced before. – Rachel, Jacob & Oliver

Being a parent means knowing love without bounds and a happiness so profound it will take your breath away.  Being a parent is the single greatest thing I have ever experienced in my life. – founder of Sugar Daze cupcakes, Cat & Gisele

Simply put, having a child is the most wonderful joy I have ever experienced. I can not wait to wake up in the morning and see my son who radiates such love and enthusiasm for life. He is loved beyond belief. – Mary & Oliver

From the moment you know you are pregnant you love your baby but the moment that little person is born your heart multiplies to a size you never thought was possible. When she smiles or caresses my face as she falls asleep you think your heart might just explode out of your chest. Being a Mom is wonderful and scary in the best way possible! – Victoria & Lily Katherine

I think what I love most about being a mom is the complete intimacy I have with my boys.  It’s a definite challenge and the day-to-day of it is hardly “pretty” but there’s some true magic to it all. – Amy, Henry (left) & Jack (right)

Motherhood has changed my perspective on the world, the lengths I’m willing to take for baby piglet scares me & I have found an inner strength I didn’t know I had. – author of blog Piglet in France Sharon & her 11 day old daughter

tribute to the girls

Recently I read an article that confirmed my belief in the importance of girlfriends. It proved something along the lines of how women find comfort in other women much in the  same way that a man finds comfort in his wife or partner. This I believe, having formed several lasting female friendships throughout my life. Most of whom I am still deeply connected to.

A few weeks ago, two such dear friends and I met for a quick jaunt in London. Unabashed girl time. Karen was flying in from Istanbul (where she is living her own adventure), parting with her little girls in order to spend time with the big ones. I hopped on the train from Paris, and we both met at the home of Brandy, whose wedding we attended last Spring in a castle in Scotland.

Karen and I have been friends since the high school days (we won’t mention exactly how long ago that was…) Brandy we met during the university years when she and Karen shared a room. On my way via train I thought about our many journeys together. A spring break when Karen won a luxury trip to Jamaica and rather than inviting her then boyfriend, she brought me. (That is friendship!) There too we met Brandy for the less luxurious yet equally exciting chapter of our Jamaican holiday. (Ah the stories we can tell!) I also recalled our travels in Italy in which we drove (or can I say sped) all the way to Croatia. And never will I forget our millenium spent in Amsterdam where another friend Anna joined us, as did many a random adventure. The list of girl bonding goes on…

Rarely did we all ever live in the same city, yet both Karen & Brandy called my first NY apartment their home. So many chapters of our lives we have shared together, and continue to. Next stop Italy!

London in the rain proved the ideal background for colorful conversations and carousing…

It is friends like this that become the family we are not born with. For them, I am grateful.

castle hopping

Living in Paris makes it difficult to travel almost anywhere and feel entranced by the ambiance. Unless you are visiting a city centered around a hilltop castle, where the air takes on a whole other ‘palatial’ feel. Ah yes, Edinburgh! I had been once before, during those days as a student in London in which I remember very little other than how enchanted I had been by the grandness of it all. 

It was at the Edinburgh Castle that I reunited with a few of my oldest and dearest friends, atop the volcanic Castle Rock where our castle hopping adventure began. 

Many glasses of whisky and plates of haggies, nips and tatties later, our adventures continued in Stirling. The scene was set for a grand wedding (this being the reason we all arrived to Scotland in the first place). This medieval town, the former “Gateway to the Highlands”, sits below a fortress and an old-town, timeless in it’s own right. 

Prior to Brandy’s ‘crowning’, several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling Castle, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1543. Don’t we all wish to be crowned Queen, at least for a day?

The royal wedding party, or part of it anyway. Paris, London, Istanbul and NYC unite!

Now back to normal life in Paris.

voices from afar

Each morning I wake with a smile, eager to explore and engage in this new and privileged life. I feel very much at home, even more so as I can now navigate my way through the tangle of streets, aware of the treasures which lie behind the surrounding corners, in the form of bistros and boutiques, bookstores and boulangeries.

Several friends have joined me in this adventure, appearing for merely a moment, yet providing a lasting comfort that comes only with those we call our long-time confidants. It is my people I miss the most, a select few I have collected through the years, whose faces will always elicit in me the most genuine of smiles. In all of my many travels, and especially now having found a new home in a distant land, I understand well that a city speaks to ones soul through the voices of ones life. The most relevant one being our own. (And of course that of our mother). Forever will my esteemed voices be heard from afar. My current and most favored voice is deep and melodic with the most charming Italian accent.

Playa del Carmen

I stopped for the weekend in Playa del Carmen, a touristy spot known for its limitless social escapades. Here I met with Magda and her friends from Krakow who were enjoying the life of hedonism under the Mexican sun. Evelyn too was here and along with her cohorts from NYC we hit the town for a night of innocent debauchery.

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