Where in the World is Capital Citizenne

IMG_2990 It's been nearly a month since my last check in, so where have I been?  Great question.  

In the month of December I have been in London, Washington, D.C., my lovely island home in SW Florida, and then embarked on a whirlwind trip around the World visiting France, Morocco, China, Japan, Norway, Mexico and Canada before making it back to the U.K. for dinner, then heading to Hollywood, Main Street USA and of course, a quick safari in Africa before trekking Everest and heading back to the island.  

As you may have guessed, when I said trip around the World, I meant Walt Disney World.

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It was my first trip back in over a decade and it was just as magical as I remembered, and the perfect way to readjust to "real life."

Thankfully, "real life" does not have to start until after the holidays, so until then, I will continue to soak up the Florida sunshine and snuggle with this furry face.

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Homeward Bound

It is hard to believe that six months have gone by since I was sitting in the terminal at Dulles, wondering if I had made a huge mistake. In the last six months, I have (predictably) had good days and bad days.  I have felt alone and I have felt overwhelmed with support.  I have known exactly what I wanted, and I have felt utterly lost and rudderless.  Most of all, I have felt lucky and blessed.  What an incredible gift to have six months of holiday, to really take time to devote to what you love (in my case, photography) and to really spend time with yourself.

I still don't know what exactly comes next, but I do know that I would like to make photography more than a hobby, and I can't wait to explore the city I've called home the last ten years with the same enthusiasm that I have had in London and Paris.

I think the most important lesson I learned was that it really isn't where, but who you are with, that matters.  And I have been incredibly blessed to have shared this adventure with so many wonderful people.  People I have known for years and people I have only just met.  The latter make it so hard to leave, but just like I know I have wonderful friends and family to go home to, I now have wonderful friends to visit (and please expect me to visit!) in France and England.

I am sure I will do a lot of reflecting on the past six months for days, weeks, months and maybe even years to come.  But for now, I say thank you to London and Paris, for taking me in.  Thank you to the people that I have met along the way for welcoming me into your lives. And thank you to the friends and family that encouraged me to take this trip in the first place.  It has been more than I could have ever imagined.

Merci, Paris

After a wonderful month filled with new adventures and new friends in Paris, I am back in London.  I was not sure what I was expecting out of my month in France, but it is safe to say it far surpassed any expectations I had!  And while my seven years of french studies did not suddenly come back to me, I managed to get by and feel inspired to return to studying the language...

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Most importantly, I did something I have never really done before: move (albeit only for a month) to a city where I knew no one.  There were no old friends, or friends of friends to help me feel at home like in London (or in D.C., or even at Wake Forest).   For the first time in my life I was truly on my own, and it was actually kind of exciting (it was also frightening, but lets focus on the positives!).  I joined a few MeetUp groups for photographers and expats and quickly built a mini social network that provided a great addition to my time in Paris.

While I set off for Paris without a social safety net, I did not go empty handed.  I arrived with loads of wonderful recommendations of what to see, do and where to eat in Paris (merci beaucoup Scott, Gayle, Meg, Collin and Fawn and, of course, Nathalie).  Since those recommendations were incredibly useful in planning and making the most of my month , I thought I would pass along a few of my Paris favorites in case you are planing a trip!

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Food & Drink:

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I came to Paris knowing little about French wines but wanted to learn.  I loved the tastings and tour I did with O Chateau: a very friendly atmosphere where the primary language is English, but did not feel overly touristy.  I would highly recommend scheduling a tasting or just popping in one evening and chatting with one of their sommelier's over a tasty cheese and charcuterie board.  If you have a day (and like bubbly), sign up for their tour of the Champagne region, it was one of my absolute favorite Paris days.

Fish (69, Rue de Seine): a great little restaurant in the St. Germain des Pres area that is open on Sunday evenings.  This spot, owned by Brits I believe (making it English friendly) is always bustling and busy, but if you go early and grab a seat at the bar you are in for a wonderful meal and, depending on how busy, a nice chat (if you want) with the bartender.

Le Coup Chou (9 & 11, rue de Lanneau 75005): simply the coziest restaurant, tucked away in the Latin Quarter, with amazing bœuf bourguignon.  I have no idea what else is even on the menu, I always get the boeuf bourguignon.

Bistrot d'Henri (16 rue Princesse 75006): another classic French spot, with great service and a wonderful menu. I had their  salad d'Henri to start and a wonderful duck served with the most delicious dauphinoise potatoes.

Le Petit Marché (9, Rue du Béarn 75003): in the Marais, just off the Place des Vosges, french food with an asian twist.  I had delicious lamb chops and mashed potatoes that were so good I wanted to lick the bowl.  But I didn't.  But I wanted to.

Le Verre Volé (67 Rue de Lancry, 75010): on Canal St. Martin in the 10th, this is a little spot that serves wonderful food and sells lovely bottles of wine.  If you come up to the Canal to wander about (which I highly recommend), skip Chez Prune and have lunch or dinner here.

Du Pain et Des Idées (34 rue Yves Toudic, 75010): if you want amazing croissants, baguettes and/or brioche, it is well worth the trip up to the 10th Arr. to visit this boulangerie.  Tip: if you want a baguette, come before lunch as they are sold out by mid afternoon, also they are closed on the weekends (they are that good!). I had the distinct pleasure of living around the corner, and ate enough croissants to prove it!

Ten Belles (10 rue de la Grange aux Belles, 75010): while you are up in the 10th getting your croissants, take a stroll across the Canal and grab a cafe from this lovely (english speaking friendly) coffee shop.

Macarons: If you've never had a proper Paris macaroon, you must go to Laduree or Pierre Herme (multiple locations throughout the city) and try a few (my favorite is always the salted caramel, or the chocolate, or the coffee, or the dark chocolate...)

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See & Do:

Aside from the obvious, there are so many wonderful slightly off the beaten path things to see in this city, and I didn't get to half of them!

Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise: a beautiful old cemetery filled with famous writers, artists and musicians; truly stunning.

Les Puces: the most amazing antique markets, go early, do not get confused by the swap meet (the markets are just a bit further, go under the overpass and follow the signs) and get lost in the maze of stalls and treasures.

Picnic: grab some cheese and bread (and wine if you're so inclined) and take your picnic to one of the lovely parks - I especially loved Buttes Charmont, a bit out of the way but gorgeous - and just enjoy the afternoon sun (if its shining!) and fabulous people watching.

Concert in St Chapelle: a bit touristy, but a great way to take in what I think is the most beautiful church in Paris.  Tickets are usually available day of and you can buy them at the cafe across the street.

Cooking Class: if this is your idea of fun (and it is mine), I highly recommend a half day class at the Alain Ducasse cooking school.  I really enjoyed whipping up a meal with my fellow classmates, under the watchful eye of a chef with years of experience in Michelin star restaurants.  Lots of fun, and you get to eat what you cook, which is the closest I have come to eating at an Alain Ducasse restaurant!

Giverny: take a half day and visit Monet's House and Gardens.  A short train ride (Gare St Lazare to Vernon, where you can either take a shuttle bus, a taxi, or rent a bike for the short trip to Giverny) makes for a nice way to get out of the city for a little bit and much more enjoyable (to me) than Versailles

The rooftop of Printemps: there is a cafe on the roof of this department store that offers some of the most stunning views of Paris.  Go up for a coffee or a glass of wine or some ice cream and take in the city.

Gallery Hop in the Marais and St Germain des Pres: wonderful little galleries tucked into quiet streets.  And unlike many of the the museums, absolutely free!  There are also wonderful shops and restaurants to pop in as well.

While they are not free, the museums here are wonderful, be sure to check out what is on at the Grand Palais if you are planning a visit to Paris; it gets easily overlooked in favor of the Louvre* or the Musee D'Orsay (both of which are must do's!), but I really enjoyed my visit here for the Braque exhibition.

*The Louvre: I skipped the showstoppers this time, having already seen them, and headed up to the top floor of the Sully Wing and enjoyed beautiful paintings from impressionists like Camille Corot and Charles Daubigny (and practically had them all to myself!).

The Rodin Museum: the sculpture gardens are lovely and not to be missed, but be sure to go into the museum as well!

Centre Pompidou: even if modern and contemporary art is not your "thing," it is well worth a visit again for the views from the top.  There is a highly rated restaurant there as well, but I did not partake.

I am certain I am forgetting things, and will be sure to update as I remember, but these are some of my Paris highlights that I think others would enjoy.  Many thanks to my friends for their wonderful recommendations.  And many thanks to Paris, for welcoming me, challenging me, and making this a month I will remember for the rest of my life.

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All text and images copyright © 2013, Capital Citizenne.  All Rights Reserved.

Summer Reading List

I love to read.  Biographies, thrillers, slightly serious fiction, non-fiction, silly romcoms (I am pretty sure that genre translates to books), travel books, even a little literature now and again, I just love books.  I was one of those kids that was excited to get her summer reading list, and still love to spend an hour (or more) wandering around a bookstore, generally buying too many books that, lately, have been getting stacked higher and higher on my bedside table. Not this summer!

Between the planes, trains, metros, picnics in parks and afternoons in cafes, I have been a fairly voracious consumer of books, thanks in large part to the traveling reader's best companion: an ebook and some sort of e-reader device.  Don't get me wrong, I love and prefer (and have many bookcases overflowing with) physical books.  I am a sucker for a good hardback with nice deckled paper, or a paperback just the right size to tuck into my purse.  Cover design, typeset, paper quality, I am a total dork for the physical book.  But when you are traveling for six months with three suitcases, e-books are where it's at.  I have indulged in a few paperback purchases, but have mostly kept a running list on my phone of books to download after my wanders through the bookstores...

And since I am always on the hunt for a good book recommendation, I thought I ought to make a few of my own, and highlight a few of my favorite reads from this trip.

After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story, by Michael Hainey

NW, by Zadie Smith

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, by Anton DiSclafani

Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Therese Anne Fowler (full confession, I read this after seeing it in a bookstore and my interest was based entirely on the fact that I loved the character of Zelda Fitzgerald in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.  I really enjoyed this one!).

I also picked up and couldn't put down Gone Girl (like seemingly everyone else this past year) - it was intense.

While in Paris I enjoyed Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag and Angela Davis, by Alice Kaplan (three VERY different women in Paris at three very different times in the city's recent past) and just finished The President's Hat, by Antoine Laurain (which I promptly gave to two lovely sisters, who promised they would share it, after I overheard them commenting on it from the next table over during lunch today, we had a lovely chat about our travels and swapped restaurant recommendations -- a conversation that probably would not have happened without my cute looking book!).  I picked up both books at the lovely and addicting Daunt Books in Marylebone (along with my Paris guide and French phrase books), a place I look forward to visiting when I return to London next week.

It is hard to believe my time in Paris is nearly up.  Not particularly wanting to leave, I think my next read will be a book set in Paris, I have had The Elegance of the Hedgehog on my iPad for over a year now (the digital equivalent to stacked up on my bedside table), and it seems like as good a time as any to dive in (despite mixed reviews from friends).

If any of you have any good books you recommend, please pass them along!  I am trying out GoodReads, if you are also using it, look me up (Capital Citizenne) and share your reading list!

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A Grand Time in Brighton

Hello dear readers, I am sorry for the gap in posts.  I have been busy soaking up my last days (for now) in London before I head to Paris next week.  I hope to do a few posts to share what all I have been up to, but for now, I'll share my recent get-a-way to Brighton. Despite being a short (just under an hour) train ride from London, I failed to make it to Brighton the last time I was here.  This time around, I feel like everywhere I turned, I was hearing or reading about Brighton!  Perhaps this was because we were enjoying such a marvelous summer and everyone had sunshine and beaches on the brain, or possibly Brighton is just enjoying a moment, I don't know, but I decided I needed to see what all the fuss was about.

Seeing that the area was expecting lovely, sunny weather and armed with some recommendations from friends and Conde Nast Traveller, I hastily made a one night reservation at The Grand Brighton yesterday morning, grabbed my extra camera battery and hopped on a train at Victoria Station bound for the English Channel.

After a quick 15 minute walk from the train station, I arrived at The Grand.  For those fellow Disney World enthusiasts (we can't be the only family that enjoyed the Disney treatment!), the Grand is what I imagine they had in mind when they built the Beach Club and the Boardwalk resorts.  Very elegant but at the same time, beachy and casual.  It is also the same hotel that was bombed during the Conservative Party conference in Brighton in the 1980s.

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I lucked into a sea view room, with a balcony no less!  And though I was (again) tempted to just laze about my room, I quickly got settled, got my camera ready and headed out to see what this seaside city had to offer.

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My friend Scott insisted I check out the Royal Pavilion, and I am so glad he did!  It is quite possibly the most bizarre place I have seen in this country.  Built as a seaside retreat for then-George, Prince of Wales  (later King George the IV),  the building looks like it would be more at home in India or even Dubai than Brighton, and features extremely extravagant chinoiserie interiors.   Sadly, they do not allow photography inside, but there was a massive chandelier that appeared to be held up by an equally massive dragon (as it turns out, they retrofitted the existing brick structure with steel so as to support this chandelier and other additions!), hand painted silk wall coverings, ornate furnishings and lots of bamboo (or faux-bamboo) accents throughout.  A nice end to the tour, I enjoyed a pot of earl gray and a scone on the patio of the Pavilion's tea room, overlooking the gardens and grounds.

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I attempted to stroll back towards the hotel through The Lanes - a cute shopping district - but got flustered by the crowds and quickly made my way back to the boardwalk.  I may have to take a day trip back to Brighton to explore the many galleries as well as the prolific public and street art when it is not quite so busy!

The sea front was bustling with beachgoers* enjoying the late summer weather (*I say beach, but there is no sand.  It is all rocks.  Thus, the cute beach chairs!) as well as the many entertaining diversions along the beach: the Pier, artist's stalls, cafes and bars and a cheerful carousel.

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The rocks are not easy on the feet (especially when said feet are in less than practical footwear), so I headed back to the hotel to give their highly recommended restaurant, GB1, a try at an early dinner.  I had a seat at the bar where I could see both the water, and the chef working away.  Always nice to get a show with dinner!  The meal was wonderful, I started with a few oysters, followed by a clam and scallop linguine and polished off with a molten chocolate brownie served with a scoop of peanut butter ice cream and bananas!  When I expressed my delight at the bananas to my waiter - who had strongly urged me to try this dessert...as though I needed much arm twisting -- he remarked that yes, isn't it an unusual combination.  He was blown away when I replied, well not really, my mom made me peanut butter and banana sandwiches as a kid (ok, as an adult too) and I in turn was blown away when he said that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches aren't really a thing here.  Yes, I was eating at what Conde Nast Traveller labeled a "swish new eatery" and discussing, of all things, peanut butter and jelly.

I returned to the beach in time for the sunset to take some additional photos and soak in one of my favorite times to be on the water, as the sun fades and the water, and everything in it, appears to calm down.  People were making the most of the last moments of sunlight, playing beach volleyball as well as basketball, riding bikes and looking sun spent and happy.

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I retreated back to my room to sleep off the day, with the windows open just enough to hear the waves.  Not too shabby!

I woke up to the sound of sea birds squawking their morning greetings, and enjoyed one of my all time favorite indulgences: breakfast delivered to the room!  It is an easy thing to do at The Grand, breakfast is included and they charge a very minimal 5 pound tray fee to have it brought up.  With the view I had, this was a no brainer!

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After an early start, I headed to the Brighton Pier just as it was opening up and coming up to life.  It was a nice walk on a brisk morning, and I enjoyed taking it in without throngs of people.  The pier is delightfully kitschy, with a Zoltar machine greeting guests, loads of arcade games, a fish and chips place that claims to be the spiritual home of the dish (complete with a disco ball in the weather vane) and of course, a slew of carnival rides that made my stomach do flip flops just looking at them (even when they weren't operating!)

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I returned to the hotel to check out, but I wasn't quite ready to leave my little slice of grandeur, so I curled up in a large wing back chair in their terrace room to enjoy the latest on my summer reading list, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (so far so good, but I'm not that far in!).

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Having had such a lovely dinner - and having had an equally difficult time deciding what to order - at GB1, I decided to treat myself to lunch before leaving, ordering and devouring their Lobster Burger, which was every bit as good as it sounds (unless of course you think it sounds awful, then it was the opposite of that!).  I fully appreciate that it sort of sounds like all I did in Brighton was eat.  That's not really that far off the mark.  It's a good thing my walk/run on Monday turned into a seven miler instead of my planned three to four miles!

A quick train trip brought me back to London, and back to the reality that I need to get serious about laundry and packing because I am headed to Paris for a month in a matter of days!  How did this happen?!?

This is how it starts

“For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it.”  ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

About six months ago, I made my New Year's Resolution: to use all of my vacation days.  Not a bad resolution as far as these things go, but not exactly earth shattering.  What was disturbing, however, was that I had become a person who did not use their vacation days.  Moreover, I was someone who had more unused vacation days than unused sick days.

Come New Years Day, I found myself on the couch, not with a champagne hangover, but rather, some nasty bug I had picked up over the holidays, already feeling defeated about the impending vacation day to sick day deficit.  This was not how I wanted to start the year!

After a round of antibiotics (maybe the third in my lifetime) and nearly a week's worth of sick days, I was back on my feet, but lacking a spring in my step.  To tell the truth, that spring had been missing for a while.  And I wasn't the only one who had noticed its absence.

Enter Mom.  In one of our many phone conversations, she suggested that I wasn't scoring all that high on the happiness scale these days, and perhaps I should take some time off - retire for a little while, were her exact words - to do the things I always said I wanted to do, but never had the time (read: energy).  "Why wait until you are 60?" she asked me.  I did not have a good answer.  Why indeed.

Six months later, with the support of my amazing family and friends, I am happily unemployed for the first time in my adult life, packing up my house and preparing to board a flight to London to spend the summer studying photography, traveling, and generally doing whatever I feel like doing.  I have given myself the gift of six months to wander about.  I only have a "plan" for the first three - which, if you know me, is highly unusual.

There will be good days, there will be bad days, there will be days when I am homesick and days when I am on top of the world.  And that's what this blog is for: to document my journey and to share with my friends and family; to recount it, so as to ensure that rather than simply an occurrence, this is truly an adventure, and hopefully just the start of one at that.