Paris as a Teacher: What is Woman with a Baguette?

“You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil.”~ Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Ah, Paris… my dream. Misty late night walks, steak frites and red wine, and, of course, buttery beautiful pastries. This is my Paris, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I adore the clichéd echoes of Hemingway and Fitzgerald that whirl through my mind whenever I think of my beloved “home.” Paris is not just a city—it’s a way of living. It is beauty in simplicity. It is deep introspection, the kind that can only come from walking alone for hours on end, from Montmartre to Montparnasse and back again. Paris has held my tears and my laughter and has shown me that life…well, life is simply a series of lessons. And there is no better teacher than a city so well acquainted with the ghosts of dreamers past.

The first time I saw Paris, I was 17, traveling with my high school French class. I didn’t know it at the time, but our bus was making its way along the Champs-Élysées, and before I knew it, I was gazing at the Arc de Triomphe. It was the grandest thing I had ever seen. Even the Sears Tower now seemed unremarkable. It was, in a word, monumental. Like a gazillion other students visiting Paris on a school trip, my experience was a whirlwind: the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Versailles—then off to Normandy and Brittany. It wasn’t a true immersion in French culture, but I celebrated my 18th birthday and ate my weight in pain au chocolat on that trip. Life hasn’t been the same since.

The next time I saw Paris, I departed JFK the day before my birthday and turned 30 somewhere over the Atlantic. Thirty felt hard for some reason, and I often wonder if it really happened if I was time traveling on an AirFrance flight. Regardless, I decided that if 30 did have to happen, it might as well happen in Paris. I was on my own this time, and there was something about the intimacy of just the city and me that intertwined our souls wholly and inextricably, forever.

Now, after several years and several trips, Woman with a Baguette is born. This project is dedicated to celebrating the charm, elegance, and timeless allure of the French lifestyle. Through meditations on art, photo essays, personal reflections, and curated guides, I invite readers to meditate on themes of beauty, simplicity, and mindful living. This is a love story that embodies the art of savoring life’s little moments—much like the quintessential joy of carrying a warm baguette through the streets of Paris.