As a wanderer, I love getting lost. The way my heart beats when nothing around me is familiar is amazing. Strangers must become friends for a few minutes, and everything in sight becomes a tool that might be needed in the escape. After the ticket is purchased, I rarely think anymore about the trip, finding myself scrambling for housing, unofficial tour guides, visa information, intercity travel, etc. I’m not a planner, obviously. But I’m starting to think I’d like to find an intersection where my inability to plan meets my infatuation with seeing everything come together in the end flawlessly.
Second Chances:
How foolish it is to say you absolutely don’t like something after trying it the first time. With food, I’ll try everything except pork at least three times. Perhaps it was the chef’s fault, or perhaps my tastebuds were off. Perhaps the first time I visited Paris my attitude was slightly off because the hostel was horrible, and I ended to lugging around a 22lb. backpack for 24 hours. Perhaps being kicked out of a hotel lobby and sleeping at a bus depot had something to do with my disdain for the City of Lights.
The hotel is cool with a balcony facing East. The bag can sit in the room, and I smell of my favorite cologne and not three day old, recycled airplane air. Paris is beautiful, and new, and full of great flavors, attitudes and avenues I can navigate easily, and some of the most amazing views. I’m glad I gave it this second chance.
Good Food:
Oh! What a fantastic lunch. I’m no food critic, so bear with me. I’m a member of Nomadness Travel Tribe, a fantastic travel group of over 9,500 members, taking over the world one flight at a time. A movement really. I announced to the group I was hitting the friendly skies, and sent out destinations and dates. Brenda, a fantastic traveler who loves Paris, contacted me, telling me she’d be in Paris at the same time. “Lunch,” she says. My love for food and meeting new people wouldn’t let me say no.
American Ouais: 6 rue Mabillon, 75006 Paris
Owner and fellow Tribe member, Gillian Grant and her husband, met us at the door with smiles. The place is new, and still being turned into a dream project, but it already looks amazing with original art and creations on the walls, patchwork seats that stayed comfortable the entire time, and the levels inside.
I won’t bore with all the great things discussed or the laughs, so I’ll leave you with this: Today, I have the greatest crab cake sandwich with cole slaw to top it, and fries. And by “greatest” I mean it was so good, I may have shed a tear. Then came the cheesecake for dessert with its magnificent crust and red berry sauce. My God!
GO! Eat! Say “Bonjour!”
