As I’ve often found, the last day in Paris finds me with a complicated tangle of feelings that I will wait to sort out at home. Did I get what I hoped for from these seventeen days of solo travel? Did the rewards balance or exceed the costs? Is that cost-benefits assessment changing with age? All of this amplified, on a last day in a special city, by a push to touch whichever bases I haven’t got to yet this visit and the rueful admission that this isn’t possible. Then throw in the usual day-before-a-flight jitters (will my alarm go off tomorrow morning? will the taxi arrive on time? do I really have the day right? is my passport still in my bag?). . . .
So as I always do on that tricky last day in Paris, I walk. . . 7.6 kilometres, my iPhone tells me (while simultaneously chiding that my daily average for 2024 is lower than it was in 2023 — someone really needs to program that app for positive encouragement!).
Before I went for my walk, I scanned this trip’s abundance of photos and chose a few postcards to send you . . . need to get this in a (virtual) letterbox and postmarked (virtually) before I do anything else. I thought you might like a few postcards from each of the three cities I visited, and I decided to set a theme of Windows That Caught My Eye.
Before I head home, then, want to do some quick window-shopping with me? (as for real shopping — you know, where I buy items that take up space in my carry-on case — I’m bringing home a children’s book, a brooch, and a small sketchbook from Lisbon)
Lisbon:
Snapped on the way to a meet-up, with thoughts of getting back. But as much as I love the idea of hats, they play havoc with my curls and I scarcely wear the ones I have. . .
I love a whimsical window — but nope, didn’t pop in and buy chocolate either. . .
Madrid:
This window. . . . this is the one that almost pulled me inside. But two days isn’t enough time to process buying a pair of shoes which don’t look as if they’d stand up to the kind of city walking I do. . . Especially shopping in a small boutique, on my own, in between two languages. . . I may think about these for a while, though, as “the ones that got away.”
I resisted buying a cup of coffee in this window, yes, but there was a long lineup of locals testifying to its worth. I just stopped because of the entertaining collection of sketched-on coffee cups! What a gallery of urban art! Made me smile . . .
and
and then a little sample of windows I liked
in Paris:
Staying in the 9th arrondissement this visit, and enjoying a different local mix of independent shops, consignment/thrift/vintage included. . .
I’m always smitten by the way displays and architectures mix it up in Paris storefront windows (of course this happens in other cities as well, but there’s something about Hausmannian architecture that complements a well-dressed window brilliantly, don’t you think?)
Sometimes, it’s just a corner of a display that grabs me — the charming advertising graphics built around a line of optical frames. . .
So cute!
This Vintage window was part of a pop-up shop
I was impressed by the detail, bringing the excitement right out onto the sidewalk with the pink wire bench. So Parisien, non?
And I did get over to the Left Bank, to Saint Germain, for a gander. My pocketbook leans more to the “braderie” or the “vintage” of the windows above, but I’m not averse to a little drooling and daydreaming.
After all, even Mrs. ‘arris went to Paris. . . đ
I almost did some shopping in Bompard. I could do with a scarf in a more flattering colour than the neutral beige I’ve had for well over a decade. I’ve mended so many moth nibbles in my navy v-neck that it’s not quite the simple, classic, go-anywhere piece it once was. . .
But. . . I have a whole wardrobe of spring clothes waiting for me at home, and a wallop of a credit-card bill coming my way soon, so I smiled at the window display, snapped a photo for you, and kept on walking. . . (and that was before I read Sue’s post ;-))
Okay, I’ll just pop out and post these cards to you now, shall I? And then I have some packing to do. And just a smidgen of pre-travel frettting. We can pick up this conversation when I’m back home.
Meanwhile,
xo,
f
Oooh i like those window displaysâŠespecially that straw bag.
Safe travels home Frances.
Leslie
Hostess of the Humble Bungalow
I love window shopping in Europe! With curls, you canât take the hat off under any circumstances. Those pre travel jitters seem to get worse as one ages. Iâm not sure that I will do solo travel after 75 but who knows? Safe journey home!
Lovely postcards Frances . You seem to find art wherever you go . Iâd have found it hard resisting those Spanish shoes , so pretty . Interestingly, that emerald green padded jacket on the left of the first Paris window is identical to one I saw last week in a little boho shop window in a small town called Frome in Somerset . I love that colour but it was too much like a bed jacket for me . So I wasnât tempted . What a coincidence that you should come upon the same jacket in Paris . Hope your journey home goes smoothly & the jet lag isnât too bad .
What a lovely virtual window shopping experience. Favourite window for me was the navy and white stripes. Buying shoes in another language is the most difficult of transactions, I find, although buying and then returning a kettle (in a different branch of Auchan to the one we’d bought it in) came a close second on our last trip to France. I didn’t realise your solo trip was as long as 17 days! Chapeau, as it were…
Merci pour ce partage, toujours un plaisir de vous lire ( si belle Ă©criture et jâai adorĂ© le « the fountain wasnât fountaining « expression qui mâa fait sourire ) et vos photos parisiennes et leurs lĂ©gendes me font voir des aspects que mes yeux de Française ne voient pas toujours! Bon voyage, je vous trouve trĂšs courageuse dâavoir entrepris ce voyage en solo. Sylvie
Beautiful postcards! You have such an artful eye! Hope you dealt with the pre flight jittersâŠI empathise!
Lovely! Thank you for sending us these glimpses. Looking forward to hearing more about the trip once you’re home and rested.
Sending hugs for the pre-travel jitters and warm thanks for the gorgeous cartes postales (why does everything sound better in French?). You have a wonderful eye for pleasing displays and urban architecture. I think I would have bought a pair of those shoes just to wear at home as (probably very expensive) slippers. They are so beautiful and nothing similar is available here. And my winter slippers are older than COVID and looking sad, so thereâd be no guilt. Seventeen days of solo travel in three cities is quite an accomplishment. Safe travels home x
Hope you are having a good trip home, Frances. I’m assuming that the alarm went off and the taxi arrived and you are probably in the air before you read this. Those vintage shops look so inviting. But, then again, it is Paris after all. đ
P.S. Thanks for the mention. xo
Thank you so much for the vicarious pleasure of those window displays!
I totally understand the travel jitters. In my case, I grew up with my parents, especially my dad, always getting short tempered when we prepared for travel–and we never went anywhere terribly challenging, with nearly every trip we ever took being to visit family. (My parents did do some international travel however, when they were empty nesters!) So I was socialized to have rather mixed feelings about travel logistics. I have been working on getting over that for nearly half a century now!
At the moment my travel jitters are slowly ramping up–in just over 2 weeks my husband and I depart for Italy. We will spend most of that in Tuscany. We start with a week and a half based in Grosetta, where we are doing a tandem cycling trip with a group of 11 couples. Then we’ll dismantle and pack the tandem in its two suitcases and go do some travel on our own in the hill towns, etc. I do not fully have my head wrapped around what clothes I will want/need, other than the cycling gear. . . But I’ll figure that out soon, obviously. It is always a puzzle to figure out how to combine comfort and style and local customs and weather forecasts. . .and to not pack too much (or too little). You’d think I have this down by now, but I don’t, really.
The last time we traveled in Italy was the summer of 1982, when we happily wandered for 6 weeks through England, Greece, Italy and France. We had the chance to travel in Great Britain a few more times after that, and Ireland as well, and we’ve spent a few weeks in January in Oaxaca, Mexico, but this will be our first return to continental Europe since we were in our mid-twenties!My excitement is building and so are the butterflies in my stomach!
Have a smooth trip home, dear Frances!
Lovely!! Thank you for sharing ~
Lovely postcards!
Have a safe flight home
Dottoressa
I admire you for doing this trip solo. I have considered a couple of trips that my former university is sponsoring, especially one to the south of France which focused on the archeological, historical aspects if the region. None of my friends were interested so I let the opportunity go. I knew once I got to the destination I would be fine but the solo navigation of airports and such would be frightening. So for now making due with your lovely postcards. Safe travels.
Fortuny! I’ve been sitting for fifteen minutes dreaming of a situation in which I have the high ceilings, and the budget, and the magical anti-dust potion I would need to have silk chandeliers everywhere…and then as a change of pace I went down memory lane aka the Zattere in Venice where I spent happy moments gazing across the canal at the Fortuny building. This is the power you wield! lol Welcome home…
I would have found those coloured shoes a temptation hard to resist.
Hope you got home safely.