It’s been a quiet week around the old blogstead as your’s truly has been frolicking in Paris without a thought in his head…well that last bit isn’t true; the trip turned out to carry quite a heavy load of existential philosophy, but there are far worse things than discussing philosophy in a café in Place de la République at nine in the morning.
Couch Surfing
A while back we became involved in a little thing called Couch Surfing. Couch Surfing is a way to travel that stresses the authentic experience of the place you are visiting - by staying in the home of a local you get a far different view of a place than if you were in a hotel in the tourist district or a hostel in the club area. You can read more about the philosophy behind couch surfing here.
Having hosted some couch surfers at our place, we decided to give it a try in Paris, and though our trip was planned at the last minute, a very friendly Frenchman offered us a futon at his apartment, and off we went.
(anyone wishing to “surf” our couch in London, get in touch with me here)
What We Did
Our adventure itself may seem less or more than what you might have done had you been in Paris, but for us, it was almost perfect. We spent very little time seeing the ’sights’ of Paris as our guidebook listed them; instead we visited with our host, strolled the boulevards, lounged in parks, idled in cafés and generally became flâneurs for a week.
I can think of no better way to experience Paris (or anywhere, really) than to idly saunter through her streets, soaking in the sights and sounds of the city. Free from itineraries and checklists of monuments, we can let our whims and our inquisitiveness take us where they will, showing us the hidden, the overlooked, the wonderfully prosaic that we would otherwise miss.
What Else
There will probably be quite a bit of writing done as a result of our trip. At this point, it is still hard for me to verbalize what it was that happened on our trip, but it was something special, I do know that, and it has changed (is changing) how I view not only traveling, but where I live as well. More later…
These are the ramblings of 