Although I had to say goodbye to Paris early yesterday morning, I feel like a good dose of the Parisian aesthetic came home with me.  To clarify, I didn’t buy any souvenirs (aside from the food I ate, my only other purchases were two postcards!); however, the constant people watching and sight-seeing was like a crash course in good taste.

To begin with, Parisians seem to have a love affair with good food made from good quality ingredients.

Wouldn’t you be inspired to eat well if your supermarket veggie display looked like this?

Beautiful veggie display in the St. Germaine area

beautiful assortment of veggies

So when I arrived home yesterday afternoon, one of the first things I did was to head over to Whole Foods to purchase some zucchini, tomatoes and pesto for a healthy dinner of Pesto “Zoodles” with cherry tomatoes.   Eaten al fresco on our patio, I could almost pretend that I was back in Paris!

Today, I spent much of the day finding things in the apartment to give away.  Paring down seems somehow very Parisian.  My goal is not only to de-clutter (an ongoing task when you live in a New York apartment) but I’m also eager to make sure I’m surrounded by only pretty things.  And to that end, I went out and bought myself a bouquet of flowers for the bedroom.

Could this have been my inspiration?

Assorted roses in a flower shop display in Paris

Flower shop display in Paris

Bien sûr!

Comments

  1. Welcome Home Joana!… I can tell you appreciated Paris, know the feeling…. Their way of living really rubs off on you… I felt just like you and believe me it never leaves you…. I also like you took pictures of all their fruits and vegetables and flower arrangements!… Every now and then I take out my picture album and make believe I’am back!

    • Joana says:

      Hi Denise,

      Paris is indeed a magical place. My only complaint, really, is that almost everyone seems to smoke. And it doesn’t matter if you sit in our out at the cafes. In most of the cafes, the doors to the inside are wide open onto the patio (where the smokers are.) If you sit inside – the non-smoking area – you’re likely to be getting huge wafts of smoke from the patio. And on the patio where you’re in the fresh air and would hope for a breeze to blow away the smoke, there are so many smokers that somehow no amount of fresh air diffuses the stench.

      Thankfully, I have my own (non-smoking) patio here in NYC. It’s not Paris, but it’s New York City, and that’s pretty darn great after all. 🙂

      Did your granddaughter make it to Peru ok?

      Hope you have a great weekend and a Happy 4th! Joana

      On Fri, Jul 1, 2016 at 8:05 AM, JOANA MIRANDA STUDIO wrote:

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