It is my fifth spring in Paris.
Never one to be very good with chronology, it is still hard to believe that I have been here already so long. I still feel the vertigo of the recently arrived and am always a little surprised to feel the ground sure-footed beneath me. But hauled up from the depths, four journals do testify to the time spent here. Well or not - those are autumnal observations...
Reading the pages between the pastel-colored covers, each is carefully headed with dates and the locations of where each writing took place. They read like the code for a new function on google maps - a way to measure the emotional significance and biographical relevance of a geographical location.
In an entry dated from March 14, 2008 at Le Phare du Canal (appropriately, The Lighthouse on the Canal) during the days when I was living in the 11th arrondissement, I was taking notes on Guy Debord's idea of psychogeography which he described as the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviors of individuals. Exploring the behavioral impact of this urban place, I can say - three apartments, countless cafés, several continents later - that choosing to make this city my home has been one of my best decisions.
Sending lilac-scented kisses from the heart of Paris,
C
6 comments:
she's baaaacck!!!! so happy to read your words again! here's to many more journals, and even more blog posts to come :)
Love the idea of creating one's own personal special google "map" of memories, writings, experiences!
You are providing us, your lucky readers, with your very own Guide Psychographique de Paris, as you move through the arrondissements, the seasons, the journals, your thoughts. Keep 'em coming. I am so glad you moved to Paris and through that move have mapped the layers of geography. By reading and sharing I feel a part of that landscape and thank you for sharing the world with me.
It's so good to read you again dear Chantal, I'm still following your blog after all those years !
Would love to go out for a coffee, I'll be around in Paris from tomorrow on.
Keep the posts coming pretty please.
guillaume, i am back in paris too now. just a few days ago. are you still around? coffee?
a light breeze flows through the air of what is sure to be a fantastic beat to skip to - words formed from the emotional context of journeying through the interior and exterior spaces of reality are not merely words formed from the process of being present in a particular place at a specific time - no - these words live deep with in the cities of the interior and reach as far out as one can gaze with imaginative thought – the complexity from which these words are formed are closely rooted in the emotional process of connection and disconnection and framed by the intermingling behaviours of individuals – even when no one else is present, there is still a dance to be danced
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