february postcard
here, there, and everywhere
now that february has officially begun to wind down, can I just say: phew.
if you’ve been keeping up with me at all on instagram, you probably noticed that I logged some miles this month. while I pride myself of being a fairly eager and frequent traveler, even I have to admit that I perhaps bit off slightly more than I could chew this month by logging three weeks of nearly continuous movement. one also cannot forget my genetically-inherited predisposition to misfortune; lady (bad) luck certainly made herself known early on, when mere hours before my flight back to the US, I received notice from the airline that my trip had been cancelled due to bad weather in my connecting destination. (bad weather in iceland in february - who would have guessed?)
but what kind of hypocrite would I be to walk around with “nevertheless, she persisted” inked permanently upon my body, just to let a silly thing like a last-minute cancelled flight thwart me? back onto skyscanner I went to rebook the whole damn thing - flight, car, and all - with just enough time to get about three hours of sleep before having to roll out of my apartment to make it to the airport.
destinations visited
state college, pa
perhaps my most impulsive choice in recent memory, in january I booked a last minute (turns out, extremely last minute) trip back to my penn state stomping grounds to see my dear friend (dare I say best friend, even!) defend her dissertation. we entered the master’s program together, and while I am a proud quitting-quitter-who-quit after obtaining my M.A., she did the damn thing and made it all the way through the PhD.
to say that the trip back was an odyssey would be an understatement. the flight cancellation had other repercussions beyond adding unnecessary stress to my life; my new flight had me flying into new york rather than the slightly-closer baltimore, which meant a longer drive afterward. and naturally, since I took to the road at 5 pm on a weekday and had to traverse the whole of the tri-state area just to make it onto the blissful monotony of i-80, traffic was a nightmare. what was meant to be a four hour drive became five, and then five and a half, and then nearly six.
thank god Emma had some yeungling in the fridge and a thai food feast waiting for me. and in even better news, the dissertation defense was successful — as if there was every any doubt.
lyon, france
the trip to penn state was ridiculously short — I arrived on a wednesday evening, and left again on saturday. this was not of my own doing, but I had a work engagement the following week that required my presence in yet another of my old stomping grounds — lyon.
I hadn’t been back in some time; not since the life-exploding events of 2022. in truth I was a bit nervous to go back in this new phase of my life, as the year I spent living in Lyon in 2018-2019 remains, so far, one of my very best years. I needn’t have feared though; returning was like slipping into an old, well-loved sweater. familiar and comfortable.
that said, the work event itself was a bit soured by current events. what should have been a celebratory inaugural conference was marred (not insignificantly) by the knowledge that my colleagues and I who worked so hard to organize and run the event are very soon to find ourselves out of jobs, due to tr*mp’s decision to remove the US from the WHO member states. as the US is the primary funder for the WHO, things are…well, not great, in terms of outlook for those of us who work as consultants (which, I may add, is a significant portion of the workforce of most agencies within the UN system, not just the WHO).
still, though, it was a cool event to be a part of. it was the first time I was able to meet any of my colleagues in person, and regardless of what happens, I can now forever say that not only have I worked for the WHO, but I have proudly and unabashedly paraded myself through the cafeteria and in front of the director general with my dress tucked down the back side of my tights.
bravo, me!
normandy
a cool 24 hours after returning from lyon I was back on the road again, this time to bernay, a small town in normandy just a 90-minute train ride from saint lazare. some friends needed to return to England for a family matter, and asked me to cat sit.
not one to turn down a chance to escape to the countryside, off I went. it was a quiet week, and I got the joy of pretending to have my very own country home, with almost none of the responsibility. win!
limoges
to wrap up my february escapade, I accompanied my boyfriend (yes, I am aware that this newsletter is called solo in the city of light - that’s a story for another day) down to limoges to celebrate his father’s 70th birthday. he’s already experienced the joy of traveling with me once, when the event we were meant to attend in the bassin d’arcachon was — you guessed it — cancelled at the last minute due to bad weather. undeterred, or perhaps unaware that this kind of misfortune is a feature of my life, not a bug, he asked me to come with him to limoges for more festivities.
not an hour into our train ride, we stopped at a station just outside of orléans, still 2.5 hours from our final destination. the conductor explained there had been an accident somewhere ahead, and that the train would need to wait at the station for 15-20 minutes. at the end of said 15-20 minutes, the conducteur came back on to declare that the accident in question had, in fact, involved a bridge that was now structurally compromised. it would be at least another two hours before our train could move again.
(bizarrely enough, this exact situation has befallen me once before, when Emma and I were on our “sad gal” trip to nice in the summer of 2022.)
being on a tight schedule and knowing that we only had one night to spend in limoges, the boy, the little dog, and I descended from the train and rented a car via getaround (thanks, technology!) which got us safely and quickly to limoges, likely before the train even got rolling again.
the return trip was also beset by mishaps that turned what should have been a four-hour trip total into five, and then six, but the weekend itself went marvellously well and a good time was had by all (particularly Lucie, who was pourrie gâtée in cuddles from her new favorite person).
les bonnes adresses
I often get requests from friends for places to go when they’re in france (mostly places to eat). here’s where I went in february:
odessa comptoir, lyon: my very favorite wine bar. simple but warm décor, excellent small plates, and natural or organic wines served by the glass or bottle and at very reasonable prices.
la table des gourmets, paris 3: traditional french food in a restored 12th century chapel. I would not put too much stock in the google reviews for this one — we went for valentine’s day and had an excellent meal, with great wine. the service was friendly but admittedly “parisian” — meaning, a bit slow. nevertheless, it’s on my list!
les tables du bistrot, limoges: if you ever find yourself in limoges (not a totally wild proposition, I suppose), do yourself a favor and go eat here. limousin beef is some of the best in terms of quality, and boy was it cooked to damn near perfection here. the menu is massive with a ton of variety, but unless you’re a die-hard vegetarian I don’t see any reason to eat anything other than some steak.
an adieu
another one of life’s many cruelties, not two weeks after I returned from my visit to penn state, I learned that my former professor and MA advisor, Dr. Bénédicte Monicat, very unexpectedly died. it was shocking, as she had been in perfect form when I spoke with her at Emma’s defense, and provoked one of those ugly thoughts that can come up when someone good is taken too soon: universe, why couldn’t you have taken a shitty one?
though she was my advisor by default, as is often the case for MA candidates who don’t necessarily have a concrete research project yet (and we were extremely different in terms of academic interests), she was nevertheless a wonderful and caring mentor during my time at psu. she taught and guided me through the MA with a firm yet gentle hand, and was one of those people who just radiated good energy. she was kind, and witty, and threw the best garden parties. I’m so grateful and thankful to have gotten to see her in early february. having completed my degree during covid, I always felt slightly robbed that I never had the chance to make my final rounds in person. I was able to do that this month, and seeing what’s happened in the last couple of weeks makes me even more glad that I gave in to my impulsivity and just booked the damn ticket (and then re-booked it).
“Je parlerai de l'écriture féminine: de ce qu'elle fera. Il faut que la femme s'écrive: que la femme écrive de la femme et fasse venir les femmes à l'écriture, dont elles ont été éloignées aussi violemment qu'elles l'ont été de leurs corps; pour les mêmes raisons, par la même loi, dans le même but mortel. Il faut que la femme se mette au texte - comme au monde, et à l'histoire - , de son propre mouvement.” —Hélène Cixous, Le rire de la Méduse et autres ironies