DAY 1 FIRST SOLO TRIP PARIS JOURNAL

I didn't plan this trip so much in my life, I just one day told to Sebastian "you know I am going to Paris alone the next spring, I want to see the cherry blossoms in Paris", and that was all. I was so freaking afraid the day I travelled, as you know, or even if you don't, I use glasses because I don't see well, and when say "not well" I am saying I have a very very very limited eye sight, and guess what, I am a photographer, and I live from this. But everything went well in the airports, I had to make a scale and during the time I was waiting to get in board to my Paris airplane I had the most anxious time I have ever had in years, but I made it, I journaled and I made it. 

When I arrived to Paris it was a warm sunny afternoon in the middle of the spring, I took a taxi from the airport Charles de Gaulle that costed €50 to the Marais. I stayed in a bohemian private studio in a medieval house in the Marais, it was a tiny room with a double bed, a desk, a kitchenette, a tiny lovely bar, and a huge bathroom, very quiet and peaceful to be in the center of Paris. The Parisian host was super kind and took my heavy bag to the fifth floor. There was champagne, wine and Nespresso coffee; as it was my first solo trip so far away I opened the champagne and celebrated for me, for being this fucking awesome risk-taking woman who traveled alone with a limited eyesight. 

Cafe Hugo, Place des Vosges

I was so excited that I even wasn't hungry. I had travelled for 12 hours from Bogota, Colombia, yes, I live in Colombia, to Paris, and I even remember when was the last time I ate something, so as I had been in Paris before I thought it was easy for me to go to Place the Vosges but it was not, (while I got the internet on my phone the next day, the ORANGE store was closed), I got lost and I was a bit dizzy because of the champagne but also extremely happy to even care. But well, I made it, I arrived to Place des Vosges and I sat in the first cafe that looked nice and cool to me, Cafe Hugo, I had a double expresso and a crepe sucré, while I looked towards Place des Vosges in the sunset, the light was magical, people where laughing, the waitress was super kind to me, and I couldn’t believe I was there alone all payed by me, by my business, by my photography. 

Place des Vosges

Then, coming back, now I knew where I was and how to come back to my studio, the champagne effect was gone, I found a little marché, I bought some cereal and milk, and tea for breakfast, at that moment I didn’t drink coffee, I was so nervous then that my stomach couldn’t tolerate it, but after a couple of days I was drinking coffee like it should be. Going for some groceries in the way to the flat felt kind of special, like you were living there, a very unique feeling. 

Marais Flags

I learnt how to open the door to the medieval house quickly, how to enter quickly and close quickly, because I read it was better to do so for security purposes, specially if you are alone and you looked like a tourist, but nothing ever happened, one day I arrived at 11 pm, and everything was ok. This house felt so antique and peaceful, the first thing you saw entering is a super dark old hall, kind of scary at the beginning, fortunately it had a light switch by the door, then the stairs are all irregular and made of stone, I think it was a convent or something like that, I could see a monk studying long hours in my studio, I just imagined it in my mind; of course I was afraid of ghosts, but nothing happened, just a little sound one night, I was very suggestible. I arranged all my belongings, I was still not hungry, I just ate some cereal and went to sleep, of course before talking with Sebastian for an hour and drinking tones of water. 

Paris

All photographs by Caroline Mint