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Being A Tourist in Paris: It’s All About the Pleasure

May 18, 2011  by Kari Geltemeyer

We first met the lovely Kari Geltemeyer when she stayed in Haven in Paris’ Livingstone flat and have been hooked on her witty writing and great photography ever since. Here are some musings and images from her latest trip to Paris this May… -Geneviève

Hi. My name is Kari, and I am a tourist. A lot of people don’t like to admit this, or feel guilty about it, and those people refer to themselves as “travelers.” That’s fine; we become what we wish to be, etc. But I’ve decided to embrace the “tourist” label wholeheartedly, unabashedly, with gusto—mostly because it takes too much energy not to.

According to Merriam-Webster, a tourist is “one that makes a tour for pleasure or culture” (no mention of fanny packs). I enjoy the culture, yes, but I go to Paris for the pleasure. I waited 40 years before I saw this city and now I love it the way I first loved New York, cinematically, as a hopelessly romantic construct no reality can touch.

Must be something in the air. I stumble around, staring up at the rooftops—those rooftops!—and the nonverbal part of my brain just takes over, the part that processes beauty and joy and awe, the part that wouldn’t be able to translate the emotion into language even if I spoke the language. (I do not. I flail and I fumble and I manage, but I deeply, fundamentally do not.) Continue Reading »

Posted in Parisian Living, Travel | 14 Comments »

An American Blogger in Paris: First Impressions

February 17, 2010  by Haven in Paris

Blogger Kari Geltemeyer is currently staying in Haven in Paris’ Livingstone Penthouse, and we were so excited to find that she’s been writing about her experience on her blog Litwit. It’s always so fun to see this city through someone else’s eyes, and first-time visitors like Kari often have a knack for recognizing the obscure details and nuances that are often overlooked by more seasoned Paris dwellers. We’ve selected some excerpts from her blog that highlight her decision to come to Paris and some of the discoveries she’s made here. We’re glad she took the leap!

Kari Geltemeyer

Text and photos by Kari Geltemeyer

Day 1

When I say it’s a very big deal to come to Paris, I don’t say it because I’m an idiot, I say it because where I come from people stay in their places. And this can’t be understood, perhaps, unless you grew up in exactly the same way, in a town of 8,000 people and a family of seven in the middle of Wisconsin surrounded by dairy farms, where—when I was young, at least—nobody seemed to stray too far. It wasn’t done, it wasn’t much considered, and if it was talked about, it was something impossibly foreign and unbelievably expensive and certainly too far away to actually be real…  (To this day my parents’ reaction is “Ack! Paris! Alone??! Aren’t you scared!”) Of course I’m scared! That’s why I’m doing it. Continue Reading »

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Posted in Parisian Living | 5 Comments »