Paris Off Script

23/10/2024

Paris—there are the highlights, no explanation needed. And then there are the lo-lights, as in local. All those things everyone says they want to experience but never quite know where or how. Experiencing local Paris, like a local. That's my expertise. So, what are you waiting for?

07/10/2024

Paris—beautiful, irresistible! February 18–22, 2025. April 14–18, 2025. Feeling spontaneous? Contact me about options for this November.

23/09/2024

About her experience with me, one client said, "You do make magic happen." Which prompted this memory: When I was a child, foxtails were my magic wands. From the top of a slide on a backyard playset in the twilight of summer evenings, while a chorus of crickets sang, I waved my wand over an imaginary domain, creating magic. I still create magic, though it takes both imagination and hard work. And the domain is Paris. Come with me and experience magic.

02/09/2024

September newsletter!
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An exciting new season Paris Tips and Tidbits Photo courtesy of Willem Longendyke Welcome to September—c’est la rentrée! Not familiar with that unique French phenomenon, la rentrée? Understanding its

16/08/2024

Be inspired!

10/08/2024

Montmartre 2024. Monet 1878.
📸Superb photo on the left by Canadian photographer Bilal Aouffen.

03/08/2024

In the opening ceremony of the Olympics, there were lots of references to French history. But depending on where and how you watched, they were largely unannounced and thus easy to miss. Take the Olympic cauldron in the spectacular finale. The nod was to the Montgolfier brothers who launched the first hot-air balloon in the late 18th century. So notable was this in aviation history that the word for hot-air balloon entered the French lexicon as une montgolfière. Then there is the significance of the site of les Tuileries. Six months after the Montgolfier feat, the first hydrogen balloon went aloft from the grounds in front of where the Palais des Tuileries once stood. Very close to the spot where, 241 years later, the Paris 2024 Olympic cauldron rose into the air! But what about the plaque in the photo? Now that's an off script story! By the late 1780s, balloon aviation had gone from hot-air to hydrogen, from tethered to untethered, from unmanned to manned. What was left? On October 22, 1797, André-Jacques Garnerin made history by descending in a basket attached to a frameless parachute that he'd invented, borne aloft by a balloon!

14/07/2024

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It's Bastille Day! Happy to announce an exciting new travel adventure. You can get all the details here in our latest newsletter. Bonne lecture!

News flash! Bonne Fête Nationale! 🇫🇷 Bonne Fête nationale! It’s July 14 and whether you know it formally as la Fête nationale, informally as le quatorze juillet, or simply as Bastille Day, it’s the

12/07/2024

Catch us around town! Delighted to be a community partner with Alliance Française Mpls/St Paul, MSP Film Society, and Bonjour Minnesota on KFAI Radio. In the next several days, we'll be introducing the film "Widow Clicquot" at the Lumières Françaises film festival (Sat., July 13, 7pm CDT); raffling a goodie basket at our table with Libby Pudwell Cecchi at the Alliance Françaises' Bastille Day festivities (Sun., July 14, 3–7pm CDT); and on Tues., July 16, 8–10pm CDT the guest on Bonjour Minnesota (90.3 FM in the Twin Cities)! Not in the Twin Cities area? Bonjour Minnesota can be streamed worldwide when it's live at https://www.kfai.org/ À très bientôt!

05/07/2024

Happy Fourth of July from Paris Off Script.

25/06/2024

And again I say, merci! Upcoming dates: February 18–22, 2025, April 14–18, 2025. Fall 2025 TBD. Five people, first come, first served.

05/06/2024

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Woohoo, here's our latest newsletter! Enjoy!

What you missed, what's coming Paris Tips and Tidbits Bonjour! This newsletter started out as notes scribbled on a napkin in Paris only to get set aside because of, well, Paris. So rebonjour, it’s goo

26/04/2024

We had a fabulous time in Paris in March! Curious about the kinds of things we see and do? Here's a glimpse. Won't you come, too?

15/04/2024

On this day, April 15, 2019, a fire broke out in the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral. The world watched in shocked horror as the spire collapsed and fell through the roof, sending billows of black smoke into the air. For days, only the eerie glow of embers flickered from the darkened cathedral. Its restoration has been a Herculean effort, a testament to the centuries-old craftsmanship that still exists in France and the hundreds and hundreds of artisans who lovingly practice their craft. Here's the fascinating story of one American who joined the effort.

Hank Silver, a timber framer based in Massachusetts, is one of a handful of foreigners who are helping to rebuild the Paris cathedral after the devastating fire in 2019.

25/03/2024

To go to a salon in Paris is to engage in a celebration. To see the bounty of France—or, as is the case with chocolate, the world—is to see passion at play, to experience excellence, to consider what really makes for a good life. Whether agriculture (married to gastronomy), chocolate, wine, books and reading, the salons are an astounding tribute to a culture and a way of life. Le Salon des Vins des Vignerons Indépendants was no exception.
These are the kinds of experiences you'll have with Paris Off Script.

15/02/2024

J'ai le cœur qui bat la chamade! / My heart beats wildly!
Bonne Saint-Valentin, Paris!

15/01/2024

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Enjoy our latest newsletter!

31/12/2023

2023 was a wonderful year for us! Thank you for your likes and follows. To all my clients past, present, and future, mille mercis, I am grateful. Je vous souhaite une belle et douce année 2024! Wishing you a very happy new year. See you in Paris!

16/12/2023

Still in the glow from so many wonderful clients this fall! I'll be adding their testimonials to www.parisoffscript.com but here's a peek at what one person had to say.

19/11/2023

Oh Paris, you are so beautiful my heart feels like it will burst!

13/11/2023

Today, 13 November, is a somber day in France and Paris especially. It is the anniversary of the 2015 terrorist attacks that took or injured hundreds of lives. It happened less than a year after the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo. We honor, we remember, we never forget. But we never learn. With Paris Off Script, we delve in and out of 2,000 years of human history in plain sight in this magnificent city. With the hope that the stories of those who came before us provide a framework for learning and understanding. Fluctuat nec mergitur.

31/10/2023

Poking around a pretty, private courtyard when a jet black cat decided to play peek-a-boo. On Halloween. Cue the spooky music!

07/10/2023

Preparing for upcoming trips this fall, going through old notebooks, found this little pépite I'd scribbled to myself.

30/08/2023

Tonight's Blue Moon is the second full moon of the month and a supermoon, a convergence of three special events. So tell me, what would you do once in a Blue Moon? I've got some ideas…

17/08/2023

Of all the myriad articles about European travel this summer—from the hordes of tourists; the heatwave; the new restrictions on the number of visitors at a given time from the Acropolis to the Louvre to Venice; to the way to dress and behave—this one resonated the loudest with me. Especially this: "I hope that all those visitors are imagining, even if only for a few days, some other way of thinking, some freedom from the expectations, about how to hold our silverware and how to see the world." I do, too. Paris Off Script.

Moving there gave me access to all the other ways to see.