darlings
quelle shock.
it’s RAINING in los angeles today
and whenever we see (soft, misty, hair-curls-creating) rain (as opposed to torrential thunderstorms from east coast or perpetual dampness as per london) we think of PARIS (doesn’t everyone?)
we have a theory.
no.
wait.
it’s a good one.
everyone that we’ve truly (in a mostly virtual and delicious way) connected with via the interweb is the Sort of person that one might have met at Shakespeare & Co, wandering-through Paris and thinking (deeply) About Their Future.
yes.
clever you.
that Is indeed Meryl.
this theory has proved true more than Once.
we get to know someone (via their blog or Instagram or some such IP-enabled-fangled-Tech) and somehow or another the Subject of Paris comes up (doesn’t it always? – eventually – and especially with people who love books and chandeliers and it would be hard to be Friends in whatever with us without an Obsession or deep love of both) and then we find out YES! they also ran away to Paris at some point and stopped in at Shakespeare & Co.
In fact, we are convinced that everyone we love to talk* to via the magical interweb is the Sort of Person who would have passed through paris (and thus would have, at some point, been in need of a new Book and therefore gone to Shakespeare & Co) one (probably light, misty, rainy) day.
these are some of the delicious people that we follow-and-who-follow-us on Instagram (from Korea, England, Hong Kong, Wales, France, USA, Turkey, Germany, Italia, Japan, Australia, Sweden and other places that we haven’t quite grasped they might come from because they appear to travel a lot).
now take a good long look -
yes.
exactly.
They are precisely the sort of people one would expect to meet at Shakespeare and Company.
*sometimes we talk on the princess phone or online (in a typing-in-a-comment-box sort of a way) or – you know – when we know them better, in email or IM – OR sometimes we have tea with them when they come from Berlin or we find a taco stand in east LA and admire their Art and there are some people with whom our relationship has deepened over time from when we were anonymous (and going through you-know-what and they were Very Kind or those we know in RL but truly felt heard and seen by talking and going to Cornwall for a summer hols or by sharing online and the Many International connections which are all somehow intertwined from Australia to NYC to not-far-from-Cardiff to Istanbul and the Emerald Isle to Los Angeles and Back and beyond.
in fact, Some people we talk to have probably not just been to Shakespeare & Co but hosted or been hosted at a Deeply glamorous and Literary Event there…..
there you go.
the theory for a rainy day in L.A………the corners of the interweb where we find each other = a massive shakespeare and co, Paris.
non?
we couldn’t resist ending this post with not-quite-a-chandelier but Rather Parisian all the same.
actually – no – don’t go away – let’s have some Actual pictures FROM our prior trips to Paris, pourquoi pas?
even on a rainy day we’ll always have Paris.
and we’ll always have you – the Sort of people who would, at one point in their lives, have passed through Shakespeare & Company – and maybe we would have seen you, by the Simone de Beauvoir collection, frowning (prettily) over a commentary of some gloriously difficult yet helpful feminist text or, more likely, giggling over Asterix.
Paris as a commonality instantly tells me most of what I need to know about someone. I genuinely believe this is because Paris is the city of DREAMERS. I am so happy to be associated with your princess phone…this post is one of my all-time favorites because it so well articulates the inspiring community you attract here. Team Gloria, FTW!
hello young person – we had to look up FTW on the interweb to see what it meant ;-)
glorious. #weadorenewVocab
happy OM and Sybille Bedford-ness.
Thank you TG for the mention. Muchly appreciated or as they might say in Paris “c’est très apprécié”. Although I have visited Paris many times, I have yet to go there in a run-away-fashion – which by the way sounds a most exotic and exciting thing to do. *peering hopefully into my future*
oh! how lovely that you also did a look-to-camera!
*smilingwithheadtoonesideinglee*
I wish that I had a starry candle-lit memory at Vaux-le-Vicomte!
*pouting*
*still pouting*
*…*
Well, I did live on the outskirts (sigh, don’t ask) of Paris when I first moved to France and in my non-French speaking state, I leave you well to imagine the Life-vest on the Titanic proportions that English Language bookstores such as Shakes&Co meant to me.
So by all means, feel free to add me to the list.
PS. I think that those appliques could only be more girly if they had massive ostrich feathers sprouting out the top.
Bisous!
h
dearest Heather – we are *pouting* too at the Vast absence in our Life of a candle-lit memoire-ness at Vaux le Chateauness. #sigh
beautiful photos, beautiful thoughts!
i love the idea of this *here* being our own virtual shakespeare & co.
in fact, i’ve been there. spent two summers in paris, when i was 17 and 18. all by myself. and loved it.
sending love from an all-white berlin*
julia
*shivery* snow!
bliss.
ah. to be 17 and in Paris once more.
but with savings and some cashmere throws, this time.
ah! oui! et peut-être the two us us ensemble dans un café . cétait merveilleux!!!
Now that I’ve read your take on “how we’re all connected” (rather than the comment on “Let’s ride”, in that apocalyptic setting), I rescind my desert gas station/train station by night theory! :)
Your photos took me back to Paris and I instantly _felt_ that this would indeed be perfectly serendipitous and serendipitously perfect while still random and bringing together very different human beings who gave in to the same blink of the guiding star.
And now please would you excuse me, I’m taking a memory trip back to a starry, candle-lit night at Vaux-le-Vicomte…
INTRIGUED……
will there be a Post sometime about such an Evening as was mentioned?
hint.
hm.
maybe a post about evenings where this night fits in would make a beautycalyptic sense.
I’ll keep this hint in mind.
Splendid Notion…..