Picnic in Paris (Travel from Home #1)

My friend and former coworker started a travel blog with her friend: Trek Simple. Though we’re in the middle of a pandemic and can’t actually travel, they suggested travelling from home. Their first suggestion, Picnic in Paris, was so much fun that I decided I might try one virtual trip a month. Here’s what I did for my first “trip” the weekend before Bastille Day.

I fake travelled to the French countryside (from Paris to Provence) with my church group during lunch as we shared a meal virtually. Then we enjoyed a presentation about some famous painters called: Lunch with Vincent (van Gogh) and Paul (Cézanne). There was also a bit about Paul Gauguin included as well. It was lovely to hear about my friends' travels around France in the footsteps of these artists, learn the history of the artists' times in Provence, and see many of the paintings they created in that region of France. The salad, French baguette, French goat cheese, and buttery cookies were a wonderful accompaniment to the presentation as well.

When it was time for dinner, I fake travelled back to Paris for my own, private trip. As it was far too hot for me to picnic outdoors, I laid out a green sheet to represent grass and a pink blanket on top of it to sit on for my indoor picnic. I circled the blanket in white lights and dug up a little Eiffel Tower keychain as well. My cats were thrilled to join me, happy to find a new blanket to sit on and also to find that there was cheese suddenly at eye-level.

Because I can't really cook, I heated up some dinner while enjoying appetizers, listening to music, and reading two short books from my permanent collection. Once dinner was ready, I piled a few cushions on the blanket and settled in to watch a French movie with the lights off apart from the computer screen and the string of lights. The setup was comfortable while still providing excellent ambience.

Assuming I was going to do this sort of fake traveling again, I decided that each of my travel from home trips were going to consist of at least one of each of the following: music, meal, sweet/dessert, movie, book.

My Choices

Music: I listened to Édith Piaf’s Greatest Hits on Amazon Music. I loved her sound. The timing happened to work out perfectly so that the music ended just as the oven timer beeped.

Meal: French baguette (left over from my aforementioned lunch in “Provence”) and cheese made an excellent appetizer I could snack on while cooking. For dinner, I enjoyed a hot spinach quiche. It wasn't the best I'd ever had, honestly, but it was still good.

Dessert: I enjoyed a blast from my past for dessert and ate some Petit Écolier cookies. I remember bringing these to French language class in elementary school for our holiday party. They're especially good dipped in tea, though I wasn't in a tea mood this particular evening.

Book(s): I read (well, reread) French for Cats and Advanced French for Exceptional Cats by Henri de la Barbe. I have read the former book many times, as I was given it during my childhood, but this was only my second read of its sequel. They were both as much fun as I remembered them to be, and my cats are now much more informed and can rebel in multiple languages.

Movie: I have wanted to watch the movie Amélie for years, ever since I missed out on seeing it with coworkers, so this was a great excuse to finally do so! It took me a long time to find it, however. None of my streaming services had it, and the version I found online did not have subtitles. I learned a little French when I was growing up, but not enough to carry me through a whole movie. So I ended up with a week's trial of HBO through Amazon Prime and watched the movie that way. I absolutely adored it! It was well worth the wait. Everything from the characters to the style was a complete delight.