Travel & Writing: Why Paris? Why Not! by Beth Barany

Travel & Writing- Flights of the Imagination Blog Series with Beth Barany and Paula Chafee Scardamalia

I’m excited to introduce to you a new blog series that will be running for the next six months:

Travel & Writing: Flights of the Imagination Blog Series with Beth Barany and Paula Chafee Scardamalia.

For the next 24 weeks, you are invited to join Paula Chafee Scardamalia and I as we share with you about the magic of travel and writing.  Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, novels, short stories, personal essays or keep journals, we will offer information, tips, techniques and tools for using travel to inspire, inform, enrich and empower your writing. Starting today, look for posts from both of us at diviningthemuse.com/blog and https://writersfunzone.com/blog/ every other Wednesday. And get information on our destination retreats, mine’s in Paris, Paula’s is near Delphi, Greece.

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Paula and I have been friends for years and we have a lot in common. We are both romance writers and creativity coaches and either met at an RWA conference or the Creativity Coaching conference — I don’t remember. We had coffee this summer at the RWA National conference in San Antonio and our creative sparks flew! We talked writing and traveling and our businesses helping authors. She shared about her inspiring trip to Greece next year: to take a group to the Greek Islands to connect with your Muse (May 7-14, 2015).

My big dream

I got excited and blurted out my big dream that I’d held close to me for years, revealing to very few: To take a group of writers to Paris and have a writing workshop there. She said, “Go for it!” Then she said something that freaked me out. She asked me, “When will you make this happen?” “Next year,” I squeaked. “Good!” She smiled and sat back, pleased as punch.

Sign up here

Not one to shy away from a challenge I set up the sign up page here. Details for the trip will be there soon! Today our topic addresses, “Why?” we chose our trip destinations.

WHY PARIS?

So for me, it’s “Why Paris?” I know that my reply in the title is a bit cheeky: “Why not?” So I’ll go a bit more in depth and share a little about myself in the process. I’ve been in love with Paris since I was thirteen years old. It’s hard to say exactly what enchanted me about Paris. I think I was more than anything else in awe of my sixteen year old cousin, Susan, who announced during a summer visit, that she’d be going to the Sorbonne to study photography. I just felt this certainty in my gut that I too would one day study at the Sorbonne and that I wanted to go to Paris. I don’t think I told anyone of this dream. Instead, I found a book at the local library on learning French for kids. I knew at thirteen that the kids section was the place to start when you wanted to learn anything. So I started teaching myself French. I got my dad to help me with pronunciation. He’d traveled through France on his way to Italy when he was a young man. Since there were no foreign language courses in my middle school, I had to wait until high school to formally study French. Fast forward to age sixteen, I spent a year abroad in Quebec, Canada. In six months I became fluent. Then fast forward more to age twenty-two, in 1990, I dropped out of UC Berkeley and went to Paris to work as a nanny for a Parisian family. I loved being in Paris — my dream come true. I felt my creativity blossom there. I got involved in an underground ‘zine, in days before the Internet, in fact I produced it with two other young women. I also got my first nonfiction article published, after getting rejected five times. I wasn’t inspired by the recent 20th century history of Paris, I realized when I was there. I was inspired by the city’s architecture, by the metro, and by the churches and cathedrals, especially the Notre Dame cathedral. I loved how the light looked in the spring and fall. I loved intense mix of diesel gas and Gitane cigarettes. I loved the fact that I was walking in a city that was two thousand years old.

A building in the 2nd arrondisment

The Seine, Paris, France

Paris’ city hall

Me in front of Notre Dame cathedral, Fall 2011

I’ve since lived in Paris again and visited several times. I’m always inspired by this city, in the most unexpected ways. My connection feels visceral and often hard to put into words. I feel both inadequate in relation to Paris and feel a great sense of ownership, as if Paris is mine and belongs to me. I’ve written several stories set in Paris, and finally published one the year: Parisian Amour, a sweet paranormal romance novella. That’s my attempt to answer the question: Why Paris?  Here’s Paula’s take on”Why Greece?” Go here to read more. Do you like to travel to write? Or travel for inspiration then come home and write? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Sign up here

To be notified when all the details for the trip are posted. Sign up page here. Details for the trip will be there soon!