Postcards From My Fun Working Holiday In Paris

I returned a week ago from a travel memoir writing workshop in Paris where a dozen participants, 11 from around the U.S. and one polite Canadian (thank you, Garrett), communed with fellow travelers, writers, and American travel writing legend and all-around good guy Rolf Potts who organized the event.

I been basking in the glow of that marvelous 6-day experience ever since.

The Eiffel Tower beams its blue light over the Seine River, where the French people and we tourists crowded its banks every night to wine and dine into the wee hours.

All the participants, were seasoned travelers and smart writers desiring to improve their skills, make new friends, maybe publish a book, and enjoy life in the glorious city of Paris.

Ari Shaffir, a standup comic, raconteur, and host of *The Skeptic Tank* podcast from New York, shares a moment of passion from his workshop story.

It worked for me on all counts.

Rolf Potts is a Kansas native and author of the seminal book on backpacking and solo adventure travel, titled “Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.” He was accompanied by his wife, Kiki, an accomplished actor and also a native Kansan. The couple recently married and reside on a 30-acre ranch in Kansas.

It’s rare, I think, to throw 12 strangers together for a week and have them mesh as cohesively as the people I met and worked with in Paris, ranging in age from 20-somethings fresh out of college to a couple of retired geezers like … well, just guess who was the oldest one in the room.

Food, wine and good workshop friends enjoying life in the Paris cafe Le Rubis.

We learned almost as much from each other during the six days as we did from the instructors. There was not a clunker, malingerer, misfit or knucklehead in the group. Already there are plans for our reunion in Paris next summer.

Paris itself may have had much do with our success as we wasted no time seeking the many pleasures of one of the world’s great cities.

I thought I should add style to my thrift shop wardrobe in Paris so I bought this “Panama” hat; materials (alleged to be) from Panama, made in Milan, definitely purchased on a street corner in Paris. How you like me now?

This was my first trip to Paris. And while I’ve visited a number of exciting cities in my past six years of world travel, none was as enchanting as the so-called City of Light. Though it could be the wine.

We were even graced with the presence of show biz royalty when “Bennifer,” the single name assigned to the recent double mega-celebrity union of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, appeared as though on cue at the Louvre, dining on an outdoor balcony above the museum’s courtyard.

I then used my 40-year reservoir of journalism savvy to track them down leaving their table and subsequently created a tizzy with my photos.

I even got dressed down for butting in by real paparazzi! What a thrill.

Check out my previous blog post about it here.

The glass-and-chrome pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre was designed by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei.

The unmatched beauty, style, elegance, history and cultural heritage of Paris were captivating and inspiring, serving as the perfect backdrop for our week.

A near-formal group photo of our illustrious group.

I’ve been thinking about the book I want to write for some time, collecting my notes, anecdotes, thoughts and stories ever since I set out from Hawaii in 2016 to travel as an antidote to a bad case of the retirement blues.

The historic Notre Dame cathedral, still closed due to fire that nearly destroyed it in 2019. has survived damage and deterioration over centuries. Conceived as a single cathedral in 1160 with the joining of two basilicas on the site, work continues on its current reconstruction.

I’ve been on the road ever since but was never quite sure how to go about writing the book.

But I’d read Rolf Potts’ books and was a fan. I found that he spoke to much of what I was trying to be as a traveler and there was so much more I wanted to learn about traveling and writing.

Workshop friends Erin (left), Xylia and I await our late-night repast at a Mexican restaurant in, of all places, Paris! Owned and operated by native Mexicans, it was some of the finest Mexican food I’ve had anywhere, prepared with the same care and attention to detail as the locals prepare their native French cuisine, which is unparalleled.

I signed up to attend last year’s workshop but it was Covid-canceled. I kept myself on the list and kept traveling. This year, bingo! I was there.

Potts’ book, Vagabonding, has become a classic, often referred to as the backpacker’s bible, and the book sells as well today as when first published 19 years ago.

The title popularized the term for a style of travel in which the quality of time spent traveling is paramount, not money or other considerations. It cast him as one of the most influential travelers on the planet.

The “Grand” Hotel of Paris, where I stayed, is a convenient 30-minute walk down Strasbourg Boulevard to the Louvre in central Paris. It’s billed online and in all its printed materials as the “Grand Hotel of Paris,” but maybe all that didn’t fit on the building. It was OK, but I’ll attest that the size of the room was certainly not “grand.”

Potts has also authored travel books titled Marco Polo Didn’t Go There (2008), and Souvenir (2018), and he’s about to release his next travel book later this year.

Everything about the workshop itself far exceeded my expectations, and now I’m back in Tbilisi, Georgia, with renewed energy and desire to complete my own travel memoir.

I’m working on it.

***

Below, is a video of our workshop group’s final get-together on the banks of the Seine, as we bid a bittersweet adieu to our newest and best friends. (Click the arrowed-circle replay button, lower left, if you see other video promos. I’ll figure this out yet.)

Full disclosure: I took all the photos except the near formal group shot — I don’t know who did, but thanks, it’s a beautiful photo — and the one of me and my “Panama” hat. Thanks mucho to Adrielle Knight for that one!

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