Pom Pom Project: Paris, France

Hello world.  It's been a while.

Where have I been?  Skating, traveling, knitting, reading, enjoying being engaged, and taking a breather from blogging.  At first the blog-break was scary, then it was liberating, and then -- six months later -- I finally started to miss it.

So here I am, easing back in.

(With emphasis on the "easing.")

My fiancé and I are currently touring France with an ice show.  We're traveling to two cities per week for nine straight weeks.  It makes for a lot of different hotel rooms and more time on the bus than I'd care to calculate, but oh, the sights we get to see!  Churches!  Beaches!  Adorable cafe after adorable cafe!  And people really do walk down the street here wearing berets or carrying armfuls of baguettes.  One time I saw someone doing both of those things at once and my heart exploded.

Anyway, while I'm taking away memories from all these places, I thought of a way to leave a little bit of myself behind as well.  It's a pom pom project.  

I'm going to leave a pom pom everywhere I go. And by everywhere, I mean most places, when I remember, and when it feels right.  No pressure.  Just for funsies.

The first place I left a pom pom was Paris.

I didn't leave it on that fence with the locks, or on the Eiffel Tower, but this is where the whole pom pom project really took shape in my mind.  The idea that all those couples have written their names on locks and left them forever in the city of love is so whimsical and touching.  

All those people had locks; I have pom poms.

So I left my first pom pom in the Passage des Panoramas in Paris.  

I chose that location because it's where the No Glu Bakery is, which was my favorite place to eat in Paris, and the place I went back to over and over again during our two week stay.  I was never happier than when I was sitting at a table in front of the bakery, eating tartlets and soaking in the quintessentially old-school french atmosphere.  

Just look at those ceilings!

And see the little piece of paper attached to the pom pom?  It has an excerpt from The Little Prince on it, which I'm currently reading in French, since we're in France and all.

On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. 

One sees clearly only with the heart.

Love it.

On the back of the paper, I gave the pom pom a hashtag (#pompomsaroundtheworld) because I think it would be the coolest thing ever if a stranger saw it, took a picture of it, posted it on social media with the hashtag, and I could see that it was still there.  We'll see if it happens...

Until then, I'll be reading The Little Prince, riding the bus, and pom poming.  (Can that please be a verb?)

xoxo

Laura