December 2, 2022
Bon vendredi, voyageurs!
This week, I write to you from a God-sent hotel room1 in Montmartre, Paris. Once I’m back and have the proper headspace to write, I’ll tell you all about it and the two books I finished before leaving Music City. Both were phenomenal, the second even more gripping than the first.
In lieu of a normal issue, I instead will leave you with a short creative writing bit I wrote on the flight over.
Once I’m back from surprise country #26 in mid-December, I’ll share Sarah’s Ultimate Guide to Paris. I typically cringe at the high view of self it can take to visit a place for 48 hours, write a travel guide, then deem it “ultimate.” I don’t even feel adequate to write an Ultimate Guide to Nashville despite my deep roots there without thinking Whose ultimate is this, anyway?
So instead, I’ll write Sarah’s Ultimate Guide to Paris. Not THE ultimate. But my ultimate. I hope it is a part of your own Paris story someday. It will be long, but worth every recommendation after three trips to this City of Love.
Coming to an inbox near you once it receives its due energy from me.
A preview comes in the form of photos from the adorable café we spent all day in while in wait for our Airbnb.
For in the moment updates, follow along on my Instagram Story.
What’s On My Tray Table
As for books, these are the two I read before leaving home and I think you will love them. The second is going on my favorite books of all time list.
The Paris Library
The Book of Lost Names
Longer reviews to come!
On Wednesday (the last day of November), I sent everyone my November Links. These are monthly posts with the best I witnessed on and off the internet each month. Aside from these two books, every book I read last month is listed at the bottom after the links. Click away!
I leave you with this little piece written quite literally on my tray table, inspired by the best of all things: a thought-provoking novel.2
Please excuse the dim lighting—this one was taken in that sweet spot on a transatlantic, after everyone’s eaten and the lights go down, welcoming a silence that only makes room for the hum of a plane engine.
That being said, if you’re on a flight after the lights go down and you see that one passenger with a light shining over their seat like a beacon…maybe it’s me. In an aisle seat. Writing From the Aisle Seat, either in my head or on the screen.
I hope you enjoy this one.
Women Talking
Women Talking
Women drinking vin rouge on AA754
Women traveling
Women flying!
Women striving
Women loving, living, dreaming
Women exploring,
Discovering,
Their place in the world
As it is
And as it should be.
Women loving
Women leaving
Women never turning back. ❤️
Written in seat 24C somewhere over the Atlantic en route to Paris ✨
Be brave and stay that way,
Sarah
There’s a story behind this. Yes, I will tell you—just not yet!
As an aside, I picked up this book from the library before I left and didn’t read the synopsis on purpose. It’s becoming a Hulu show and I want to get the print version experience before watching. (A footnote to this footnote: Yes, I travel with library books. They deserve to see the world, too. Since they have brought the world to me, I figured I could return the favor.)