Name: I went on a bookish trip to Paris
Uploaded: 2025-04-05T13:39:13.000Z
Duration: 36 min 18 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

In the last few days of the Easter holidays, I visited Paris by myself.

I visited two years ago and have wanted to return ever since.

There is just so much history to Paris, so much life in the brickwork and stories in the streets, and you feel them vaguely when you walk down the Seine or through the back streets.

It's a magic I wanted to feel again, but also to try feeling alone, so I booked a solo trip for the end of Easter holiday.

I got the Eurostar from London's King's Cross to the Gare du Nord, and I maintain that there is nothing as wonderful as a train ride.

On the Eurostar, I did some writing, I watched some of Sense and Sensibility, and I started reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because I'm a big fan of reading location-specific books when you're travelling.

And eventually, my train came into Paris, and it was just as beautiful as I remembered.

I've arrived in Paris, and oh my goodness, this hotel is incredible.

And I've been upgraded. I am going to give you a room tour because I'm actually flabbergasted.

I just called my parents and gave them a room tour because I'm kind of in shock.

So when you walk in, there is a reception room in the room itself.

You walk through here, and here's the wardrobe.

This is the bed, and there's a little table where I can do some work.

And then the most incredible part, like this has to be the best bit of the room, is this view.

My plan is to go and just wander around the area surrounding the hotel first.

When I'm travelling alone, especially in a city, I don't like to stay out late.

And so you will notice in this video that I come back to the room at like latest 7 every day.

I think I might get changed into something else because you know when you've just travelled in something, and then it feels kind of like, gross.

I always make a list and a plan of things to see before visiting somewhere new.

I mark locations on Google Maps, which means when I'm in the area, I know what's nearby.

And there is a whole section on my map for bookshops to visit.

And in a stroke of good fortune, my hotel is actually less than 3 minutes from the Galignani Bookshop, which is actually the oldest English bookshop on the main continent of Europe.

I was surprised at how many there were that I hadn't seen before as well.

I love the quietness of bookshops, the stillness, and how it becomes a window of timeless meditation.

I wandered up staircases, past ladders, and ran my hand over the wooden 1930s bookshelves.

I was sad to leave when my body reminded me, impatiently, that we still hadn't eaten.

And so I left and walked through the garden to Wildermood for dinner.

And they're not just pigeons, which is quite refreshing for a city.

They're kind of, they're crows. I always want to say ravens when it's crows.

And there are ducks. There are mallards. Mallards?

There are mallard ducks, which is really quite bizarre.

This is a tuna salad, but it's made up of, um, this is, like, tops I can't eat.

It's been a long time since I've had an immersion in cinema.

And after that, I went back to my room and pondered if life is really real right now.

So I went to that bookshop earlier, and it was just magical.

I spent about 40 minutes looking around, and I saw so many books that I haven't seen anywhere in England.

So even though they were English books and they were being imported to France, I found so many.

Like, it's so well-stocked. Loads of beautiful editions as well.

Like, editions that I didn't even realise were in print.

It's Unpacking My Library by Walter Benjamin.

The PDF of this essay is only about four pages.

But I was recommended to read it last term by one of my tutors, and I loved it.

I just think it encapsulates the art of book collecting and the value of books as physical objects, as opposed to just texts.

It bridges the gap between the two really well, and articulates it in a way that I couldn't articulate for myself.

So reading this really changed my perspective, or at least helped me tap into ideas that I already had around the division between book object and text.

Anyway, I'm going to do a little bit of work, actually.

Um, it's about nine o'clock, and there is a poem.

I requested this scan of this document about three or four weeks ago, and I've been anticipating it so much.

I'm really looking forward to reading it and transcribing it.

So I'm actually going to sit and transcribe it and, like, write a paragraph about it and start thinking about it now, because I just cannot wait.

I'm going to do some work, and I'm going to be using my iPad, so I'm going to change my VPN for when I'm working.

Especially in hotels, it is a really good idea to change your VPN address.

The VPN server I use is NordVPN, of course.

It's the fastest VPN server out there, and it is so easy to use.

You have this big map, and then you can choose which location you want to change your VPN to.

I also just find when I'm travelling that I want to be using a UK web browser, because the results that you get obviously change depending on which country your VPN is registered to.

So just for ease, I like to switch my VPN address to somewhere like London.

So if you have the meaning to change your VPN address, you can use my link to get an extra four months free on the two-year plan.

Thank you so much, NordVPN, and I'm going to get to reading that poem, because I'm really excited.

I still cannot tell you how exciting it is to work with any sort of manuscript.

I just love working with manuscripts, even manuscript scans, and this poem did not disappoint.

It was just as riveting as I was hoping it would be.

And then before bed, I just read some of Sartre's Nausea.

Sartre was an existentialist philosopher who lived in Paris, and Nausea is a novel which uses fiction to explain his existentialist philosophy.

The big idea with Sartre is that purpose is something we create for ourselves, that we're not born with purpose.

For Sartre, this self-creation of purpose can be very restrictive and claustrophobic, and you definitely get that in Nausea.

To also get ready, I've put on some makeup while I was waiting for breakfast, because as soon as I'm finished, I'm going to head out.

You know, they really remind me of the birds in the Cave Birds illustrations by Leonardo Baskin.

It was a 30-minute walk to the coffee shop, over the Seine and past the bookstores, and under the new morning light, which made the water glow silver.

Oh, and I also popped into every church I could as I walked, because I cannot resist good ecclesiastic architecture.

Honestly, it's one of my favourite things about visiting somewhere new.

I just feel like you can get a really good sense of a place and its architectural history from visiting churches, so would highly recommend, especially because they're usually free to enter.

I'm actually heading over to the Sartre Cafe now.

Le Dumago is a cafe known for hosting authors in Paris, so Sartre frequented here, also Albert Camus, Picasso, Simone de Beauvoir.

Oh, I also spotted this really cool sculpture.

This cafe was one of the top things I did want to go to.

So, of course, I bought my own little notebook to do some writing with an espresso.

An espresso, because France isn't the best on milk alternatives, I would not say that this is my top choice.

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I went on a bookish trip to Paris

literally

incredible

meditation

recommend