Discoveries

Last night I had one of those aha! moments that happen every so often when living in a new city. Every time I leave my apartment, I always turn left. My office is left, the shopping areas I knew were left, I always just walked left. Occasionally I would look right, but it didn't look too interesting, and I haven't taken the time to explore. Well. I was in for a treat last night.

I was heading to a friend's place in le Marais for dinner. Our apartments aren't that far apart, but it had been taking me forever to get there. I was intent on finding a new route. So I pulled out my trusty Paris Poche map, and found a new route to get there. One that involved me turning Right.

So I set off, not really expecting to see anything other than residential streets and voila! I stumble into Rue de Bretagne, which was buzzing with activity. There was an outdoor Christmas market going on, plus several great food stores (the patisserie, shown above, as well as a fromagerie, coffee bean shop and great meat store), and to top it off, an outdoor fruit & vegetable market!

All this time I've been trekking down to rue Montorgueil for a market, when there was one just a couple of blocks from my house. I just love moments like this - when I think I have everything figured out, and then I get a surprise. Ok, usually the surprises are bad ones (like, I didn't put the sticker on my mailbox right so of course I'm not getting any mail) - but little moments like this make it worthwhile.

Discovering this new street last night made me think about how quickly our lives naturally gravitate towards routines. I guess it's for a sense of normalcy and comfort, but within just a couple of months, I already have regular places to shop, regular lunch haunts, a regular route I walk to work, etc... I believe it's good to break your routine once in awhile to just expose yourself to something new, stay fresh, get inspired and maybe meet some new people. So perhaps for one of my New Years resolutions I'll try to avoid a routine for awhile, until I've really explored what my options are (although exploring options in Paris could probably go on forever...).