Secret Love Nest

A Squirrel in Paris

Paris is a beautiful city. Really scenic. With cobbled pavements and brick roads. People on bikes, wonderful parks and that tower. You know, they have that tower that is apparently famous.

The Eiffel Tower.

Paris. The City of Romance. A lot of Hollywood films had been shoot here. It's a perfect place for a photoshoot with those buildings in true European design. High end fashion. Cafes. Botiques. Restaurants. Boats in rivers.

It's a truly marvelous place.

And I feel a bit ridiculous being here alone without my lover. But that's a different story all together.

I am here in Paris for the Paris Fashion Week. This moment I waited most eagerly for like two weeks since I got those invites.

I have someone who will guide me in my journey here in Paris. Quite a fashionista herself, she will help me navigate and understand what really happens behind the glamorous scenes of the Paris Fashion Week.

You see, like all of you, I thought it's all about clothes, styles, catwalks, models and designers. Nope. That was just the tip of the iceberg apparently.

Fashion is not all about styles and clothes. It's about making connections. Not connections like people who will buy your clothes if you are a designer or people who will dress you up if you are a model. No, not like that.

When I said connection, it means meeting people and learning what fashion is for them. While here in Paris, I learned that everyone is an innate sense of fashion inside them.

True. Even the most unfashionable person has an innate sense of fashion inside himself or herself. That being said, I think my innate fashion sense is in deep slumber.

(Dayu...)

I am not kidding. If you will just see the fashionable people here in Paris, I don't think I can wear most of what those male models are wearing. By Jude, I love leather but I saw someone who can put my love for leather to shame.

He was dressed in all leather, including socks. I don't know.

But it's fun. Meeting people. The language barrier is there of course. All that "Merci", "Madmoiselle" and "Monsieur" are disconcerting at first but you will eventually fall in love with the French language.

Mind you I still think that Spanish is the most romantic language aside from Mandarin, which is my native language, but French language have words that are really sophisticated sounding.

Je t'aime everyone.

But I still stop myself from fainting if I saw two French talking rapidly in their language in front of me.

Anyways, aside from the language dilemma, there's also the food.

I don't know where I heard this phrase but it made sense. This phrase, "If you want authentic Chinese cooking, go to China". That made absolutely sense. Chinese cooking is Paris is...lacking for one.

But it's okay because of that saying, I cannot expect authentic Chinese food in Paris, that would be unfair. So I feel a little irritated at people when I heard them blaming Paris for not having authentic Asian dishes. I want to say, "hey, if you want authentic Thai food, go to Thailand. If you want authentic Japanese food, go to Japan". Why blame Paris? Paris is nice enough to host us. Get angry if you cannot find good French food in Paris. Now, that is just a crime.

So I said to myself, "Dayu don't expect Chinese food here in Paris to taste the same as the food back home. That will be unfair. Try French food, French people will be good in cooking French food."

So I did. Try French cuisine. And it was divine. But then I end up with another realization: I cannot live with French cuisine alone. My Chinese taste buds are looking for Chinese food.

So I, together with some friends I met and came with here in Paris, look for good Chinese restaurants and we found them. Chinese foods here are not as good as the food back home but sometimes the company you have and the stories you hear and share while eating made up for the feeling of being full.

So it was good.

What else. Language, scenery, food. What else can we talk about? Ah, coffee. I think you guys all know I am not as fond of coffee as my love for tea. But here in Paris, cafes are everywhere. And you just got to try a cup or two.

I think by now you saw those pictures I posted in my weibo and my team's weibo. Those pictures are quite special, those are the places I want to go back to together with Qing. But of course we chose the pictures we will post. But believe me when I said I took a lot more pictures than those.

Next, the fashion people. I met designers, models, fashion show organizers. All of them...are busy. I know, I know...in a perfect world, all the people you will meet are nice people but that is not the reality.

Some people I met in Paris are...not as nice as the others. Maybe they are tense or going through tough times that is why they are not smiling or maybe they just had their botox operation and they cannot stretch their faces, I don't know. I don't want to jugde but if they are not smiling or friendly at me, that is fine.

Qing is not always friendly to me. He is sometimes mean to me. I don't take it to heart. But as I am shy most of the times, I avoided people who didn't smile or was warm to me when I was first introduced to them. Afraid that they will snob me or reject me. I know that I am not the most interesting person or speaker...so. But enough about that.

I would like to concentrate on the people who were nice to me. At the show rooms of the fashion show venues, I met designers who are nice and kind enough to let me peek at their creations. The colors and the combinations...you guys will not believe. It's like a feast on the eyes. The smell of different fabrics. I didn't know that before. That cotton smells differently from satin or silk or leather. I learned all that in Paris.

Someone gifted me with a scarf. It was in vibrant yellow color. I love it. So I am keeping it.

I met other celebrities. Some, I just saw in passing. I got starstruck once or a few hundred times during my stay here. Stars and celebrities everywhere with stylish clothes that will soon be the "it" fashion of the future. It was amazing.

All in all, my experience in Paris are filled with new learnings and new experiences. Was it fun? It was. It absolutely was. To be able to attend a formal fashion show. Watching beautiful clothes being modeled in the catwalk. Meeting interesting people. Seeing new places. Paris Fashion Week is the bomb. Paris is a wonderful place to visit. I totally recommend that you guys put it in your list of places to travel to.

I will come back here. I want to go back to Paris, maybe with Qing this time. Or my parents. Oh, that will be great. To drink in a cafe with my mother, Qing's mom and JiJi. And stroll on the cobbled pavements hand in hand with Qing. Then go up in the Eiffel Tower with my dad and Qing's dad.

That will be a wonderful vacation.

But it had to wait because I still have a drama to finish in Shenzhen. As I wait here for my flight to be called so I can go back to Beijing, I just want to write here that my time here in Paris is a memorable time for me. It's nice to travel when you are still young.

I hope all of us will get to travel and see wonderful places and experience new things. But if it's not possible for now, I hope it will be possible in our future.

"Flight from Paris to Beijing, now boarding..."

Oh that is us! I have to go. See you all next time. In Beijing!

I sent a message to Qing before I went aboard the plane.

"I am home bound. I miss you. See you soon."