Hello, world. Welcome to Traveling Flâneuse!

Welcome to my new blog: (the) Traveling Flâneuse!

After several years of off-and-on blogging, I finally decided to get my own domain name and try again with something (hopefully) more permanent! You can see my past semi-failed attempts here and here and my semi-successful attempt (probably because it was my job as a Graduate Assistant) here. To find out more about me as a human: click here.

I am starting this blog for a few reasons.

First, I love blogging and sharing advice about various things (my favorite pastry shop, my recommendations for places to visit, navigating school, etc.). My friends know that if I have visited a city, I am ready with a list of recommendations for their future trips. I love walking around cities, observing the locals (and the tourists!), and treasure the small interactions and adventures. Second, I have always loved artsy things and have recently become addicted to taking photos (and to Instagramming). I’ll be sharing some of my photos with you and look forward to collecting my creative output on one website! Finally, I’m hoping that this website will eventually encourage me to do some more coding (not that I’ve done that much…but I did take a class a few years ago). I’m starting off with a free pre-designed WordPress theme by LyraThemes, but who knows, maybe I’ll design it all from scratch one day!

I just graduated from Penn’s Graduate School of Education and will be searching for jobs soon. As excited as I am to become a working professional, I also wanted to make sure to preserve a creative outlet. This blog is the space I’m carving out for myself to talk about some of my favorite things: food, travel, and everyday scenes.

For now, I hope to divide this website into several sections.

In Travel, I’ll be posting articles with advice and tips on where to go/what to see in various cities. You’ll find my trusty recommendations from my time in Paris/France. [Please note, though, the last time I was there was in 2015, so please consider these “old favorites” rather than the hippest-of-the-new. It’s more like I just want to share the ridiculous amount of tips and recommendations that are stored in my brain!] Other posts will include my recent favorites from Philadelphia, New York and Quebec! I’m headed to Japan in less than a week, so you can look forward to reading about my shenanigans there 🙂

In Food, I’ll talk about my favorite foods both at home (and on travels) and maybe share a few recipes! It might end up featuring a lot of food pictures.

In Photography, I’ll try to showcase some of my favorite, artsy photos from my wandering habits. Flâneuse, in case you were wondering, is the feminine version of the French word flâneur, which is essentially a person who wanders/strolls the cities. In French literature (esp. 19th century) you’ll often have the dandy flâneur, strolling through the streets of Paris, observing and remarking on the passersby. I can’t say I really identify with these dandy characters, but I have always identified strongly with the romantic image of flâning (excuse my Franglish, I promise I speak actual French) through places and moments…Photography helps me capture these moments of wandering.

Finally, the Everyday section will be the more personal (mundane?) blogging area where I’ll just talk about random happenings in everyday life.

In a nutshell, get ready for travel advice, recommendations, food, and so many photos! I frequently abuse the use of parenthetical statements (do you notice it already? ;)) and tend to write just like I talk. Bear with me, and I promise I’ll share wonderful things with you!

Thanks so much for reading, and happy wandering!