Travel Muse Magazine
Stories, tips, & joy.
Tag: Paris
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Top 5 Places to Experience Parisian Café Culture
One of my favorite things about Paris is its emphasis on café culture, which encourages people to sit, relax, chat with friends, and enjoy watching life go by. Unlike in the US, people don’t really bring their laptops to coffee shops, and those “1-hour limit” table signs are nowhere to be found. Parisians tend to…
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Literary Travel Guide To Paris Through Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room”
I’d like to live in a world where free Bible bins were replaced with copies of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room — where Salvation Army shoppers are lured to an unassuming box of words and later recite lines like, “Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition” (p. 92) as they cross their…
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Literary Travel Guide to Paris, inspired by Ruth Reichl’s “The Paris Novel”
After returning from studying abroad last year in Paris, I felt as if a part of me had been left behind. I would constantly look through the thousands of photos I took, listen to the songs I played on my afternoon métro commutes to school, and catch up with the friends I made in France…
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Museum Cafés for Art Lovers: London to Lisbon, Paris to Ann Arbor
Warm, buttery air envelopes me as I open the door to the UMMA Café, a hint of cinnamon acting as the exclamation mark to the comforting welcome from the cold winter’s day. This coffeeshop inside the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan is my favorite place to grab a coffee on…
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Literary Travel Guide to Pont-Aven, France Inspired by Jean-Luc Bannalec’s “Death in Brittany” Novel
From page one, I was smitten with Jean-Luc Bannalec’s Death in Brittany novel (2012). To be frank, I’d never heard of this book, much less this series starring French police commissaire Georges Dupin, until the day I laid eyes on it in my local library’s book sale. It’s like it was waiting for me, among…
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2 English Bookshops You Need to Visit in Paris (& a few more bookish places to see too)
Heading to Paris and just need to get your book fix? No problem. Here are two English book stores you need to visit… along with a few more bookish places to see while you’re enjoying this jewel of a city too. Shakespeare and Company If you love books, reading and or writing… or watched or…
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Steal This Itinerary: Milan to London (or Amsterdam)
My first time in Milan was for my honeymoon. We had planned to take the train to Zermatt and around Switzerland, but then there were transportation strikes and had to drive instead to keep our pre-paid reservations. So we rented a car. I would not recommend this to anyone. It is a last resort. The…
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The Basics of Planning a Multi-Country European Vacation
From fairy-tale castles to ancient ruins to authentic foods, Europe’s beauty and traditions calls to many of us around the globe. Initially, you may think, “Yeah, let’s get as many countries as possible crammed into my trip there so I can say I’ve been to a bunch of places.” I get it. There’s a fear…
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Fab Paris Hotel with Triple Rooms
Romance… in the way of a love affair with a book or a dream of going to your long-awaited goal city that you’ve been drooling over on Instagram for years. That’s what the Hotel du Danube in Paris’s desirable Saint Germain des Prés neighborhood is like. The location (6th arrondissement, Left Bank/Rive Gauche), the beds,…
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A Lovely Day in Paris
Start in the Tuileries First things first – Coffee and a stroll. Head to Jardin des Tuileries. Explore the free sculpture gardens, flowers and lovely paths. Grab a café au lait and sip as you admire. (Yes, they have to go cups, people like to act like Parisiennes don’t do to-go, but they do.) There…