I Went To Paris And This Is What I Did!

Plus: What Wandering Looks Like In Daily Life & Win A Dreamy Sketch of the La Favorite Cafe in Paris!

Hello there! Another Wednesday is here—a gentle nudge to keep wandering or to start wandering if you’ve been stuck in the relentless grip of productivity, trying to figure out your life down to a perfect T.

Welcome Wanderer is haven for those of us who need to know there’s another way. It’s a cozy place for curious travelers & creative dreamers like yourself to get an infusion of confidence to travel off-script and embrace your unconventional life with joy and wonder!

Inside this week’s letter we’re going to chat about…

• what I did during my first-ever solo trip as a mom of 4 to Paris (it might surprise you!),

• where do you need to take a left turn or follow a tangent,

• my friend Jane, entrepreneur and author of The French Ingredient (she’s our Wanderer of the Week),

• lastly, I’m giving away a whimsical print of a sketched version of the charming cafe I stumbled across last June. Drawing by my favorite fairy- Elli!

Take a pause and be inspired with me…

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Last June, I fulfilled a dream I’d had since I was a young girl with an Eiffel Tower poster taped to my bedroom wall: I finally visited Paris.

Everyone was thrilled for me—a mom of four on her first solo trip since being single. Wow! Hands clapped, eyes widened, questions launched. I couldn’t argue. This trip was a big deal. Monumental in so many ways.

I took in all the recommendations—friends’ favorite spots, must-see attractions, lists upon lists. I mapped it all out, eager to make the most of every moment.

And yet, despite all that careful planning, do you know what 90% of my trip consisted of?

Wandering.

I walked and walked and walked. Sure, I had ambitious plans each morning, but every single day, I got sidetracked.

• The train was delayed.

• I took the wrong metro.

• I wondered what was up that street and down the other.

• I stumbled upon a cathedral and wandered inside.

• I found an enchanting park and sat for a while.

• I followed cobblestone pathways, just to see where they led.

When I returned home, everyone wanted to hear about my trip. What did you do? How was the food? Did you go into that museum?

Eventually, after fumbling through answers, I owned it: I walked.

Not the most captivating response, and it usually shut down the conversation pretty quickly. But it was honest. People want to hear about our BIG ADVENTURES.

Every morning, I left my little Airbnb with my backpack slung across my shoulders, snacks and books tucked inside, and a lightness in my heart.

And then? My agenda dissolved. My carefully plotted map was hijacked by curiosity.

The little girl who spent hours hacking trails through the woods wanted to be set free again. She wanted to remind me that I could still roam and play—maybe even within the neatly sliced hours of my grown-up life back home.

The Power of Wandering

That week in Paris rewired something in me. It reminded me that wandering isn’t wasted time—it’s an antidote to the relentless drive to achieve, produce, and have something to show for our efforts.

We are so accustomed to cramming as much as possible into 24 hours. Our feet hit the ground running, which isn’t necessarily bad—but when the compulsion to always be doing takes over, we become machines.

Wandering is a way back to being human again. It feels pointless. But maybe that’s the point.

What if you held your life a little looser? Released your grip on outcomes? Relaxed your insistence on checking everything off by lunchtime?

We’re grown-ups now—adults with work and bills, worries and bullet points. But a little wandering might just unlock something unexpected: rest, creativity, the lost art of paying attention.

Wandering might mean an actual meandering walk, but it could also look like:

• Staring out the window, letting your thoughts drift.

• Sitting on a bench, people-watching with no agenda.

• Journaling random ideas and dreams.

• Canceling a meeting just because.

• Calling a friend to check-in.

• Shedding the too-tight goals for a different, more ambiguous direction.

So, tell me…

Where will you let your wandering spirit take you this week?

Hit reply—I’d love to hear.

**AND if you reply, either in comments or to my inbox, you’ll be entered to win this print from my dear friend Elli- she drew one of my favorite pictures I took while in Paris! I’ll share the winner tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.

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Where do you want to invite your wandering spirit?

Be curious about…how you can veer off the prescribed path today, this week, this month?

Allot a few minutes each day to go down the rabbit hole, take a left turn, or go off on a tangent…be excited for what you could discover!

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One of the books I read after my week in Paris was Jane Bertch’s The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time. In it, Jane shares her journey of falling in love with the city and culture, navigating countless potholes on her way to founding La Cuisine Paris, her French cooking school. While she never explicitly calls it out, her book is a love letter to the art of wandering.

Because isn’t that what growth so often looks like? The reroutes, the backward steps, the unplanned detours. The moments of not knowing. We think we’re lost, only to realize we’ve stumbled onto something solid—something that shifts our path in ways we never could have planned.

Jane writes about one such moment:

"We started to change the equation… our clients would be visitors, not locals. Unbeknownst to me, I’d just passed my first business lesson: changing direction without regret. I had to listen to my gut, not hold on to my initial idea out of pride."

Her words capture the essence of wandering—not just in the streets of Paris, but in the winding path of creating, growing, and finding our way forward.

Thank you Jane!

*Also, make sure to subscribe to her substack, Prompts From Paris.

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Here’s to changing directions today and every day. It is normal and necessary. If your map looks chaotic and makes you dizzy just looking at it, congratulations!

In the words of author Kurt Vonnegut, “We are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.”

Traveling with you,

PS: Don’t forget to hit reply to this email or leave a comment below and you’ll be entered to win a print of La Favorite cafe from my time in Paris, sketched by friend Elli!