Playlist for Paris

by Anna Blanch on July 28, 2010

I’ve been trying to muster up some excitement and expectation for this Paris trip. I want to be reminded that I’m about to get to do something most people would be really excited about. I need a boost of the realisation that I get to hang out in one of the world’s most fabled cities for a month; living in a cute Parisian top floor apartment, in Montmatre. And call it work. Yep, i need to get thankful and excited pronto. that’s the wrong language but you know what i’m trying to say.


I do a few things to help the not quite buying it situation.

  1. I asked for help. I told my friends my predicament (the not being excited thing) and asked for their advice about what I should do while i’m in Paris. I got some great ideas of places to go and food to eat and beverages to drink. Lovely! I ask the same of you – do you have any hard won advice for me about living in Paris for a month? Please share!
  2. Ironing out the details. I finally received the paperwork from the French institution where i’ll be doing my french language study and that reassurance that the funding i’d been granted wasn’t just in my head did wonders for my mood. Also finishing another draft of Conference paper No.2 helped things along. I was feeling rather relaxed at that point at least comparatively.
  3. Getting in the Parisian mood with Music. I found a couple of great songs in spotify just by typing Paris in the search box. But i hit paydirt when I searched for ‘Playlist for Paris’ and came up with these:
    I will try to put together a list of songs and post my own version of the ultimate preparation for Paris playlist. Do you have musical suggestions for me, while we’re at it?
  4. I started to think about packing! Thinking about the location and planning for it really help me get excited. I am so laissez-faire about travel (including international travel) these days that I usually try to be pretty laidback about the whole process.

Feel free to tell me i’m being whiny (or whinging) about my lack of excitement, it’ll be the swift kick i need right now!


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image: Anna Blanch 2006

Related posts:

  1. Perfect Preparation for Paris Playlist
  2. An Appointment with Paris
  3. Day 1-7: the baguette, the baby, and the crazy deutsch speaking Australienne
  4. Thesis Writing November!

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  • http://goannatree.blogspot.com Goannatree
  • CaboTennisDude

    Thank You for the Paris music playlist. I'll check these out. My musical tastes here are probably Philistine at best, but French music (or what I construe as "French" music) is perhaps the only music where I can stand an accordion.

  • http://goannatree.blogspot.com Goannatree

    I am somewhat confused by where to accordian fits in. Would you enlighten me?
    My recent post Playlist for Paris

  • CaboTennisDude

    I associate accordion music with romantic scenes in movies set in France!

  • CaboTennisDude
  • Pammypam

    to be sure, paris, the city of lights and dreams and romance is exciting. but it's also new and different, right? its also a dirty, fast paced, noisy city. so maybe you're just HUMAN and not sure what to expect. a month is a long time to be away from home without our so called creature comforts (like Starbucks). Quit beating yourself up.

  • Rebecca

    Edith Piaf is a must!
    My recent post Banana Pancakes

  • http://looseonthecontinent.blogspot.com Kathleen

    I was absolutely the same – even having lived and studied in Paris before, I couldn't get past the whole "must pack, must get to airport, must drag bags, must sort out apartment with landlord in rusty French, must take test, must find classroom" bit to the "wheeee, Paris!" bit. Which will come, pretty much as soon as the oral test is over!

    My music list is, thankfully, shorter than my sightseeing list, and pretty obvious, with the obligatory Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel ("Belgium!"), Charles Trenet, Yves Montand, Serge Gainsbourg, Josephine Baker, etc.

    Less obvious: "France" by Keb' Mo', which I'm sure you can make work for you ("There's ain't nothin' wrong with Texas, but I'd really like to go to France")

    If nothing else, you can see from my obsessive behaviour the kind of enthusiasm you can expect to enjoy at the end of the month…:)
    My recent post In Defence of Sightseeing

  • http://looseonthecontinent.blogspot.com Kathleen

    Arrgh! And how could I forget the mosquitoes? Worse in August, though not bad compared to other places, and worst nearer the river – in Montmartre, you should be fine. The word is "moustique", by the way, and not – as I tried to explain in a pharmacy on a Monday morning – "those little animals that find me delicious". Just in case.
    My recent post In Defence of Sightseeing

  • http://twitter.com/prestonyancey @prestonyancey

    In terms of music for Paris: Coeur de Pirate, Patrick Bruel, and Carla Bruni. (Especially her song, "Quequ'un m'a dit.")

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