Romantic Paris chat with author Lily Heise, je t’aime, me neither

Romantic Paris chat with author Lily Heise, je t’aime, me neither

My name is Cara and in today’s video I’m talking to Lily from J mether hi carola so nice to see you again it’s been a while I remember when you launched your third book and it was confinement and we hit this really cute uh launch party virtually and now we’re sitting here in

Person so much nicer yes indeed no I remember and we uh met up in park mono so that I could give you a copy of the book so that was probably the last time we saw each other time flies yeah tell the audience what you do and who are you

Sure well thanks so much for having me so my name is Lily heisy and I am a writer based here in Paris um I H have a little specialty in romantic Paris but I also talk about uh other topics on my website me neither but I’ve also written

Three books on Paris 2 two uh romantic books and one that was a little different that you mentioned just now there’s only one Paris and um I also do tours here in Paris and so I keep busy with lots of activities what’s the thing you most love to show people who come to

Paris oh that’s a good question so we are here meeting in my neighborhood M marra and so that’s probably my favorite place because people don’t realize all the secrets and hidden gems there are up in w marra so many people just go up to sakur and plasta terer the artist Square

However um I like to show people uh some of the Lesser known aspects of the neighborhood and also places linked to the artistic Heritage of the neighborhood because this was the center of the Bohemian Paris and artistic Paris at the end of the 18 uh hundreds and early 1900s yeah I

Think it’s still a little bit of an artist quarter you can still go up and to the pla ter and buy all these beautiful pictures and paintings yes that’s correct so it still is an artistic uh District in the city and there are a lot of art studios as well

In uh in the neighborhood so um there are still artists practicing here yeah it it feels completely different to for example the 17th where I live so you come here and every house has a different color and it’s so beautiful yes so I don’t like the steps oh well we

Were talking about all the walking we do in Paris before so yes the one issue with M are it’s 32 staircases um there are quite a lot um to get to my house I live up not at the very top but close to the very top so to get home I have to

Walk up a small set of stairs not a big one but then there’s a steep Street that’s like about this um but MRA is particularly Charming because it used to be a village outside the city center which is why it has all of those smaller different buildings that you were

Talking about just now so how what made you move to Paris in the first I’m originally from Canada and uh I did part of my studies in Paris I studied art and art history and fell in love with the city instantly it was a kudra or love at

First sight like they say in French and I moved back here and just found a way to stay in another way and another way and then a longer visa and then I applied and received French nationality seven years ago so I’m also Fran yes I like to call myself MTO above

All someone who resides in M um but uh yeah so I’ve been living in Paris for about 20 years time flies that’s for sure indeed well I mean I meant to be here for two years and now it’s six or almost seven years and yeah

Time flies and also it drags you in and what comes after Paris you oh it’s very hard and so I will probably live here until unless some life uh some life uh um exciting thing happens and I go somewhere else but until I retire I don’t think I will retire in Paris I

Think I would like to be by the seaside somewhere yes indeed and I mean if you’re 80 years old and then all these steps that that might be a little bit of a problem absolutely the poor um anyone with walking difficulties m marra is not the best neighborhood um but living at

The base of M marra we’re closer to the base now uh where we’re seated um it’s not as bad but up on top of the hill uh you uh with any walking yeah actually that that’s what’s stopping me from uh from considering M even though it’s beautiful but U I can imagine having

Furniture deliver is quite crazy and all of that yes yes so I tend to shop a few times a week for that race and there are I live near rud best which is a lovely part of MRA it’s a little bit more the local part of MRA and it’s lined with

Shops now the traditional shops are slowly kind of being taken over by clothing and kind of um mid-range kind of shops but ah Marthur is still a very living neighborhood the morray is another neighborhood I really love but you need to really be based in just a

Few areas of the morray if you want to have a bakery for example because there’s a dead zone in the center um whereas m marur is not really like that there are lots of food shops for the locals of the neighborhood too so even though it is a touristy neighborhood and

A shopping neighborhood parisians love to come up um to M marur um weekends uh they come and have brunch and go for a little stroll around uh and uh but it’s still a very living neighborhood too yeah and usually it’s not as cold like we really chose the the day the only day

Where it says snow and freezing and ° I was looking up at the sky earlier like I do have to say I was a little afraid a few days ago when the weather had the snowflake but we’re bundled up and so it’s actually not so bad exactly

I mean I I could have layered up a little bit more but it it’s fine it’s uh and we found a really nice Street and really nice cafe here um let’s talk about your website where what can you find on the website my website I’ve had

It for just over 10 years so for quite a long time originally my website was connected to my first book which is called J me neither like the website and um the idea was to show a different side of romantic Paris in the sense that I like to encourage people to do things

That connect with the city that are um uh original and authentic experiences and so instead of just going and taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower why not discover a secret garden that has maybe a romantic history to it um I encourage people to go on strolls in less busy

Areas so that it has a more of a romantic Allure I did a series so there are all kinds of Articles and I also published my travel articles for other websites there too just a little snippet um so if you’re not interested in romantic things you can still find lots

Of interesting content on my site but no one at the time and still today no one was specializing in romantic Paris and people often say Paris is the most romantic city in the world or the city of love so this was an opportunity to um have a niche and I think it’s important

To have a niche so that you’re kind of um representing you become the expert in that topic and I um I’ve scoured the city looking for the most romantic places and that could be like I mentioned before a secret garden or quiet streets which are very picturesque small museums are another favorite of

Mine um because this offers that intimate setting for a romantic you know for romance to spark So and I’ve written because people then have asked me um about where to meet people so I have a few articles on uh I need to do some updated ones but a few

Articles on where you can meet people in Paris uh so that’s another another topic I also travel around France and I travel around the world especially in Winter um and uh discover romantic places around the planet too yeah so so there are all these articles I had a ser series on the top

10 romantic places per District so that’s a popular series still on my website but there are lots of other thematic articles too on romantic restaurants or bars or um places to propose even so all kinds of topics but like I said also things for non-romantic uh Travelers but who maybe

Love Paris and are looking for something a bit different yeah and I like the idea of separating Paris in AR M because each one is quite different and uh your third book that I read during confinement was hopping from one hour on this small to the next one with its special

Flare yes oh thank you thank you so much carola and um I uh I wrote that book in confinement as a kind of confinement project because we were stuck here in Paris worst places to be stuck but um it was also a way to have those people who

Love Paris who could would travel here travel here virtually and so that was another thing about the book is it was offering this opportunity to very visually experience the city and uh kind of an ethal uh way of emotions too and to get people hope that they would be

Able to return to Paris once again which is the case of course indeed inde yeah confinement in Paris wasn’t the greatest like we had 1 kilometer around us and in the first one the parks were closed yes but we met in the second one when the

Parks were open exactly and uh that was much bettered yes and I was quite lucky living up here in M marra during confinement because of the fact that this is so picturesque here but you could see the rest of the city from here so it felt a little less constricted

Because of the beautiful views one can have up here in MRA and actually I wrote an article on the best viewpoints in MRA during confinement because I was going and discovering them all I think I walked every street in that one kilometer radius so yeah I remember in

The first one I was living in the 9th and you were in the 18 so I think we had like one one or two streets that would overlap yeah yeah and we talked about meeting up then um and then we met up instead uh later on yeah I moved to the

Eight to next to PK so at that point that’s why we met there yeah yes that’s right yeah nice part of the city I love the park mall so yeah indeed yeah I still live near Park from the other side so I was in the eth and now I’m in the

17th but Paro is still there nearby it’s super safe so I can see women running uh after dark with headphones on just jogging so I feel that’s the best indic it being safe oh definitely I agree with you and um the 17th is certainly among the safest neighborhoods and it’s uh

Very picturesque you know I’ve done some research and I’ve written on an area in the 17th called the pl mooso do you know about the pl moo where I live yeah it’s a fascinating area yeah and I write a I do a podcast as well and so if you’re interested in

Podcasts okay what are you talking about on your podcast yeah well it’s an extension of my topics I do on my website because what we do though is a bit more in depth each episode travels around the Ari smalles a little bit like my print series or my series on my

Website but we go around to the Ari Smalls and we discover one romantic place but I try to find a romantic place that has maybe a romantic story behind it and several we have I’ve uncovered things I never would have imagined it’s quite some titillating and surprising

Stories too so that’s been lots of fun and so um right now it’s biweekly and in Seasons but because I was just uh quite busy um but you can find it on the Paris underground radio uh website that’s a uh link everything down below so the Fantastic the books fantastic anything

If they so I hope you want to meet Lily and get to know all of her projects and yeah you’ll find them down below wonderful I appreciate that um yeah so that I’m always excited to learn new things about Paris and I share those on tours as well so I have a few

Romantically themed tours but I do other topics because I’m a uh a tour guide for private groups um and I do of course a great Tour on Walmarts but also the Moray which I mentioned before is another neighborhood I love um and the secrets of the Latin quarter for example

There are all kinds of fascinating places that people don’t know about and I also do a few more offbeat ones but also do tours for people coming for the first time and discovering the history of the city too carola before we wrap up I have a little present for you since

You came up to M marra um and I know that I know that you have a little bit of a sweet tooth I do I do and there’s a specialty up in momar and uh um you could choose which one you want uh I got

A a little treat there is um um one of France’s most famous desserts is a madaline you you recognize them and uh looks like a seashell on the back um and the best melin in Paris probably are made here in M marra by Jill Marshal who

Was a like a h high-end pastry chef for luxury hotels restaurants he has a shop up here in in MRA and his specialty he does lots of nice pastries and chocolates but his specialty is the madaline because madalin come from noi or from Eastern France and that’s where

He’s from he’s from the luren and this one thank you yeah it’s um it looks like there’s like little herbs in on top of it that’s why I chose it I thought it would be more original it’s Thyme and lemon oh nice yeah yeah and so I thought

Since you liked uh I remember seeing you talk of in your videos about pastries so I thought this would be something different I know you like Macaro I do but this is a little different and so I then the other one I got is um Hazelnut and

Coffee yeah if you want you can try it too but uh uh both look good half and half yeah let’s do half and half and then uh but they have um plain flavors as well but I thought why not get to original flavors let me just a little

Stuck and then yeah we can do half and half just a little fun aspect to our there you go you’re welcome so we have the lemon time yeah we’ll do a taste testing so nice huh mhm I’ve had this one before yummy mm you definitely yeah you have

The lemon you have the time it’s order mhm and uh fluffy you can get them individual or um you can buy boxes and he has other things too so if you’re looking for a snack and you’re walking around MRA it’s on R so just a fun

Little I since I know you like pastories I thought that I would pick these up by pass by it on my way down here mhm mhm you can really feel the coffee in the dough oh wow w m m um and uh yeah so when you’re walking by

There it’s awfully tempting if it’s in the morning when they’re baking thank you so much for being in my video it was lovely catching up it was wonderful to see you carola and to share my updates hopefully I’ll be back on uh maybe with warmer weather we’ll go to a

Little secret area it be lovely to show you around a lesser own spot and to show your audience that too i’ love that and yeah I think I think it will be very easy to find War more than today I’m pretty sure like two to three yeah but

We survived and exactly it was a pleasure regardless yes indeed indeed it was a lovely way to spend the Sunday wonderful for me too byee

I met Lily on the coldest day of the year, and we are chatting about her books, her podcast and her website

https://www.parisundergroundradio.com/lilyheise
https://jetaimemeneither.com/

Books:
Je t”aime, me neither
Je T’Aime… Maybe?
There’s Only One Paris: Tales from our Times

https://www.youtube.com/carolainparis
https://www.instagram.com/carola_in_paris
carolainparis@gmail.com