My invitation to a Paris Soiree!

On the last night we were in Paris (an unseasonably warm Easter evening) we were invited to attend one of the Paris Soirees.

The Paris Soirees were created by Patricia Laplante-Collins. They are dinner and networking meet-ups for Paris expats and other hip members of the French community. Patricia is originally from Atlanta and has lived in Paris for over 20 years. The events which used to have a focus on African American literature have now broadened to include international and global interests to reach a much wider community.

We finally made contact with Patricia just in time to be invited to the Easter event. Patricia hosts the events in her living room.  The evening starts around 7:30 with wine and socializing.

Next there is a speaker. For our event the speaker was Pamela Grant creator and tour guide of Paris Perspectives, a tour company which features in-depth historic and cultural walks. Her topic for the evening was Ernest Hemingway.  Pamela was very engaging and shared a personal side of Hemingway that many of us were probably not familiar with. In a city with its fair share of literary geniuses, it was very easy to be transported to the Paris of old.

After the talk we were treated to a delightful, home cooked, southern meal, prepared by Patricia.  It was yummy!

Photos of some of the attendees

 This is Robyn Blaber. Robyn has a humorously informative blog called A Canadian in Paris

I'm reading it sort of like a Cliff Notes for wannabe Americans who yearn to live in Paris

I forgot her name but she is a belly dancer and she loves to dance! 

A Seattle transplant and a former Nicaraguan 

 A Limo tour company owner

 A teacher

Eliza (with the purse) teaches English.

 She is married to a Frenchman but doesn't speak French.

We had such a great time. Good food, lively conversation and very interesting people!  We even had an opportunity to "grill" some of the expats about "how" they got to Paris. We exchanged email addresses and I plan to stay in touch. Hopefully this can be the  beginning of some new friendships in Paris.

I'm not sure how long the event lasted. We left at close to midnight and there were still a number of people there, hanging out, dancing and talking!

If you are going to Paris and want to meet up for a little wine, networking and an opportunity to put away your French dictionary, check out Paris Soirees.

(sorry about the photo quality on these pictures, not sure what happened)

Im Just Sayin