Semester Abroad, Global Correspondents Getting Lost in Paris: Rediscovering the Joy of Exploration

SA: Sciences Po, Paris, France

Liam, one of the Semester Abroad Global Correspondents, shares his experience abroad during the Fall 2024 semester. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed.

Before I arrived in Paris, I prepared an enormous list of things I wanted to see and do during my time here. From museums to parks to monuments to restaurants, I planned every day of my first few weeks here carefully, booking tickets and making reservations well in advance to ensure I would be able to accomplish all I had set out to do.  

Yet as school work picked up and I became more settled into daily routines, this hectic schedule soon became infeasible. Trying to squeeze museum visits between classes made my goals of what I wanted to see feel like a checklist I was checking off rather than a truly immersive experience into Parisian life. I soon realized that I was missing out on the true essence of Paris – the moments that could only happen if I stopped obsessing over schedules and just started wandering and seeing the city.  

Some days I would walk home after an activity, even if Google Maps insisted it would be way quicker to just take the metro. What was the point of rushing from one destination to the next? Sometimes I would even take a detour and walk in the wrong direction, just to explore a street that looked interesting or check inside a store that caught my eye. Most of the time, I would end up in a boulangerie buying a tarte citron or a pain suisse that I didn’t necessarily need but couldn’t pass up. Some other days I would just leave my apartment and walk in any direction with no destination in mind, just to see what’s there.

While Paris’s unpredictable weather sometimes made this a challenge, it was these casual explorations that made me see what the real Paris looks like. I began to notice the contrasts between the hurried tourist mindset and the relaxed, spontaneous Parisian life. They took their time to truly live in and enjoy the city.  

Seeing Paris in this way has created so many surprises for me. I think a lot of Americans view Paris as some sort of perfect paradise and I for sure had this perception at first. And there’s no denying that Paris is extraordinary. But now, after taking the time to slow down and simply wander, I’ve come to see Paris not as an idealized destination, but as a real, living city, full of normal people just carrying out their daily lives. 

The real Paris, I’ve realized, is a place of constant discovery, where each street corner holds something new and every day offers the chance to find beauty in the unexpected.