Washington DC is the Paris of America

Last week I was walking to meet a writer friend for coffee at one of the many French cafes called Tatte that have taken over the city (I’m not complaining). This particular day was the start of a early fall weather pattern so resplendent (crisp air, how-could-it-be-so-blue skies, dazzling sunshine, 70 degrees max) that you could feel the collective euphoria among the buttoned-up masses of Washington. I was wearing a new thrift store look of plaid woolen shorts and a cropped cableknit sweater with pearl buttons with a leather bomber jacket and boots that a friend described as “Victorian brothel biker chick” and I started to feel ridiculous in my outfit but reminded myself that I’d recently doubled down on my commitment to express my personal style more through clothes, even if DC fashion tends to be rather bland. “This is an outfit I’d wear in Paris,” I thought, to which I responded to myself “Well, treat DC like Paris, Emily.” As I walked up the wide boulevard that is Connecticut Avenue, past the bustling French diner Bistrot du Coin and the French-style mansion with the Mansard roof that is currently for sale, I realized DC has Paris vibes. In fact, it’s the U.S. city that reminds me most of Paris.

Which is not a wild coincidence when you consider the original architect of Washington DC was Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who was born in 1754 in Paris. (Although the Paris he was born into had lots of winding Medieval streets, which are still there, but they’re overlaid by a more logical city plan with broad boulevards like the Champs Elysees, which were a product of Baron Georges-Eugene Haussman in the 1800s.) DC does not have those charming narrow winding rues like Paris. Rather, it’s a “Cartesian grid” that favors an orderly perpendicularity. If you live here, you know that the city is divided into four quadrants: Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, Southeast with the Capitol building being the dividing point. The grid system is smart, but this is not what it makes the DC layout feel like Paris: That would be the wide boulevards (Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts Avenues among them); the fountains and statues in circles (including Logan Circle and Dupont Circle), the architecture, and that DC is really a neighborhood city, something that many tourists here don’t realize. (I’m currently reading a DC classic – Edward P. Jones’s Lost in the City which paints a vivid picture of a practically small-town neighborhood life in this big and bustling city).

As I’ve shared before, right after my husband of 12 years walked out on me, abruptly ending the international life I adored (I thought we’d live in Istanbul next), the idea of starting over in Paris, my favorite city in the world, loomed large. But perhaps we need only one Emily in Paris. Jk, the real reason I decided to re-lay my roots in Washington DC is because I realized that what Paris has given me – ever since I first step foot there to do a writing program in 2015 and in many many return visits – is inspiration. I’m astounded by the look and the feel of the city and I love how I am when I’m there, the chicest and most writerly and most foody version of myself. But what I needed a year ago, and what I still need, isn’t inspiration. In fact this last year has been the most creatively inspiring one of my entire life. I needed to be around people who love and support me and I’ve got that in DC.

Here are my top tips for channeling France in DC (it’s not hard):

• A leisurely lunch of warm shrimp salad and a glass of cold Sancerre at Le Diplomate, the city’s best and buzziest restaurant. Go by yourself and bring a book, which is an actual thing Parisians do.
• Sit at the expansive old-world feeling bar at Vin Sur Vignt (which is a pun that I’ve asked French speaking friends to explain to me a number of times…) and ask the bartenders to recommend a delicious French wine to you. If a sexy man hits on you, why not start a dalliance?
• Visit Julia Child’s house on Olive Street, in Rose Park, just at the base of Georgetown. This is where the famed chef moved after she and her husband Paul, a diplomat, returned from their positing in Paris. She put the finishing touches on Mastering the Art of French Cooking while living here. Then, shop in Georgetown. My favorites are Reddz consignment shop, a home store called Manse, and an epic antique and art store called Gallery L’Enfant. Sezanne (a super chic Parisian store) just opened and it is gorgeous. Eat lunch at La Bonne Vache and be transported to a small town in France.
• There is something very European about the canal in Georgetown. When it was built it promised to be a modern way to connect commerce but it took so long to complete that other forms of transportation (choo choo) came along and the canal was obsolete. Still, it’s a charmer, even when it’s covered in electric green algae. I liked to go to the art galleries near the canal (including Cabada Contemporary) and then have a glass of wine in the bar of Chez Billy Sud, located next to the restaurant of the same name. This wood paneled bar makes you feel like you’re in a French countryside hunting lodge. Tres cozy.
• Attend a Phillips After Five or music event in the ballroom of the stunning Phillips Collection, which is an art museum in an old mansion (and home to Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating party, which I’ve pilfered as the banner for this here blog). The Phillips is American, yes, but I feel like having a ballroom in one’s home was surely a European import. Then walk over to lively Bistrot du Coin for the Rocquefort mussels and fries. (This is a lovely neighborhood spot frequented by staff at all the French-speaking embassies).
• For French architecture, take some photos of the most French exterior of any building in town: The Executive Office
  Building, which is next to the White House. And, if you’re already doing a tour of Congress (highly recommend!) don’t skip the Library of Congress across the street, which has the most stunning European interior in all of DC.
• DC is a total park city: Truly there are too many sunny little spots and fine plazas to even mention (but I love Meridian Hill Park, Kalorama Park, and Franklin Park across from the Washington Post). My friend Hana derisively calls these all “Rat Park” and yes, you may see a rat or two, but just refer to them as Ratatouille and suddenly, French.
• The National Gallery of Art, a grand museum, gives French, especially the West Wing, which is currently home to the Paris: 1874 exhibit which was previously in the Musée D’Orsay.

As I was finishing up this blog post I asked my friend Sonia – who’s lived in Algiers and Rome and Mexico City – the ways in which her hometown of DC feels French. Her response “Literally not one!” It’s not a cafe culture, it’s not fashionable, it’s not about living the good life, and no one smokes, she said. “Of course you’re making you’re life here Parisian. But literally no one else is,” she said.

There is perhaps a shred of truth to this. I live in an old building right in the city, near a gorgeous park, and I take the marble staircase up to my art-filled apartment. The view out my living room window sometimes takes my breath away (it is not a Parisian cityscape, but it’s a very, very pretty street view). I go to art museums, I eat at French restaurants, and I drink alone in bars while writing. Sometimes when someone on the street compliments my outfit, I respond “Oh this? I bought it at a boutique in Paris.”

So yes, perhaps I am seeing what I want to see un peu and viewing Washington DC through rosé colored glasses. But it really isn’t hard to do. Perhaps you too can be the France you want to see, right here in DC. Make Pierre L’Enfant proud.