About Colleen’s Paris And How It All Started

Colleen’s Paris provides personal tips for Parisians at heart.

Finding ways to share Paris with anyone who is coming to Paris or already visited Paris is what I like to do. I feel very lucky to be here; it took a long time.

Due to my circumstances of opportunity (i.e. work, travel, life happenings) sharing my good fortune evolved into Colleen’s Paris.

My mother, Marge, remembers that we were in the Louvre in the 1970s when I made a statement that I would return to Paris.

My paternal grandmother, Norma, always hoped that I would speak French (and play the harp).

My cousin, Cindy, wrote a letter from Paris when she was on a school trip decades ago. She wrote that she wore a spaghetti strap dress — I knew then, that I had to get there anyway possible.

After living in Germany for three years during one chapter of my life, I decided to return to Europe.

Mingled with that wish in the 1980s, I obtained university degrees in theater, journalism and photography. While at the University of Florida I met Erik from Sweden. I traveled and lived in Ireland and then moved to Sweden. In Stockholm my ambition, besides learning Swedish fluently, was to learn word processing. Instead, I taught myself desk top publishing and worked as a free lancer in layout design, writing, photography and wrote a children’s radio play.

At this point my decision was made to obtain a European passport. Voilà!

As a flight attendant based in Chicago beginning February 1990, Full time work meant with two weeks flying back and forth across the Atlantic just about every 24 hours straight. That left at least 10 days home in Paris to work full time building my website, photographing and interviewing and researching.

Monthly editions of the Colleen’s Paris began in 2002 while contemplating life recovering a couple of surgeries. I had already lived here for ten years and toyed around with web ideas about Paris. Romantic walks, for example, seemed like a good idea. However, someone else formulated that idea ahead of me and it was back to the drawing board.

Life existed between Chicago and Paris.

Through all of this Erik is my dear and patient number one.

Since retiring from American Airlines December 31, 2009, I am concentrating on travel and on Colleen’s Paris. I obtained my European/French passport and I am learning to give speeches with International Toastmasters (TM75 is our club).

Enjoy Colleen’s Paris as much as I enjoy being here! Colleen