The New Guard: Expat Edna

But wait, there’s more. Another New Guard blogger worth meeting! In fact, Edna of Expat Edna really knows the ins and outs of living abroad. The “serial expat” is a globetrotting, sports loving change agent who makes me exhausted just thinking about her pace and adventures. While her job and wanderlust often take her outside Paris, when she’s there, she’s firmly entrenched on the Right Bank, eating up the restaurant scene, picnicking along the Seine, and smiling her way through the amazing opportunities and unexpected delights that come with living in the City of Light. Meet Expat Edna!

Hometown:

York, Pennsylvania

Current quartier: 

16th arrondissement

How long have you been in Paris?

A year and a half

What brought you there? 

I wanted to learn French for my career; because I learn best through immersion, I was looking for jobs in Francophone countries. By pure chance the job offer I received happened to be in Paris.

What do you do for a living? 

I work in international sports media. I covered swimming and athletics at the London Olympics, spent a month in Azerbaijan for a FIFA U-17 World Cup—that sort of thing. I also edit a quarterly sports magazine. I keep Paris as my home base and tutor a French student here between sports gigs.

Your favorite thing about living in Paris:

My friends, the food, and picnics combining the two. Living near Trocadero is pretty handy too.

The coolest thing about being an expat:

This is my fifth year as an expat (I spent three years in Asia before moving to Paris) and without a doubt the coolest part is the adventures. I get to experience the craziest things as part of my daily life: breakfast at the Pompidou, lunch at the World Bank, meeting the Irish president at the embassy in Paris, stumbling across Nicolas Sarkozy speaking in my neighborhood. Most importantly, I never would have met my fiancé or reached my dream career if I hadn't moved abroad after graduation.

Your “secret” about Paris:

Go to the Louvre right when they open in the morning. Before 10 am, it's like you're the only person in the building and it feels slightly surreal. 

Your favorite thing to blog about:

Food, surprisingly. My original intention was to write about life in Paris and my travels, hoping to inspire others in their early 20s to move abroad—but no, half the time I'm writing about what I ate.

Right Bank or Left Bank:

Right Bank all the way.

Café Flore or Deux Magots: 

Haven't been to either; I prefer Au Petit Fer à Cheval in the Marais. 

Tuileries or Luxembourg:

Tuileries. I'm a Right Bank girl.

Ladurée or Pierre Hermé:

Pierre Hermé, not even a question.

WH Smith or Galignani:

Can I say Shakespeare and Co?

Steak Frites or Salade Chevre Chaud:

Steak Frites

Colette or Merci:

 Merci, partly because they're the same people behind Grazie.

Croissant or tartine:

Tartine

Café terrace or canal-side picnic:

Always a picnic, though I prefer the Seine over the Canal.

Camembert or Comté: 

Comté