In a world of food fads, this is why the real French baguette reigns supreme | @monocle.com
Travel
Very wholesome afternoon with close friends at the #FondationLouisVuitton for the David #Hockney exhibition yesterday!
Last week’s shenanigans
7/7/25
The end to another eventful week and weekend…
- Pics 1-6: Beating the heatwave during a team dinner at Uma Nota, a delicious Brazilian/Japanese fusion place. Passionfruit Ceviche was mindblowing
- Pics 7-10: home life
- Pics 11-13: Streem food market for Le Food Market’s 10-year anniversary
- Pics 14-17: running errands around Rive Gauche
- Pics: 18-19: the Olympic Vask is back this summer. Felt emotional, proud, and nostalgic walking past it!
- Pic 20: singin’ in the rain
- Pic 21: home
Weekend Shenanigans
6/29/25
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Friend’s Birthday Party
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Cityscape
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Discovering a new spot for lunch
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A walk around the Jardins du Luxembourg
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Some more city adventures
A nice evening to catchup on Monocle’s latest issue, with a big section dedicated to the best cities for Quality of Life.
Especially delighted to see a quote from Jordane Giuly — with whom I worked during my Spendesk days— about how Paris has improved as a place for business, and especially for technology companies of all sizes. Even less surprising was seeing Lindsey’s name in a quote about how the city has changed over the years.
It’s something that I’ve noticed over the past decade, and part of the reason why I’ve been back living around Paris for the past 6 years. Great quality of life, great work life balance, and — unlike 10-15 years ago— much more welcoming to foreigners and non-francophone visitors than it’s ever been.
Respect the city and its inhabitants and it’ll pay dividends the next time you visit for pleasure or for business :)
📷 Micro.blog photo challenge
Day 22: hometown #mbjune
My hometown growing up, and the one I live in now.
📷 Micro.blog photo challenge
Day 21: silhouette #mbjune
One of my first ever pics taken and edited through VSCO. This takes me back to when I was living in Brighton, about 15 years ago (!) — which is where this pic is from.
📷 Micro.blog photo challenge
Day 11: brick #mbjune
Little brick lanes in Lille

📷 Micro.blog photo challenge
Day 10: rail #mbjune
Highlighting the Chương Dương Bridge in Hanoi from a trip in 2016!

📷 Micro.blog photo challenge
Day 9: wood #mbjune

📷 Micro.blog photo challenge
Day 8: travel #mbjune

The end to a lovely weekend
“Kyle Goon: The Baltimore ‘O!’ is about community pride. Don’t lecture us about it.”
We’re here, we’re proud of the place we live, and we want it to thrive. (…) The “O!” is a Baltimore thing. It’s a Maryland thing. It’s about a shared identity and community that we’re all rooting for, which is patriotic in and of itself.
[≠
Very happy to be home 🏡 🛬
Food, it’s good!
Half day in Baltimore’s inner harbor and discovering Pratt Street Farmer’s Market for lunch (aka Charm City)
Day out to Washington DC: always like the architecture and being able to walk all around!
Local DC Bros are the worst, local city folks are the best!
3pm on a strip mall in the American suburbs is a helluva time 😳
Wonderful little day out to Annapolis, state capital of #Maryland, today :)
First few days of our holiday with the family in Maryland ☀️ 😊 🍔 🍗 🍺 🇺🇸
Lille, you were magnificent this weekend: your architecture, hospitality, and food culture, we loved it all!
This was our first time, but we will definitely be back!
Earlier this week: in Nuremberg for work
Never missing an opportunity to share fellow bon vivant Action Bronson’s adventures in Paris:
no one makes me want to roam the city [Paris] quite like American rapper and food enthusiast Action Bronson.
- Tibz, what is it like living in Europe?
- Like this…

This man is my hero:
“The food here is different,” he said in a heavy French accent. “Bigger portions. Too much salt. Too much sugar.” He decided to enroll in a paid study at his wife’s new workplace. It was exploring why the American diet, compared with almost any other, causes people to gain weight and develop chronic diseases”

Silver Linings:
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Got sick (flu season) the day before a business trip to HQ. Had to cancel the trip this morning with my French and German colleagues.
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My French colleagues obviously still went. Flight got cancelled and they now have to wait from 10am to 8pm to be rebooked on a later flight.
So while I’m recoveringing at home, this is …for the better in my part
A quick visual recap of this past holiday season :) (full post on the blog)
Home sweet home
The Foursquare City Guide App is closing on Dec 15th
10/23/24
Getting ready to say goodbye to Foursquare, an app I’ve used almost daily since its earlier form back in 2009 between my time studying and working and living in the UK, then in San Francisco, Paris, and my native French Riviera. Back then I used to check-in to places I visited from the mobile browser of my Nokia blackberry knockoff (E63) (2009-2011), then an Android phone (2011-2013), and finally from the dedicated iPhone apps (2013+). During that time the Foursquare app (and later Swarm) has almost always been on my phone’s Home Screen.
I’m feeling genuinely sad about this, truly the end of an era for a formative time in my life, the late 2000’s-early 2010s “SoLoMo” (Social Local Mobile) apps.
4SQ has been invaluable, not just for memorizing/logging/remembering places I’ve been to, but also to discover new places.
I traveled the world by myself for most of 2017, but Foursquare was my guide to discover new favorites while visiting cities all around Asia or America for the very first time. The amount of time I’ve spent on this app is immeasurable and I have a hard time wondering how I’ll get by the next time I explore a new city in the world.
As I start looking at substitutes, it seems that Superlocal could be an option. Otherwise North.Industries which I need to look into. But I need to do a lot more research!
Hallo Nurnberg