Paris: “Now you’re free.”
If you want to fall in love … watch the show White Collar. No, not with Neal Caffrey (although I won’t blame you if you do), but instead, with Paris. Let me explain.
On its surface, the show is about solving crimes in unique and often seductive ways as Neal and Peter form an unlikely-likely alliance filled with deception, humor, and sophistication. But at its core, I have come to believe it is a story of a man learning who he is as he searches for his freedom. Freedom from his physical ties yes, but also from the mental challenges and emotional hardships buried deep from within his psyche. Temptation is a common theme in White Collar and Neal is consistently presented with opportunities to revert to who he used to be in favor of the man I believe he tries to become.
Before we visited Paris, I had an idea of what it could be. Romantic. Classic. Endearing. I took French in high school because I had read that it was the ‘language of love’ and being the melodramatic person that I am, couldn’t resist the temptation. Now 20 years after those classes, an opportunity revealed itself. We had debated going back to London, or visiting Copenhagen as they both have fantastic coffee scenes. But, something was stirring within me when the idea of Paris came to be. It felt like a long lost lover came back halfway between expected and never to be seen or heard from again.
What type of man would I be if I threw love away?
There is something quite romantic about wandering the streets of Paris on the way to your first coffee shop. What you’ll find is that most places don’t open up at the time their Google profile says they do. Often, the owner of the store is on the way to open after just having picked up a handful of their favorite baked goods from the local Boulangerie. Or perhaps they want to take their time setting up the signs and making the front of house as appealing as possible for those lucky enough to stumble down their street.
What you should know is that in Paris, it is customary to greet the person working at the store, or shop as you enter. A simple ‘bonjour’ will do just fine and in the case of Café Caractère, a bright and serene coffee shop just outside of the lovely Marais neighborhood in the 11th arrondissement, would lead to a whole lot more.
Café Caractère | @cafecaractere
It’s happened a few times now on these coffee travels where the first place I visit ends up having the greatest impact on me. An impact that further pulls me away from the life I was living toward something that could be more in line with who I am. Now, it could be something as simple as ‘the first coffee in a new country’ phenomenon which has been immortalized as a travel meme across social media. Or, there could be something else at play. When I compile all these coffee shops to visit, some inevitably move their way to the top of the list and sometimes it feels like it happens naturally. Like fate has somehow taken the slightest bit of control because it requires I be subjected to specific experiences.
We arrived shortly after the shop opened and I used my best French accent with a warm, but nervous greeting. We were met with a French response from the delightful owner, Patricia (high school French was paying off!). But let’s not kid ourselves that we’re always completely prepared for what’s in store for us. They absolutely fucking know when you don’t speak fluent French and graciously, we didn’t meet a single person on this trip who wasn’t okay with that. They switch to English quicker than you can say you don’t understand, or rather, je ne comprend pas — je suis un stupid fucking American. I’d like a flat white please.
And what a flat white it was. She drops it off at the table with a ‘voila’ and humors us as we complement the glassware to which she describes as ‘so very French.’ Having finished our first flat white with the incredibly trendy coffee from the Danish roaster La Cabra, we felt like we could conquer Paris. So, we stepped out of the shop, let the morning sun soak into our faces, and proceeded down the street to whatever adventure Paris would reveal to us next.
One of the first scenes in the show has Neal sitting emotionally defeated in an empty apartment with a bottle of French wine. The paradox is that he just recently escaped prison and could have easily gotten away again, but instead gives himself up to eventual capture by the head of the White Collar Division of the FBI, Peter. The reason Neal is defeated is because the love of his life isn’t anywhere to be found. But a clue is left behind. And he doesn’t know what it means.
Clues are laid in our wake all the time. Sometimes, we just aren’t paying any attention. I love how Neal wagers the freedom of escaping handcuffs against the true freedom he seeks; life with his love. It’s not something that is readily apparent when you’re watching the show because we get so caught up in the surface level distractions. The humorous banter, the grind of the 9-to-5, distracting ourselves with our jobs so we don’t bother to contemplate what it could be like to live in a different way. It’s exhausting to be distracted away from freedom. It’s exhausting to have something we love be out of reach.
So, how do we find it and how can we ever hope to capture it? Sometimes, we have to follow our heart no matter what other people tell us.
It was about 10:00 am or so and we decided to continue south to a bustling square. Think traditional French cafés on the corner and a large community farmers market in the center. Amidst all of this was our destination: Early Bird Coffee Roasters.
Early Bird Coffee Roasters | @earlybird_coffeeroasters | https://earlybirdcoffee.fr
I love how great coffee can be a temptress.
Another French greeting down, and we were the happy patrons of Joseph’s shop in the heart of the market. There was another person there having what was likely his third or fourth cup of the day and we got to talking with him as he had spent considerable time in the states. It’s always nice to have pockets of familiarity when you’re traveling abroad. In a world where the language can be anything but familiar, coffee can serve as a commonality and an unwritten language that we can share common ground on.
The second flat white of the day for me was more similar to how I roast our Guatemalan coffee in Seattle. Chocolate forward with just enough complexity to give secondary and tertiary flavors. I liked sipping on this as I watched the weathered Giesen finish another batch of freshly roasted for the lucky Parisians who would be purchasing coffee that day. It’s so refreshing to see others who have walked a similar path to yours. It helps us understand that it can be possible. It reminds us that we don’t have to be tempted back to a safe and secure life with a 401k and a mortgage if that isn’t the love we seek in our lives.
Coffee doesn’t judge where you are. It doesn’t keep you in a box and tether you to a life that may not be completely your own. What it absolutely does is wake us up to temptation. It creates an insatiable urge of possibilities that show us where we could go if we decide to accept what it offers us. Temptation can be cruel, and it can also wake us to a world of new possibilities. High risk, high reward.
In between the serious moments, Neal never shies away from enjoying life’s simple pleasures. He tells stories, spends quality time with dear friends, drinks good wine and enjoys the consequences. Yet he has to continue solving cases or he’ll be thrown back in prison. So, he remains a prisoner while he looks to the horizon for a truer sense of freedom. As he wrestles with this reality, he paints, crafts and conspires for permanent freedom.
Waking up at a new coffee shop every morning before the streets of Paris catch up is so mesmerizing. You have these moments as you sip through them where you really do begin to understand how a life that injects only small moments of enjoyment can actually be a prison. We make just enough money to afford the next thing. Two weeks of vacation per year as a reward for making money for someone else’s dream. Useless meetings and e-mails drown out the dreams of fulfillment. And then you’re 40. Or 70. And then it’s over.
Removed from monotony, you start having these little flashes where you can see what it could be like. You start saying things like, ‘I could live here,’ or ‘I should just quit what I’m doing and start now.’ The reality is that all of those little flash statements are true. And when you’re sitting in a park in Paris when it’s 75 degrees and sunny eating a freshly baked baguette and French butter, the temptation to throw all the monotony away becomes too large to ignore.
Neal knows that there will be a time when he must cut the bonds that bind him. So he works at it. He plots. And I think that we all understand this feeling. It’s a tug. An internal dilemma. I think we should do what Neal does. Plot. Develop a plan. And when you do finally cross that threshold of action, fully go for it and don’t look back.
“So, he remains a prisoner while he looks to the horizon for a truer sense of freedom.”
Coffee provides moments of clarity for me to work on my grand coffee plan. It’s usually a small window of creativity before I have to get back to the worker bee life. Those of you who know me at the time of this writing know that I work another full-time job in addition to growing this coffee company. So, these trips around the world and every blog I write are commitments to that growth. Another step toward freedom.
It’s not very often you get to visit a namesake. So when I found out that there was a coffee shop named, ‘Bonjour Jacob,’ I knew we had to go. There are a few of these locations scattered through Paris and I thought their concept of being a vinyl and retro magazine themed coffee shop was really unique.
Bonjour Jacob | @bonjourjacob_ | https://www.bonjourjacob.com
Work at something long enough, and it’s more likely that the vision will come together.
I think about this frequently at coffee shops as I’m sitting within their creative walls. I get to thinking how brave or absolutely full of hubris some of these owners are when they take the deep risk of opening a coffee shop. The truth is - is that running one of these and not going out of business in the first three years is quite challenging. Many fail and one can point to a number of different reasons. Great coffee isn’t enough to sustain you. You have to stand for something and I believe the customer needs to feel what you stand for, even if they can’t quite put words to it.
Sipping on another flat white before the shop became overrun with foot traffic was relaxing. We got to sit and look at the seemingly infinite number of speciality magazines on the wall, and we saw once again a book that we ended up returning home with. Inspiration can meet us when we least expect it, and I’m thankful that far too commonly, it seems to happen with coffee.
Paris tempts and seduces its visitors every day and it would take multiple blog entries to highlight the many coffee spaces that I connected with. Each time I visit a new city and indulge in their coffee scene, I take a little more of it with me. And then I get to thinking about what it really is.
I believe it to be a feeling. A feeling of knowing what needs to be done. They are gentle and in some ways active reminders that we’re on the right path with Zanarkand. I spend so much time creating a feeling with what we stand for, and I think the more places I visit and the more coffee pop-ups we do, we get closer and closer to being a reflection of what I want it to be.
The end of the show is an emotional powerhouse. Neal does what he does best. He conjures up one final make-or-break plan weighing the heaviness of the choice he confidently, but perhaps reluctantly makes. The choice is to stay, or to leave it all behind and in doing so, say goodbye to those he loves in favor of what his heart truly desires.
I think his journey, seeing as how it ends in Paris, is a beautiful parallel to the choice that we have to make in this life. Stay put, or follow love, and enjoy its consequences.
