Why Paris
I first went to Paris in high school. It was a chaperoned trip of London, Paris and Spain.
I remember arriving in Paris, with a pocket full of English pounds jingling in my pocket
Now I was fussing with francs. We were kids. A woman had an ice cream cart and we all bum rushed her, asking for the flavors. I picked vanilla. I was still fumbling with my change and I guess I gave her the wrong number of coins. My little high school brain was still trying to convert dollars to francs. She was channeling the Seinfeld soup nazi guy long before that character existed and said in brash French “NO ICE CREAM FOR YOU!” I knew that because promptly dumped my pint sized vanilla cone back into her bin.
I didn’t get ice cream that day, but the experience didn’t dim my verve for the City of Lights. I’ve been back every year for the last few years. My partner works for a firm based in Paris, so the annual summit of managing directors brings us to the city. I also host events for my women’s leadership platform there a few years running.
Paris gets the label ‘the most romantic’ city in the world. I think that’s the Disneyfied, American point of view. To me, what makes Paris romantic is the architecture. When I walk the streets, I marvel because Paris stands in spite of something.
Not because.
General Dietrich von Choltitz was in charge of the German forces in Paris during WWII. He had razed many a city before. Hitler was a point where he was losing ground, and so he knew Choltitz was his man to issue this order: Raze the city of Paris. Destroy the Eiffel Tower. Destroy Notre Dame. Burn 65 bridges to rubble.
Choltitz chose to disobey. He was wracked with remorse, and chose intead to negotiate a ceasefire with the French Resistance. As a result, Paris was spared. The city we see today, stands because someone dared to defy.
It aligns with my own story. I grew up with traditional Indian parents who had very tight script for how I was going to live my life. And I wasn’t having any of it. I left home at 18. I have alot the life I”ve designed today. The business I’ve designed today, because I dared to defy them.
Joya is currently enrolling members for international (Europe) and domestic (NYC) strategy days. She also leads a year-long intensive mastermind of C-Suite level women, which is accepting applications for 2024.
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