but Paris is mine

My father is captain and my brother is captain. With uniforms with epaulettes, stripes, and caps and everything that goes with it. My father could be away from home for up to seven months. In the past, blue airmail envelopes (made of very thin paper, so cheaper to send) would fall on the doormat, and there were ‘collect calls’. As a very little girl, I already knew that I always had to answer with a clear ‘Yes, I do’ when a woman on the other end of the crackling line asked: ‘Are you willing to accept the charges?’.

My brother also went to the Higher Maritime School. In Vlissingen. I thought it was great, of course. My big brother in uniform with all kinds around serving the guests Ruinart Champagne and small bites, while in the background the music that was played during the show in Paris can be heard. This is the very first Dior store in the Netherlands, and the international allure that this business brings is something that has made Amsterdam a lot more stylish. When we go outside again, thank goodness it has stopped raining. We hang our goodie bag on the handlebars of the bike and head home with a head full of wishes and dreams. One day I will buy a bag, shoe, or piece of clothing from Dior. Really. of things around him that I was allowed to look at. Cards came from Honduras, I got to go to a hamlet in South China, and then my father was in Jakarta or their ships crossed each other somewhere around Cape Horn.

You understand that I always felt a bit dull in terms of adventure and travel compared to these two. When I happily told them that I was going to Vietnam, they had already been there together six times. Whenever I think I've been somewhere they haven't, there's always an anecdote from the old travel box. “Honey, weren't we there in 1968 with that wobbly cargo?”

That's why I am so deeply and intensely grateful that Paris is not by the sea. It is not a port city, and therefore my two travel superiors do not go there. My father has been there a few times in a romantic impulse, and my brother is still a Paris virgin at 47. So they can sail around the world a hundred times, Paris is mine.

Because I can't get enough of Paris, and you probably can't either, we created a digital magazine with Paris in the lead role. Click here but, you won't be disappointed.