Portrait of an Unknown

Zara tank (similar)
& Other Stories skirt
J. Crew sandals
& Other Stories necklace
Delphine Pariente ring (similar)
Madewell ring
Location: Neos Kosmos – Athens, Greece

I bought this vintage edition of Portrait d’un inconnu – which translates to Portrait of an Unknown – by Nathalie Sarraute the weekend before our trip to Athens. It was hiding in plain sight in our local French language book shop, the price unmarked. I snatched it up quickly, although there wasn’t a soul around, never mind anyone else who showed interest in it. It felt like it was meant to be mine.

The book itself is a challenging read. But the title, Portrait of an Unknown, feels almost symbolic of our time in Athens and what it taught me.

For so many years, we’ve been focussed on Paris. And Paris will always, in many ways, be home – albeit a home where we know we can’t stay forever. But Paris is, arguably, the fashion capital of the world. It competes with Rome for the title of top tourist destination in Europe. While not everyone in the world has been lucky enough to visit, the city is unknown to no one. In fact, in recent months, I’ve come to feel like the circle of people I follow on instagram – myself among them, admittedly – are simply taking turns going to and from Paris. I’m not bothered by it. Far from it, in fact – I love seeing my favourite city through other people’s eyes (and camera lenses.) But I’ve begun to wonder what anyone – and especially what I – can add to the seemingly endless conversation about the French capital.

…so far, I’ve come up with nothing.

But Athens remains an unknown. A place many people would like to visit, maybe, someday, once they’ve gotten to Paris, Rome and London. In my experience talking to people about our trip before we left, I learned that the vast majority have only the most vague concept of the city – the common thread in all of those conversations was that the weather is warm, which is true, and that there are ruins, which is also true. But if you’ve been reading along, you know by now that there is so much more than sunshine and ancient stonework to the Greek capital.

And as we travelled through Athens, snapping photos to share on Instagram stories, the response overwhelmed me. Every morning, I woke up to dozens of direct messages. Athens, seen through the lens of my iPhone, surprised and delighted people. The images I captured challenged their preconceived notions about the city or, better still, gave them an understanding of a place they’d previously known nothing about. Of course my Paris photos excite people, too, but I can honestly say that the response isn’t the same. And it’s because, at the end of the day, everyone has seen a different version of my pictures somewhere else. Where Paris photos are beautiful but repetitive – Athenian snapshots are revelatory.

That was a revelation for me, too. And it was exactly what I needed. If I don’t know where I fit into the conversation about Paris anymore, it’s probably time to start talking about something else entirely.

I will always love Paris. But it is an expensive place to visit and the prices just keep rising. The experiences that look most lovely and desirable, like cafe au lait at Cafe Marly in the Louvre and lunch with rose at Loulou Restaurant, are on the long list of things I simply can’t justify spending my hard-earned money on. Because I know there is equally good rose down the street for a quarter of the price – but the decor at the restaurant that serves it doesn’t fit into the, “Everything in Paris is beautiful,” narrative. My Paris is not perfectly decorated. It is often dirty and a little bit ugly. But even if I shout that at the top of my lungs, I won’t be able to make my little voice heard over the din.

In recent years, I’ve slowly given up my one-person protest, almost without noticing. Interest in the unknown parts of Paris is, it turns out, limited. I blame no one for that – if you can’t be in Paris, why would you want to see it looking mediocre (but still charming) when you can see it at its best? I love living vicariously through someone else’s thousand-dollar lunch as much as anyone – I get almost all the pleasure, and they foot the bill. So I get it. I allowed myself to be influenced. It was fun, for a while. But now I’m getting tired of telling a story that isn’t really mine. And so, it’s time to venture to places unknown.

The fact is, I have never been the sort of person to follow along with a crowd. If there is a crowd, I am most often moving in the opposite direction. That’s why, even though my love for Paris will never diminish, I don’t want to keep going back over and over. The world is full of places I’ve never been. Full of places of enormous depth and beauty that remain as yet unexplored by a herd of content creators following each other from one photogenic cafe to the next. I want to walk the road less travelled, and take photos along the way. It’s what I’ve always wanted – I just forgot that, for a little while.

In Nathalie Sarraute’s book, the unknown is a person, rather than a place. And the portrait is one of loneliness. What I’m striving for is the opposite – I want to seek joy in the discovery of new places that I love, despite their imperfections, which may include a less than desirable geographic location. And I want to share them, because joy is contagious. It connects us.

Currently, I’m thinking our next destination (after New York) will be Budapest. But I’d love to hear about lesser known cities you’d love to discover about – tell me in the Comments section!

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