Bonjour! I’ve been remiss with posting lately due to travels. I went to Paris in early June for both work and pleasure. It had been a decade since I’d visited the City of Lights, and, despite several stressful setbacks (beware that Airbnb, even if reserved months in advance, can cancel within days of your scheduled arrival!), Paris did not disappoint.

I have a special affinity for the city, as it was the first place I traveled internationally. I took French in high school and went there as an exchange student, living with a host family for just a couple of weeks. It was the first time I’d been anywhere predominantly non-English speaking and my host family was attentive, warm and forgiving. My time in Paris was a gentle nudge out of my American suburban bubble. More drastic shifts in my world perspective would come later, but I always think of Paris fondly as my start to a love of travel. And, of course, it’s Paris! The richness of art, architecture, food, parks, history…. I’ve been back to Paris once each decade since and this, by far, was my favorite trip.

I had initially planned to attend a writing retreat right before my medical conference, but as the retreat was canceled, I instead had several days completely to myself in Paris before my husband arrived and my conference started. As a working mom with three little ones, solitary time in this magical city was bliss. I strolled the narrow streets, stepped into cafes and hidden parks. I hit my favorite Musée d’Orsay and Rodin and sat in quirky bookshops sipping espresso and writing in my notebook. I even had a chance to read a poem during a multilingual open mic night.

The summer institute I attended was also exceptional, an annual meeting of the minds hosted by the CHCI Health and Medical Humanities Network. This organization is a “hub for health and medical humanities research and collaboration” and this year’s theme, “Health Beyond Borders,” brought together experts in both narrative medicine and global health, each particular interests of mine.

Several talks I particularly enjoyed were:

A keynote by Ghada Hatem-Gantzer about her incredible work with women and girls who have suffered violence.

I connected with Shana Feibel on #somedocs prior to the summer institute when I stumbled across her post about presenting in Paris. Dr. Feibel spoke about a topic that resonates with me: “Bridging the borders between Psychiatry and other Medical Specialities: A Case for the Medical Humanities.” I hope to continue to learn from her work in this area.

Sneha Mantri from Duke is a neurologist with her Master’s in Narrative Medicine and gave a fascinating presentation about border crossing and modern medicine as it relates to Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West. I also learned Dr. Mantri was in the same narrative medicine class at Columbia as Stephanie Cooper, who I’ve gotten to know well through the Seattle chapter of the Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative. It’s a small, connected world!

Columbia’s Danielle Spencer presented innovative work on the idea of lived retrospective diagnosis, or metagnosis. I’m looking forward to her book on this topic, forthcoming in 2020.

Emergency Medicine physician Craig Spencer gave a moving keynote presentation about his work with Medecins Sans Frontieres and specifically the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

I returned from Paris rejuvenated and energized on many fronts. C’est magnifique.