The Paris Habit. Start With This Free Walk.

TravelWriting & PublishingLifestyleFashion
Written By Carter White

My running, never-finished list of things to do in Paris. Here's one day of it.

The Paris Habit is out. It went live on Amazon this week, and after years of dishing this info out to friends in bits and bobs- a spot scribbled on a napkin here, a list emailed there- it’s a real thrill to finally hand over the whole collection in one place. It’s a brain dump, I’ll own that up front, but it’s a brain dump with a lovely cover. And if you become an annual Substack subscriber, it’s included. No need to buy a copy.

A quick, honest word about the book. It’s not a glossy guidebook. As much as I’d love to hand you something coffee-table beautiful, that was never the goal. The Paris Habit is a fairly organized collection of the places I’ve gathered, visited, re-visited, over-researched, and quietly passed along to friends who happen to like the same things I like: good food, design that stops me in my tracks, shopping spots I love to defend. And a lot of wandering, which in Paris manages to feel glamorous even when it’s completely aimless.

A free walk, on me. This one is for everyone, subscriber or not. It’s A Secret Paris Walking Tour (ok, secret might be a stretch, but it is definitely a good one and DFY), a one-day route I built pin by pin. It winds through the Marais, starting at Nicolas Flamel’s house, and crosses over to Île Saint-Louis near the end, with a Berthillon stop if the queue is merciful. The good lunch spots and evening endings are marked, so you’re never left standing on a corner wondering where to eat. Open it on your phone and follow the numbers. There are also some other random beloved eating and shopping spots that are not on the actual tour…but you might wander off course.

One of those lunch stops is Breizh Café (not a new find but worth a repeat visit if you have been before), which I found years ago during a gluten-free phase I shared with roughly the entire planet. I go back every trip if I can get a table. Cider and buckwheat crêpes. I know that sounds humble, but the combination is so good I’ve been known to plan the afternoon around it.

Paris Walking Tour Google Map Link

What I’m gathering for this trip. I’m in the home stretch of pre-trip planning and pulling together the handful of things I refuse to fly without. My whole travel philosophy is make it boring on purpose: I want the getting there to be as seamless as possible so that being there gets to be the fun part. For me, that means a bag that rolls easily and packs and organizes without a huge hassle, and doing whatever it takes to stay comfortable at 35,000 feet, sharing recycled air with 350 strangers and roughly six (awkwardly tiny) bathrooms.

Which brings me to the strangest thing I never fly without. Years ago, on a flight home from Paris to Boston, I got seated near a row of backpackers who had clearly had the trip of their lives and, I promise you, smelled like every minute of it. I had about thirty fond seconds of remembering my own backpacking days before the smell caught up with me. This was before Pura existed, or I would have happily plugged one into the seat and let the whole economy section thank me. Ever since, I travel with a tiny refillable spray, my spray bullet, filled with something clean-smelling and maybe a little lavender, so my patch of air stays civilized even when my seat-mates are living their most fragrant lives.

A few of the pieces that are non-negotiable on my upcoming trip, in case you’re putting your own list together.

A couple of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I get a small cut at no cost to you, and I only link things I reach for every single trip.

Full List Of Items Below - This has been my travel kit for the past six years. Still works and looks good!

My Away carry-on bag (6 years and going strong), Rothy handles zip-top bag for under the seat (6 years and going strong), Rothy slip-ons, adorable cow pattern…brand new!

Travel Necessities Links:

So, why subscribe for the year? Three of the best reasons I can think of.

One: two books’ worth of ideas to borrow. Annual includes both The Paris Habit and Paris in Love & Lore as e-books, plus my layered Paris map with 500+ spots. That’s hundreds of places, itineraries, and starting points to research, borrow, and make your own.

Paris EBooks Included with Annual Membership

Two: Paris doesn’t hold still, and neither do I.The books are a snapshot. The Substack is the living version: ongoing paid posts on new openings, what’s changed, what’s suddenly worth the trip, and what quietly is not. It’s how the collection stays current between editions.

And the changing is why my love of Paris endures. A city that keeps reinventing itself, where the people and even the government treat creativity and design as something worth protecting and paying for, is a city you never finish. That’s what pulls me back every time, for the new, for the enduring, for the glamour and the luxury and the flat-out artistic nerve of my favorite city.

Three: a monthly escape that feeds the real one. Even when the trip is a year off, a good Paris post is a little virtual getaway. I write the kind of thing I’d want to read on a grey Tuesday, the daydreaming that eventually turns into a plane ticket.

And if a paid year isn’t in the cards yet, stick around anyway. The free list still gets you the essays, the stories, and the design tangents I can’t help sprinkling in because I usually have a lot to say.

I know it’s a cliché to say Paris is always a good idea. I’m saying it anyway, because it’s true.

That’s the whole pitch. The book is out, the walk is yours to try, and the annual fee is $75 for the year, whenever you want the ongoing version of all of it.

Carter White
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The Things That Last