P is for Penpal
The Internet is a strange place. It can be disconcerting and difficult and it can be weird and wacky. It is full of the worst kinds of people and the best. Everyone is doing something online making it a hot pot of kooky products and even kookier ideas. As the digital world expands, it feels as though our real world is getting smaller as everybody knows each other through some medium or another. Fascination and fetishisation of people or things on the Internet is quotidian mood now. All of the ‘cores’ that are appearing; cottagecore and normcore, and I’ve recently learnt about the different types of TikTok that you can be on. Trends are no longer called trends and we certainly aren’t calling things trendy anymore (apparently that’s grandmacore but not in a cool way).
Despite these unwritten rules (they probably are written somewhere on Reddit but I don’t have the energy to find them), the Internet is still, for me, a nice place to waste time. Heeding none of the warnings of early 2000’s parenting, stranger danger et al, I’ve been finding recently that the Internet is actually a great place to meet people. I’m not talking about the dreaded apps but Instagram, if used thoughtfully, can introduce new concepts, new inspirations, and new people.
My Instagram feed is lazily typical, it consists of restaurant dreaming, recipe inspiration, and @cheappropertyeu. I detox and cull my following every few weeks in order to hone what I see to a very specific degree.
Jess
This year, this nitpickety algorithm has served me very well and has helped me make two new Internet friends. The first being @wholesomegrlz whom I had followed for a few months, ogling her food, friends, and fun life in Melbourne. I then noticed a familiar view pop up on her Instagram story; Jess was in Paris.
We exchanged a few polite hellos and then we decided to meet. Over a few months of summer in the city we lunched and bonded over our shared food obsession, making time for Le Temps de Cerises and Sando Club. Jess is now back on the other side of the world cooking at Hope St Radio in Melbourne but our Internet friendship is strong, sharing likes and comments, and will remain so until she hopefully moves back to Paris next summer.
William
I’ve always been a fan of writing letters, I think that the enjoyment started when I wrote to a publishing house aged 5 or 6 correcting a spelling error in one of their elementary texts and I received a lovely reply and a whole stack of free books. The writing pen to paper continued in the hope that I’d receive gifts back but that was not always the case. I used to write into magazines with embarrassing stories, jokes and anecdotes. My second friendship from the Internet has gone so far as to become a real and true penpal. I discovered William’s website and Instagram page The Fergusalice Collective at the tail end of last year. The site is named after the inimitable Fergus Henderson and Alice Waters and so I knew straight away that we would have things in common. I stumbled across his page and it wasn’t long before I sent a frilly message exposing my fangirl tendencies and offering up my writing services. This kickstarted our cross-pond project and was the start of a lovely friendship.
The concept we came up with for a joint venture was to send letters between San Francisco and Paris, detailing one singular restaurant experience and recreating a recipe from said restaurant, our counterpart would then attempt to recreate this recipe based on our instructions. A Miznon cauliflower was the first attempt and William’s version looked even better than the original, especially compared to my rudimentary roast.
Our first letter is now live on fergusalice.com if you fancy reading it and laughing at my childlike handwriting. We hope to continue this epistolary exchange and one day even meet in real life but for now, pen and paper will have to do.
Internet shopping list for you
Of course @fergusalice and @wholesomegrlz
As the moments of sunshine are starting to diminish, jveuxdusoleil.fr will point you towards the terrasses in the sun in Paris at different points in the day.
@orfeot occasionally posts a notes page of things that are unnamed and they always feel pertinent on the day I read them. The day I read this I had eaten an extraordinarily expensive cinnamon bun from Le Petit Grain.
@luuuuush photography will have you dreaming of the city that never sleeps
Very sweet poetry for French practice from @williambornancin