I have always wanted to go to Paris since late 2013.
Paris has long been promoted through various forms of media, but I was either too young to notice it, or too naïve to appreciate foreign cultures. When I watched Disney’s blockbuster animated film, Ratatouille, I was somehow unmoved by the breathtaking details the creators included while designing the beauty of a well-lit Paris at night; I sadly did not pay sufficient attention to the settings of Mr. Bean’s Holiday when he roamed across Paris from La Defense to Paris Gare Du Lyon.
But as a Taylor Swift’s fan, the release of her music video for the song, Begin Again, quickly grasped my attention. Having been filmed in the French capital, the music video introduced Paris in a romantic, dreamy, fairy-dusted light. I fell in love with Swift as much as with the artistic direction their team has taken for the 4-minute long video. Paris is widely recognised as The City of Love. That became a key reason for Swift’s team to fly to Paris from the US, in search for the perfect location to visualise the start of a new romantic relationship after months of longing and doubts about the idea of love itself.
The country ballad sings:
‘I've been spending the last eight months
Thinking all love ever does
Is break and burn, and end
But on a Wednesday in a cafe
I watched it begin again’
The songstress wrote the song alone, calling it a fresh beginning as one dusts off the pain and tribulations from a past hurtful relationship. We watch Swift wandering around Paris alone in the music video and then being approached by her new male interest in a cafe. There was something so pure and direct about the song and lyrics that mesmerised me. In a world where catchy music or ostentatious lyrics typically overshadow the magic an uncomplex song could have by simply capturing a hint of emotion, this song managed to impress me. By matching the song with a non-touristy Parisian setting, the video enhanced the deliberate de-glamourisation of love, and focused on the perspective of it being a personal search for comfort.
Thus, since November 2013, I would very much like to visit Paris, to see the filming locations of the Begin Again music video. I have kept it as a mere dream at that time as I could not afford a trip to Paris from Malaysia. I did not make my own money, and the travel fares were sky-high. I could only imagine myself visiting the café where everything ‘begins again’ and the pale-coloured Parisian streets Swift walked along.
Good for me, that dream fueled me to study hard, to maybe afford a trip to Paris one day. I scored pretty well for my High School Leaving Certificate, and received a scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. All I could think of that summer was: once I get to the UK, it’s not hard to get to Paris, right?
However, having a sponsored opportunity in tertiary education was not as easy as it looked. I had to undergo two additional years of college before I was even eligible for a bachelor degree in university. The two years were tough, having to balance academic excellence, an extensive co-curriculum involvement and my own mental health struggles. I had a lot to learn and every day new challenges just kept presenting themselves that I could hardly keep up. Yet, by holding on to the dream to see Paris myself clear, I persevered and made it into the University of Warwick in the UK to study Economics. And that, was my passport into Europe.
But that certainly was not the end of the story. I still needed financial assistance if I would like to take trips. Hence, I spent the summer before going to the UK doing several part-time jobs, just to make enough money that I could travel for leisure without using my sponsor’s. And as if my life was not unfortunate enough already, my high-volume commitment that very summer gave me a serious flu. I seeked medical aid, and was given cough syrup with artificial opium content, which was (still is) legal in Malaysia for medical use. That artificial opium ingredient in my cute lime green syrup was then detected as drug traces in the urine test my sponsor had arranged for me as part of the protocols of approving my scholarship. Two frightening weeks passed as I waited for my appeal result from my sponsor. They needed evidence to prove my drug-free innocence before making a final decision to approve me of the scholarship I was promised. To my relief, my family doctor who provided me with the drug wrote a letter proving my innocence in taking artificial opium contents for pure medical purposes, which only then led to my scholarship being approved.
I arrived in the United Kingdom for the first time in September 2019. I took my time to settle down, getting used to the unpredictable weather and making friends along the way. My first term flew by quickly as it was full of exciting student events. We always feel time disappears in the blink of an eye when we are busy, don’t we? I began planning my Winter trip by December and most certainly without a doubt, Paris became my obvious choice. Now looking back, that was the best decision ever, since the pandemic quickly followed just months after and no one knew when it would be safe to travel overseas again.
My friends and I did our thorough travel research, which included tracing almost all filming locations of the Begin Again music video, other than visiting some iconic attractions like the Eiffel Tower and The Lourve Museum. The only location we could not visit was where the rooftop scene was shot in the music video. It apparently belonged to a hotel, and was only accessible if you happened to be a superstar filming a music video, which I was not. Here are some of the filming locations I have managed to see myself:
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