On Friday evening for half and Saturday morning for us over in southeast Asia, Paris was attacked.  And the day before, we shouldn’t forget that a pair of suicide bombers hit Beirut.  A total of 172 people died from these attacks.  Some on the extreme ends of society were quick to politicize the tragedy in Paris.   But for the most part, the world was shocked, and baited breath while waiting for loved ones to check in over social media, mourned the victims in the city of light, and lamented the paucity of coverage in Beirut.

It’s now Monday morning.  And thanks to the human condition, there is growth, forward movement and the pursuit of the so many things to balance out the past week’s losses.  So this morning, I wanted to celebrate these two cities.  Paris is easy.  Let’s just make fun of the fact that everything in Paris is so more: [sensual/delicious/inspiring/…etc.].  So why not have a French-American model do that for us.

But we don’t know much about Beirut. I’ve always wanted to visit after hearing the stories of beauty and flavours, history and depth that friends of the diaspora would bring back.  But it’s often a place mired in the media’s representation of it.  I couldn’t find an apt video that appropriately shared a better than home video quality of what I was looking for (it’s out there, I know), but check out Chrissy Culver’s Beirut city guide over at Design*Sponge.  When it comes to cities, branding is so important. And in the past decade, some culturally brilliant places have taken more than their fare share of the damage.  I love travel and discovering new places, even if they may seem off the beaten path, and a little risky at first sight.  So hey, maybe I’ll be the one to bring that perfect video guide of Beirut to you at some point. Keep watching this space.