SNSD's Seohyun Shares Personal Diary from Paris

Jul 14, 2011

Korean media Naeil News unveiled today an exclusive column titled, “SNSD Seohyun’s Paris Diaries,” written personally by Seohyun herself. She shares the feelings about her first-ever trip to France, Hallyu in Europe, and the SM Town Concert in Paris, as well as some personal photos through this entry reflecting the candid emotions that ran through her mind during the visit.

Here’s the full excerpt:

“My first-ever visit to Paris, France. Everything was new and strange to me. Of course, I slowly got used to it day by day, but everything was a new experience to me.

Today I made great memories at the Montmartre. Paris seen from the Montmartre hill was amazingly beautiful. Ah, to save that moment, I took a lot of photos and tried my best to keep everything in memory.

I also went to the Sacre Coeur Basilica. But the back alley of the church was a completely new world. With tons of street artists, it made a very creative and open atmosphere. That made me wonder: what would I look like in a picture drawn by a Montmartre artist? Without hesitation, I asked for my portrait. For about 30 minutes, I sat there with my heart fluttering. But the wait time was not boring at all. I was actually excited to think about my portrait, and just happy to get out of the regular life and make new memories at a new place.

The moment I saw the portrait, it felt very weird. The drawing was pretty. But I looked more like a Western person than Asian. I told the artist, “merci beacoup (thank you very much)” and left the Montmartre. I just made unforgettable memories from the beautiful Montmartre.

And then I went to the famed sorbet street in Ile Saint Louis. Everyone on the street was holding an ice cream. I heard the sorbet here was made only with fruits, no cream. There were long lines of people waiting for their order. The taste of the sorbet from that day was the freshest and most memorable in my life.

In Paris, I tried a lot of different types of food. I’m not a big fan of sweet stuff but I ate traditional French snacks like Macaron, Crepe, and chocolat….and even tried escargots! But the taste of the sorbet was by far “daebak (amazing).” The different moments and scenes, I just wanted to fully enjoy the different cultures in Paris while I was here.

While enjoying ourselves here, we faced a really funny situation. Local Parisians actually recognized us. I’m not talking about Koreans living in France; but real French people. They spotted us and quickly approached us asking, “Are you SNSD?” We were of course very surprised. We couldn’t believe people noticed who we were…like we were really shocked.

And they didn’t just call us Girls’ Generation, but “So Nyuh Shi Dae” in Korean. Some said, “Happy to meet you. We’re going to your concert,” and others said, in English, “I really love SNSD’s music, but I’m French.” I didn’t really imagine people would recognize us, but it was just unreal how people were able to tell who we were even before we had our concerts there. I made great memories here today in Paris. Fighting SNSD, fighting Korea.”