Je t'aime Paris!

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast".  -Ernest Hemingway

Ahhhh, Paris.  I miss you my friend. 

I haven't had the privilege of ever living in the "City of Lights", but having visited just one time, it sure does stay with you.

A year later, I am still in disbelief that I ever got to go. I was digging around some old photo files and found these pictures of our 10 days in Paris in March last year.

I realize that I run the risk of boring you with my 'Remember When..." slideshow, but these are selfishly more for me than you.  I want to go back. I want to remember what it was like to feel out of my element but yet so right at home. I want to stretch myself again in all different ways that I didn't even know I could be stretched. (ie. traveling on the metro all my by lonesome and putting my 4 years of highschool French to good use (?).) I want to eat Nutella Crepes every night and not feel guilty.  ( I do still eat them all the time, but I feel oooohhh soooo guilty about it).  I want to sip really good red wine and eat foods that I can't pronounce.  I want to ride a bike along the tree lined path at the Palace of Versailles.

 I want to enjoy life like I did in Paris-where every day felt like an adventure and to walk 10 miles didn't feel laborious but freeing. I want to stroll through a flea market and see ornate and beautiful things that aren't reproductions from World Market.

I want to stroll down the side streets-not just the farmer's market to see fresh flowers in bloom.

I want to be amazed by the sights, smells and sounds again.

I want to sit on the steps of the Sacre Coeur and cry because I'm so awestruck by the vastness and beauty of our world.

I want to walk along the Champs-Elysees and people watch.  I want to tour the Louvre and glimpse the Mona Lisa again.

I want to see young couples on the subway holding hands, kissing, hugging and whispering "Je t'aime" in French. I want to be one of them just for a minute or two. (No offense, honey).

I want to get lost in the city of lights and love and not even remotely care if I find my way back to the hotel.  I want to walk on a random cobblestone street and look up and see ivy in the shape of a heart winding around a window.

I want to return to the place where I first discovered that my world wasn't just a 20 mile radius from my address.  I want to touch, taste and test it all out over and over again but I am realistically reminded as with many other unfulfilled wishes and dreams..."Someday maybe....but someday isn't today".  In the meantime, I will treasure the pictures and memories and "remember when".

Je'taime Paris!  You are in my heart forever!