Paris, Je T’Aime

I saw Paris, Je T’Aime the other night. As I watched the various love stories unfold, each tied to its own well-known Parisian scene, I felt a nostalgia for the Paris I explored this summer. Like the American tourist at the end of the film (though the comparison is not entirely apt, as I have even more deplorable French than she), I fell in love in Paris.

I fell in love with Paris. I fell in love with the quirky art and wandering, narrow streets of Montmarte. Get lost in Montmarte. Spend an afternoon listening to street musicians and admiring boutique windows and licking nutella from your fingers as you eat a fresh crepe. By the time you stop at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant for dinner, you’ll be enchanted by the entire district, utterly fascinated by the way the sunset’s pink glow paints the white-washed apartments in a rose as simultaneously rich and light as the French wine by the same name.

I fell in love with the city’s arts – from posters for Bruno in the Metro to red figure Greek pottery at the Louvre. Just the range of arts available is astounding; a tourist can buy tickets to a dance at the Moulin Rouge or catch a free concert by a band covering the Beatles and Jack Johnson on the steps of the Sacre Coeur. I was equally fascinated by the South African artist who wove me a bracelet while telling me about his Alaskan girlfriend and by the no-nonsense construction crews pushing to complete an architect’s vision by their deadline. The mime I watched, practicing his art with the Seine and the Eiffel Tower as his backdrop, was perhaps my favorite Parisian artist.

But perhaps what I loved most about Paris was that I couldn’t stay. Though Parisians work and play and love – they live! – in Paris, for me it was an escape from the day to day. The simple recognition that I only had five days in France made me that much more appreciative of everything I saw and did there. I basked in the sun at the Jardin du Luxembourg, doing nothing more than breathing in the light fragrance of flowers and listening to children laugh as they pushed wooden sailboats in the fountain. It was a perfect moment on a beautiful day, far far away in a magical city. And as I sat on my lawn chair, taking Paris in, I fell in love.

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