"In love in Paris"

In the past few days, the City of Light, Paris, has been on my mind.  It is probably my favorite city in the world.  I have gone there twice now, for about 4 days the first time and then last spring for two weeks.  It has totally stolen my heart.  I love it.  It something I can hardly describe.  I don't love it for the romance, or for the Eiffel Tower, or for the bakeries, or for the wine.  I love it for all that it is.  I love the Parisians sitting every evening by the Seine with a bottle of red and a baguette, the view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, 
Ladurée and their amazing macaroons, and every other thing that makes up that famous city.  

        So many people say they love Paris but half of them have never even been there.  Others who have been there say they hate it because the people are "rude".  French people and Parisians in particular have gotten this reputation from Americans.  But I have learned something very important during my last year in Europe, and that is that Americans are the exception to the rule.  Americans who have just lived in the U.S. their whole lives think that everyone in the world is as open and overly friendly.  But that is not the case.  Many cultures, including the German and French cultures, just are not that way.  They are not "bad" or "rude" people in general, but simply have a different way of interacting with others.  This becomes even more obvious when they are dealing with strangers or people who do not speak their native tongue.  So I believe that we as Americans need to pause and remember to not think that our own culture is the "right" one, and any other culture that is different than ours is "weird" or "rude". 

     Ok, I officially got a bit off topic there for a sec...  To sum up, if you fall in the overly romantic idea of Paris category, get your head out of the clouds, and love the city for what it really it, not for what it supposedly is.  And if you fall in the bias idea of Paris category, open your eyes, and take a minute to appreciate another, extremely diverse culture.   

    Right now, Im already thinking about Christmas, and since I won't have my family around me, I am wishing I could go somewhere for Christmas.  And since I love Paris so much, I'm dreaming of a train ride there Christmas Eve for a hot cup of coffee in a cafe while looking out at the snowy streets of the city I love.

One last thing... Did you know that Paris is not called the City of Light for all the sparkling lights on the Eiffel Tower?  Yeah, it was called that for all of the brilliant minds who have lived there, such as Claude Monet, Claude Debussy, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (we all know what he's famous for), and my personal favorite, Coco Chanel.