Paris, Je t'adore!

What is it with this city? I need to write a letter to the Chamber of Commerce.

Gil in "Midnight in Paris"

This post is the beginning of my letter to the Chamber of Commerce...

I love New York City.  New York City is the Center of the Universe - if it is happening there, it is happening!  Bright Lights, Big City!  When You're a Jet You're a Jet All the Way.."

London.  Rule Brittania!  Cool and Cockney.  Puts on THE best pageantry (my 90th birthday will be arranged by Buckingham Palace someday - they know how to put on a show...)

But Paris.  I did not think I could fall in love again at middle age, but Paris has reduced me to a giggling school girl.

You drive in from the airport, expecting to see high rises (despite knowing you will not) like all other big cities, but instead, you see this:

The river is everywhere - the whole city embraces it and celebrates it and walks over it.

And then you are there, too, feeling glamorous and dramatic, walking in the footsteps of the millions of pilgrims that have come before you.

And yes, that is Notre Dame behind you, which you nonchalantly walk by, steeling yourself to not scream "Sanctuary!" or prostrate yourself in front of, like the many beggar women I saw by the lineup to get in to the evening service.

And then you are in the most luxe neighbourhood, Ile Saint Louis, enjoying your first glass of champagne in Paris at the Cafe St. Regis...

You feel like you are in a movie - perhaps the bartender recognizes me from my show? Mais oui!

 

But alas, everyone in Paris is a bright, young thing, so you sip your champagne and smile and smile, because you are in Paris and Paris is beautiful, everyone is beautiful and you feel beautiful too!

Later you have supper in a cafe near the Seine, not far from your hotel, where you feast on simple fare that tastes anything but and smile for the camera because you feel drunk, even though you are not, because you are in Paris!

You will see many things during your brief stay in Paris, but you will never forget falling in love and your first night in Paris...