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Paris...its been more than a year since I had my first rencontre with this amazingly fresh but still full of old world charm place. 3 days- that's all I had in such a beautiful place and yet I could feel that I knew it. It was like going to someplace I'd already been to before. There wasn't any fear of the unknown. I was carefree. It may have been due to the friendly bonjours that we got from complete strangers, or the crazy broken french I used, to talk to the driver of our very first cab out of the airport.We stayed in the heart of the city. And yes. It beats, with a rhythm that feels like music- a soft,dreamy symphony. Every sculpted life form, fountain and cobbled path felt like it held some connection to a bygone era,to a story that it might tell, if it could only speak. Its good for me that I was not fore-warned of french rudeness.Maybe that's why I did not encounter any.None of the charming francaises that I met seemed to mind my broken french, and it is quite possible that they might have been greatly amused by my confidence in using it. If it weren't for my dear Dad refusing to walk another step without asking for directions I would have ventured into the city and gotten lost in its streets. I plan to do so the next time I get there. Get lost , in a place so enchanting ,it plays with your sense of time....one moment its all old and arty..the next moment its sparkling and amazingly modern. Its been a year and I am still awestruck. Its like falling in love at first sight with a stranger that you'll never see again and then spending the rest of your life trying to find a way back to that person, not knowing when and how you'll get there but still wanting it with all your heart. I've been to many beautiful places...most of them had mountains, rivers, trees and other innately rich bounties that nature offers, but for the first time, a city...filled with buildings, people, and cars and all things essentially man made has evoked such a deep feeling in me.Maybe calling it a city is too impersonal. It has a heart, it sings, envelopes you in its mystique and if you love this wonderful stranger,it loves you back. Paris, Je vous aimez.
