J'adore Paris

Paris.

Just feeling the name of the city roll off my lips gives me tingles.

And telling people, "When I was in Paris last week, I ... (insert one of the many wonderful experiences here) ..." makes me smile like a schoolgirl talking about my secondary school crush who looked at me and said hi in the hallway. *heehee*

Paris is enchanting, lovely, charming, and so so so effortlessly chic. She is the perfect lady who every man would love to love and who every woman would love to be.

And for the record, it's not true that Parisians are nasty and rude. At least not now. It seems they have improved a great deal over the past 5 years.

We were greeted with sweet, hearty and smiley "Bonjours!" not just when going into a restaurant or shop - but even when walking along the streets, shopkeepers tending to their stuff outside would just wave and say hi, and passerbys walking their dogs would smile and quietly say "bonjour". And how sweetly they would try to speak English when they realized I couldn't speak (though Super Hubby did come to my rescue many times, you must applaud them for trying).

It was so endearing that (Super Hubby can attest to this, albeit exasperatingly) I skipped around humming:
"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That's amore
When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine
That's amore
Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling..."

And yes, I am aware it's actually a song about Napoli in Italy, but I can't help what song I felt like at that time, can I?

And the architecture!

Eiffel Tower. The Louvre.  Arc du Triomphe. Opera Garnier. Notre Dame. The beauty of it all. Trying to capture the magnificence with my little digital camera seemed so pointless. But I still did pose in front of 'em to show "I was here!"

Before I left for the weekend, the peeps in Luxembourg gave me the addresses for their favourite spots in Paris and also told me, don't stress out with a program, and "just walk around and feel the city". These are lovely people who've traveled all around the world in style, with Paris remaining one of their fave cities in the world, and who often go back every few months.

Now, I know why.

The city is alive and bursting with elegance and pride. You could see that everyone was proud to be here. And it was a beautiful kind of pride, I felt. Tourists and businessmen from around the world, shopkeepers, students, Parisians... everyone walking around just so happy to be in this proud and beautiful city. Or maybe it was just me in my blissful glee.

We walked around, stopped and sat at millions of cafes and ate at trillions of restaurants, and spent gazillions of euros on stuff that I peed and pooped out, instead of shopping! (I will not complain, I will not complain, I will not complain)

I experienced a Parisian weekend through Super Hubby who used to live here for five years, and found out that the Parisians spend a lot of their money on food and drink, and could spend hours at a brasserie eating a leisurely brunch, drinking their coffees, sipping their wines, munching their croissants.

And although there were sales going on, you could see that the people doing most of the shopping were tourists (I was quite jealous of them buying like mad), while the Parisians were content to be at their cafes and whatnots, just sitting and chatting.

So while I do think back to all the missed 'buys' that I could have had (I only ended up with 2 dresses, 2 shoes and a bag), I am glad that Super Hubby dragged me away from the shops and I managed to see (and eat through) so much of my current most favourite city in the world.

Three days was definitely not enough. I'll be back soon, Paris, my dear love. And mi, you're coming with me! :)

Next up, food in Paris.