Paris was always one of those places that I dreamed of going to someday. Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of gazing up at the Eiffel Tower and walking along the Seine River. For a long while, I thought that the closest I'd ever get to it was the lamp stand I had in my childhood bedroom. But that someday has finally come and passed.
After dreaming of it for so long, I was nervous that it was the idea of Paris that I loved--that sipping coffee in a cute cafe, walking along cobblestoned streets in a striped top and a beret, looking up to see dreamy monochromatic buildings as I walked with a fresh baguette in hand only existed in my dreams. My nerves were made worse by the fact that we were going in February, and being the California girl that I am, I couldn't fathom winter in another place, let alone in another country. But Willa Cather said it best: "Paris is a hard place to leave, even when it rains incessantly and one coughs continually from the dampness."
Paris, you made it all too easy to fall in love with you. You had me at the first taste of your espresso and the flakiness of your croissants. You were everything I hoped you'd be and more.
