Paris is Always a Good Idea

In the famous words of Audrey Hepburn, "Paris is always a good idea."  I first visited Paris when I was in high school and immediately fell in love with the city.  The architecture, the lights, the cafes, the history... everything about Paris made my heart sing.  Last year as I was sorting through some of my old mementos I found my travel journal from my first trip to Paris.  As I read the entry describing the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower I actually teared up.  I remember that magical moment so vividly and it was fun to remember what Paris looked like through my teenage eyes.  During the semester that I studied abroad and the year I taught abroad I made countless trips to Paris where I visited the same sites over and over with friends and family members.  By time I returned to the United States in the spring of 2012 I was "sick of Paris."  Instead of seeing the beauty of the city that once captured my heart, all I could see was the trash on the streets, the homeless people in the metro, and the frustrated looks of the Parisians as yet another tourist demanded to be seen and heard.  Needless to say, in my mind, Paris was no longer a "good idea."

Dining with the Stars

When most people think of Michelin they probably think of the big puffy white guy that tries to sell tires.  At least that’s what I always thought of until a few years ago when Florian introduced me to the world of Michelin Restaurants. Michelin is a company that was started in France by the Michelin brothers in the late 1800s.  The company started by selling tires and then like any successful company quickly tried to find a sneaky way to get car owners to wear out their tires more quickly so they would have to come back for more.  The company then started making road maps complete with hotels and gas stations to entice French drivers to travel more.  The Michelin brothers added restaurants to their travel guide after World War I and started awarding stars to the best restaurants shortly after.  

My Double Life

When I was a teenager I loved the movie "The Princess Diaries." I found the idea fascinating that a dorky girl from San Francisco could wake up one day and discover that she was a princess and had a whole other life that awaited her on the other side of the world.  The idea of living a double life seemed so cool and foreign to me that I could never imagine that one day something similar could happen to me.  Now I'm certainly no princess, but I can't help but feel like Mia Thermopolis somedays as I try to balance between two completely different worlds.

The Taste Dispute

There is a Latin quote that I find to be quite interesting: De gustibus non est disputandum, which means "in matters of taste there is no dispute."  I find that this quote really resonates with me because the definition of taste is something that Florian and I have "disputed" many times throughout the course of our relationship.  The funny reality of it all hit me a while back while Florian and I were eating dinner at our favorite restaurant.  "You know, " he said as we were gushing over the food, "one of the things that worried me most about getting married was not being able to eat all the things I love anymore."  "Quoi?! What?!" I said confused.  While most American men probably worry that entering into marriage will put an end to their weekly football games or guys-only Poker nights, my French husband was admitting that his biggest fear was not being able to eat the French foods that he loves!

Three Truths and a Lie

There is a great ice breaker game that I used to play with my students called "three truths and a lie."  Each person makes four statements about themselves, three being true and one being false, and the object of the game is to see if the audience can decipher the lie.  Being an avid reader of blogs and other memoirs in which people seem to gush about their glamorous lives abroad I can't help but feel like I am playing this game.  Every book or blog I read seems to have the same four take-aways:

Learning a new language is rewarding.
Moving abroad is easy.
It is important to chase your dreams.
Living in another country is a constant adventure.