Last time, I wrote about the culture shock I experienced in Paris, focusing mainly on the city’s dirty and chaotic side. Today, I want to write about Paris’s charm.
When it comes to scenery, Paris truly is beautiful, especially in spring and summer, when the entire city comes alive. Paris’s Haussmannian architecture has a magnificent, imposing quality, and the Métro stations are filled with advertisements for museum exhibitions. In central Paris, it is easy to immerse yourself in an atmosphere of culture and art. People also dress with great care, regardless of gender. They may wear loose black coats or wide-leg trousers, but they put a lot of thought into small accessories.
What’s more, you do not need to plan too much when traveling in Paris, because surprises can appear at any moment. Sometimes, you set out for one place, only to suddenly notice something along the way while following your map and think, “Wait, isn’t that so-and-so?” Or you might unexpectedly come across a performance and stop to enjoy it. Even after living in Paris for three years, I still like visiting the sights as a tourist.
I remember that not long after I arrived in Paris, I went to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Montmartre. A woman asked me to take a photo of her, and I asked her to take one of me as well. Since we were both extroverts, we naturally struck up a conversation.
After hearing about her life, I felt that being born into the right circumstances really is a matter of skill. She was about my age and was born in Austria. During her gap year after high school, she worked as an au pair in the United States for two years, then returned to Vienna for university. After completing a master’s degree in Spain, she stayed in Barcelona. She also loved traveling and had visited more than 30 countries. She had been robbed twice in Brazil and sexually harassed in Egypt. She had met her idol, Britney Spears, twice, and even showed me a photo of the two of them together.
In any case, because we got along so well, we decided on the spot to spend the day together. We wandered around all afternoon, talking first about French culture and then about life, work, and love. At Sacré-Cœur, we lit a candle for her father, who had recently passed away. Then we walked to the Moulin Rouge, had drinks at the café featured in Amélie, photographed the pyramid at the Louvre, chatted on the chairs in the Tuileries Garden, looked out over Paris from the rooftop of Galeries Lafayette, and at dusk walked along the Seine all the way to the Eiffel Tower. We ate sandwiches by the Seine and then waited for the tower’s hourly light show, staying out until late at night.
Looking back, that day was one of those rare romantic moments in life, just like the film Before Sunrise. We both knew that our encounter had an expiration date, yet without discussing it, we each chose to share that half-day of our lives with the other and listen to each other’s life story.
At the café, we talked about high school and university, and she asked me a soul-searching question: “Without parties during your teenage years, how did you enjoy life? How did you release all those hormones?” I could only answer honestly: “I spent most of my adolescence doing practice problems.”