104 Reasons I Should Be in Paris

1 Remembering Grade 4 french class and how impossible it seemed.



2 French Waiters

3 Never being mistaken for an American

4 Place du Tertre and bartering for your portrait
5 Men are so much sexier when you don't know what they're saying
6 The intersection at the Opera House
7 Tuileries - lunch on the grass and a great bottle of wine
8 Being lost with two very handsome foreigners at Place Vendome
9 Being anonymous
10 Really fat pigeons
11 The train to Versailles
12 Old hotel room doors and hearing everything that goes on in the dead of night
13 Ferrari cabs
14 The people waiting for the metro to open in the morning - going to work, or returning from play
15 Chocolateries ('cause it sounds so luscious in a french accent)


16 Grass



17 The hill in front of Le Centre Pompidou

18 The unique thrill of finding a clean public toilet.



19 The Metro, especially Chatelet Les Halles

20 Old Stuff

21 The Marais - kinda like San Fran or Toronto Queen Street "village"

22 Really, really scary medieval statues

23 Appreciating french arrogance, and adopting it

24 There's a post office in the Eiffel Tower

25 Watching tourists get shaken down by Gypsies

26 The OTHER Statue of Liberty

27 All of the windows, not just the Rose Window

28 Trimmed shrubs

29 Rue de Rivoli



30 Boulangeries



31 Really, really, really good house wine



32 Any 20-40 something man named Jean-something-or-other, Lucas, Theo,Hugo,Antoine,Alexandre,Clement, Maxime, etc.



33 Walking



34 The steps at Montmartre

35 Palais Royal

36 The bum of the Venus de Milo

37 Vermeer's The Lacemaker

38 Seeing the real Monet in many shades, and knowing for sure you don't care for any of the water lilies

39 Really cool basements

40 The Gates of Hell and the Kiss the Burghers of Calais

41 Jules Bastien-Lepage when you have really, really tired feet

42 Shakespeare & Co.



43 Traffic

44 The little park bench adjacent to the Eiffel Tower

45 Only needing to pack a carry-on

46 The best chocolate covered orange slices I've ever had

47 The promise of romantic love

48 Apricot Jam

49 Really bitchy store clerks who should be models

50 Day trips to Versaille, and the little opera house in the palace

51 Doorways

52 The lights - it really is a beautiful city at night

53 Discovering you're not the only one winded after climbing all the stairs to get to the top of L'Arc de Triomphe

54 Sneaking into the Opera House when it's closed to tourists (yah, go ahead - just do it!!!)

55 Missing out on Henry's Bar and having to go back to do that Hemingway stop - another round Henry!

56 Place des Abbesses

57 Not having to worry about parking

58 Great metro maps

59 Sneaking fresh bread and "stuff" home in your carry-on to celebrate and debrief when you get back to the real world

60 Knowing one day Prince Charming will propose at Le Train Bleu at Gare de Lyon

61 Never having to watch sports on tv

62 The pipe organ at Notre Dame because someone actually plays it!


63 Fresh bread ALL the time

64 The variety of REAL Cafes

65 Musee d'Orsay

66 Le Monde

67 Channelling Hemingway while sipping espresso at Les Deux Magots

68 Early spring blooms

69 Au Lapin Agile (I'm saving that for my visit with Prince Charming)...and since I may never do that...let me know how you like it!

70 The indulgence of Rodin

71 Yellow peonies

72 The French

73 Architecture - look up!

74 Relaxed, race car driving cabbies

75 Balconies

76 Getting lost

77 Tourists

78 Seeing art again for the first time as an expression of the human spirit

79 Shopping with the locals

80 The lunch menus

81 Poulet et pommes frites

82 Bicycles

83 Tuileries

84 Climbing to the top of L'Arc

85 Feeling that "something" at Notre Dame



86 Patios that sit three tables deep

87 Not being with a tour group

88 Shop windows



89 Courtyards



90 Hot crepes filled with apricot jam

91 Time for more than one cup of coffee at a time



92 Hearing the click of shoes along the narrow road in the dead of night and wondering where on earth they've been at 3am.

93 The after hours shenanigans at the bottom of the metro steps

94 Missing someone and realizing how lucky you are to have someone to miss

95 Writers

96 No "Big Box Stores"

97 Artists



98 Watching other people lounging in the aesthetic, and knowing you're one of them



99 Good wine in your camera bag and more wine just over there



100 The knuckle off of a warm baguette



101 Buying postcards instead of looking at it all through a camera lens



102 Seeing the smiles of other tourists

103 St-Germain-des-Pres and everything about it.....sigh....



104 The feel of silk in the lingerie stores