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
