We'll always have Paris.

Remember last week when I said Capri is the most beautiful place I have ever seen? I take it back. Paris, by far, is the most beautiful place I have ever been to.

I've always been drawn to the Parisian life. Something about a diet full of crepes, macaroons and champagne, a wardrobe full of socially accepted fur and the way you instantly feel prettier when someone says "Bonjour, Madame" really appeals to my Eloise at the Plaza/Blair Waldorf/Beyonce inner diva queen animal spirit. Paris was the one city I REFUSED to leave Europe without visiting. And let me tell you, it lived up to every expectation.

Our flight was at 6:50am, which in my Steve-o conditioned mind meant that we needed to be there at the night before at 7pm. I was not missing this flight for anything. Unfortunately, not many other people were brought up with this obsessive compulsive need to be there with enough time to finish a PhD thesis, so we got there around 5:30am. Not enough of a time cushion for this diva queen. I pushed through lines, ran over children and the elderly, threw elbows and made it to the line for the flight. Once again, I was not missing this flight. Thank goodness, everything was fine and we all made it to Paris in one piece. Whew. When we got to Paris, we ran off the plane, got on a bus, got in a cab and made it to our hotel. After getting settled , we took the town. I was immediately awestruck by how incredibly beautiful the entire city is. I loved every inch of it. We walked around and I just soaked in how ornate and wonderful and fairytale-like every street corner, shop, bakery and restaurant was. It was love at first sight. The whole time I kept thinking to myself how I HAVE to come back with my mom and my sister, and how I HAVE to come back with Ryan and how I HAVE to come back with the girls I was with right then. The gorgeousness of the whole city just made me want to share with everyone. We went to the Eiffel Tower, thought about how blessed we are, and took about 70,862 pictures (even though no picture can capture the way I felt). After that we headed to the Louvre to hang out with our gal Mona Lisa. The Louvre was super cool and one of those places you can't not go to. Lucky for us, it's off season so there was no line, and it was after 6pm so we got in for free! We then met up with Carole's cousin who lives in Paris and we went out to dinner. We had a fab time. Side note, without Carole, Paris wouldn't have been such a success. She's fluent in French and amazing on all accounts.

The next day, Haley and I woke up earlier than the others to go to the Museum Orsay. We got pastries and our first ever French macaroons on the way there (ps. the macaroons ARE as good as they say). Anyways, we got to the museum and once again the line was super short and we got in quickly. Honestly, this was cooler than the Louvre. The first room we walked into had a Picasso. Oh. Okay. Then we walked into two more rooms FULL of Van Gogh paintings. Probably 20 Van Gogh paintings. Just chilling in their permanent collection. We went upstairs to the Impressionism floor and took in the entire floor of Degas, Monet and Pissarro. It was super impressive and awesome to see so many famous paintings. After that, we started walking to the Cathedral of Notre Dame and obviously stopped for a Nutella banana crepe (heaven) on the way. We met the other girls and went into the cathedral. It was so vast, imposing and impressive and different than anything church I have ever seen. We then made our way to the Love Bridge. It was iconic Paris and looked exactly like I thought it would. After Meg and Carole broke their lock while trying to put it on the bridge, we headed for the main shopping street of Paris, Champs Elysees.I looooovvveeeeeeeed it. Loved it. Couldn't love it more. It was already all decorated for Christmas and reminded me of Michigan Avenue on steriods. It was beautiful and magical and I didn't want to leave. There was amazing shopping including the Louis Vuitton flagship store, Cartier, Mercedes Benz and obviously, ten Zara's. There were also little family owned shops on the little side streets. Actually, this is were I spent the last euros I had to my name and bought a fur vest. Yes, I did. The shop owner was the cutest little man and I love my fur vest with everything I have in the deepest depths of my soul. I'm not kidding. After that, we ate a brie and lettuce baguette and shopped around some more. It was so much fun and really made me miss shopping downtown with my friends from home and family. It actually made me want to bring all of them to Paris. We saw the Arch di Trumph and then went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it lite up at night. Oh and we gt macaroons from the most famous macaroon place in Paris. Anyways, back to the Eiffel Tower at night. This vision, my friends, is the most incredibly beautiful sight I have ever laid eyes on. At one point, I mentioned how I'm not sure if the sight of my first born child will measure up the Eiffel Tower at night. Then we climbed all 1400 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We got an amazing view of the city at night and the very top of the tower. I will never forget it. That night for dinner we had fondue and you guessed it, crepes. It was the most wonderful weekend in Europe and I CANNOT wait to go back to Paris. It is by far my favorite city and I already miss it.

Other random things I love about Paris:
1. The metro system. I love everything about it. I love how cheap it is. I love how easy it is. I love how good I am at figuring it out. I love it.
2. Bakeries on every corner. Finished with your box of twenty macaroon? Don't worry. More are just around the corner.
3. The grocery stores have goldfish.
4. You can get six bottles of water for 1 euro.
5. Everyone looks fab. No outfit or print or fur hat is too outlandish or flamboyant for this town. Go bold or go home.
6. You can't possibly fit all of Paris into one trip. You just can't. But I think that's part of why we love it so much. It's this Mary Poppins bag of culture and art and food. You can't possibly do it all so you HAVE to keep going back. It's heartbreaking to leave but part of you is comforted by the fact that because you didn't finish it, you have to go back.
7. The whole city is in love.
8. It's perfectly okay, and even encouraged to be the full blown, out-of-this-world divalicious Queen of the World you are.

Moral of the story: go to Paris. I don't care who you are or what you do or when you go, just go. I truly fell in love with the city and I already cannot wait to go back.