Romance of a Different Kind

I've never had an inkling of interest in Woody Allen or his movies that I can remember, but I was told by my roommate to watch the recent film Midnight in Paris before we went for our weekend trip to Paris from Milan. I wasn't sure what the movie was about but I decided that I'd indulge my curiosity and watch my first Woody Allen movie. Boy did I love it! If you haven't seen the film, it is a story about a writer on holiday in Paris with his fiancee and her parents. Gil, the main character, is a writer unsatisfied with the role he has as a Hollywood screen writer. He is enamored with the atmosphere of Paris and constantly revels in the loveliness of its former distinguished inhabitants, such as Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald (my personal favorite writer) and wife Zelda, Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Salvador Dali, and so many more. He spends his days thinking of how good the Parisian life was in the roaring 20's. I have to admit this is exactly what I spend a fair amount of days thinking about too but not only Paris but New York and other high society places. The movie refers to this nostalgia for a greater era as "Golden Age Thinking". The next part of the movie is a situation that I wish could literally come true in my life everyday though I know this thought borders on insane. As the clock strikes midnight, Gil happens to be in the right place at the extraordinarily right time and gets transported back to his ideal era in a very non-chalant way. He now gets to be in cohorts with the inner circles of the greats of literature, art and music. While yes the romance in the movie and the city are very apparent to me the imagination and creativity of the times portrayed are the true romance of the story. The longing to live in a time that is considered superior to the current era is the romantic notion that many people live with each day and yet no one admits. So while in Paris this past weekend I tried to take a hint from the movie and just soak up every morsel of this city. I didn't mind when it was gloomy and raining because that's how Paris can be and then when the sun came out a whole different view of Paris was shown. Night and day are such a different contrast. There i no choosing which I like better because I can't. So many different aspects come out when the sun goes down that to say that I prefer one over the other would be something akin to blasphemy. Everything about that city I adore and don't know how I had ever lived without seeing Paris. That's the wonder of Paris, you can go your whole life without knowing one word of French or knowing any event in French history and then in one weekend you fall in love. Not in love with a romantic french guy (though that would be awfully nice!) but in love with the culture, the atmosphere, the language, the food, and the romance of a city that pulls you in from the moment you arrive. Needless to say I am commencing my acquisition of the French language immediately and reading up on the history of what I would probably deem my new favorite city.

My new hang out place

Pont de l'Archeveche bridge with love locks

FRENCH ONION SOUP!! DELICIOUS! 

The Sparkling Eiffel Tower

At the Grand Trianon during a day trip to Versailles

The Naturale: with melted cheese

The Mexican: Chili with meat and beans topped with sour Cream
My roommate and I at these baked potatoes for lunch made by a
lovely man with a potato oven right outside the Grand Trianon

In front of the glass pyramid of the Louvre Museum

Basically my new diet was baguettes, crepes and onion soup...i don't hate it!

Why wouldn't you want to live here??
View from the towers of Notre Dame