Personal Interpretations

Could there be any more lame an opinion, coming from an American, than "Oh, I love Paris!"? Probably not, but, well, I have said that, and kind of often. It didn't help that I was 16 the first time I got to go to Paris. You know how 16-year-old girls are, when they think they're above the small town they grew up in and they just got back from Europe when no one in their school except the foreign exchange students had been there before? Yeah, gross.

The fact that I fell head-over-heels for Paris wasn't any less honest an emotion, but it was just so ... duh. Of course you'll fall in love with Paris. How can you not? Saying you love Paris is like saying you love foot massages or cashmere sweaters or puppies/kittens/ducklings.

I think what a place like Paris does is demand that you create your own experience and interpretation of it. Everyone loves it, so you need to make it your own, however you can. It's incredibly challenging to distill Paris into prose, so I think Paris is best described in images. Of course, that's a lot easier to do if you have an exceptionally gorgeous and unique creative vision. Which is why I love to pieces Sofia Coppola's commercial for Miss Dior Cherie.



So glowing, so light, so girly and unabashedly pretty! This is fantasy Paris, but I can easily see how this can be someone's ruling impression of the city—fizzy as a glass of champagne, sweet as a macaron and as charming as Brigitte Bardot squeaking and cooing her way through song.