"Free [WO]Man in Paris"

I WAS A FREE MAN IN PARIS

 I FELT UNFETTERED AND ALIVE 

THERE WAS NOBODY CALLING ME UP FOR FAVORS

AND NO ONE'S FUTURE TO DECIDE

YOU KNOW I'D GO BACK THERE TOMORROW... 

...BUT I'M IN NASHVILLE, WAITIN' TABLES WHILE WAITIN' TO HEAR BACK FROM THE FRENCH EMBASSY.

THERE ARE A LOT OF SONGS ABOUT PARIS, BUT THIS BY JONI MITCHELL REALLY GETS TO ME. BEFORE I EVER WENT TO PARIS, I LOVED THIS SONG. Now I RELATE to it. This time last year, I was in Paris. Guess what? I DIDN'T like it, until a week an a half before I left. It had to do with many expectations, difficult French courses, NO AIR CONDITIONING. Well, then, I fell in love with it... Crazy Love. I know saying Paris, je t'aime is kinda like saying you love puppies, but oh well.

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This summer, a friend is there studying @ the Sorbonne, and it got me to thinkin' how much I  CRAVE to go there. Then I saw the photo up top on Garance Doré's website. And it stirred me up. Close to tears. 

Weird, eh?

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Here are pictures of Parisians by The Sartorialist:

And pictures of folks in Paris from Jak & Jil:

And from Pandora...here in the Marais...my favorite arrondissement.

I love Paris for the..hmmmm.... I really don't know why or how to express my sentiments. It's something I can't put into words...I don't love it for all the kitschy reasons you'd think. It's the (pardon the expression) je ne sais quoi.  Really, it's because I feel FREE there. Is this feeling of liberation ONLY because of Paris? Probably not. It has a lot to do with where I was in my life last year, but I had never felt so free since I was a child. 

All that to say, here I am...my last time in Paris, April 2010; a picture à la Garance Doré:

Oui, Paris me manque.