Bonne Année! Happy New Years 2012 from Paris!

I was fortunate enough this year to cross the Number One place off of my ever-growing travel wish list: Paris, France. My great-great grandmother was Parisian, and I’ve always been a bit of a Francophile; I’ve long dreamt of visiting Paris and its first-class museums, a city filled with so much history and a nostalgia for the past, best depicted in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”. I always have had a soft-spot in my heart for French cinema, from “Amelie” to “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”, and new wave classics like “Breathless” and “Jules and Jim”, some of my favorite movies of all-time have been from French directors; even this year’s “The Artist” was one of my favorites of 2011.

French cuisine was everything I hoped it would be and then some. Amazing chocolates, the flakiest croissants I’ve ever had, even the marmalade was to die for. I made an effort to eat a little bit of everything and each meal was an exploration, and an event. I had everything, from classics like escargot and french onion soup, crepes, fondue, macarons, creme bruele, filet of beef with peppercorn sauce, to gyros, falafels, veal, even a sausage made from tripe! After spending a week there, I really got a sense of the unique way of life that is Paris in 2012 - modern, but much like it’s architecture, the Parisian heart is still in the past, and I would have it no other way.