Resonation

Note: I actually began writing this while I was IN Paris. Just finished writing it today. It was wonderful recounting the details to complete this entry..enjoy :)

If you look up the word "perfect" in the dictionary, I am nearly certain you'd find the picture of Brian and I in front of the Eiffel Tower taken earlier today. Nothing about today was mundayne. I'd waited ten months for the moments we shared today and this surely surpassed everything I'd dreamed it could be.

Rounding the corner from the Metro station, I noticed nothing exceptionally different about the neighborhood. There are naked trees lining a large, still-green strip of beautifully manicured lawn. Small shops and homes of every sort lined the streets, adorable Parisian flats, apartments, even large, sprawling houses. There were a couple sporadic churches too. Nothing changes about the scenery as you near the tower, except this wonderful rush of anticipatory excitement. Also, nothing about this scene is anything different from what I'm used to seeing here in the states, but knowing that I was growing ever nearer to this architectural gem, my building excitement grew exponentially. Somewhere between being lost in the flurry of excited jibber-jabber, and hiding from the biting and penetrating wind, we exited a place of ordinary sight and sounds and stepped into a place I never could have prepared myself for. I head tears in my eyes when I first saw the Eiffel Tower. Standing at over 1,000 feet, it dwarfs everything at its base. Just to put its magnificent size in proportion - the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. stands just over 500 feet. That means the Eiffel Tower is twice the Washington Monument's height and is almost 100 years its senior.

Seeing the tower meant more to me than simply laying eyes on a piece of historic architecture. I took French for years, read (well, tried anyway) some French literature, and tried to absorb anything to do with French culture I could without actually immersing myself in it. I find everything French romantic - the language, the food, the Parisian lifestyle, the buildings are even romantic in their own historical context. Everything in Paris, well all over Europe for that matter, has been there for so many years. I would love to be able to know of everything these things have seen. Marriage proposals, arguments, first kisses, breakups maybe? Who knows. But in the 150 years that the Eiffel Tower has stood on its four sturdy legs, life has gone on for the better and worse. It is so romantic to me to know that among the gorgeous years that have passed, no moment has gone unseen. Knowing and believing this made beholding the tower a much more meaningful and beautiful experience.

If all of this wasn't enough, my wonderful boyfriend indulged my girlish fantasy of kissing me at the top of the Eiffel Tower. What a rush. Imagine - 1,000 feet above a most indulgent, culturally rich, busy and bustling, inspiring, and romantic city, you are standing there soaking up all of the aerial scrumptiousness Paris has to offer. You're snapping silly and precious memories in desperate moments of recording every touch, kiss, giggle and glance. Then he kisses you. It takes your breath away. Very much in a "chick-flick, straight off the silver screen" sort of way. There is no sound, there is no outside sensory stimulus. It all disappears, the bitterly cold wind, the itchy scarf around  your neck. There is suddenly no one at the top of the Eiffel Tower but you and he. Everything is gone, everything except for that fantastic rush, the sweet feeling of his lips on yours and the strong possibility that you may have reached your allotment for perfection for that day.

That was my first experience of the Eiffel Tower.

Our second visit was no less perfect than the first. We went at night this time, but didn't go to the top. We watched it glitter (oh yes, the Eiffel Tower glitters via thousands of fabulous light bulbs flashing in mesmerizing choreography once every hour), allowing it to richly flavor our experience. We walked underneath the Eiffel Tower to see what there was on the other side, finding just another view of the same breathtaking monument. This time, however, I was the lucky recipient of the moment that will forever define my personal experience in Paris. Is it so vivid that if I sit still enough and allow myself to sink back into this memory, I could tell you about the stillness in the air, the chill pinching my cheeks, the buttery smoothness of the banana and Nutella crepe that was warming me from the inside. I can tell you too about the smile plastered on my face and the moment that I realized I was living one of my life-long dreams. I was in Paris with the man I love, watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle.

Being in Paris was a dream come true. It was a few days brimming and overflowing with hope. Of inspiration. Encouragement. Days that reminded me that beauty reigns, that love conquers all and that the simplest things can have the most profound impact on your whole life.

I remember doing some preparatory research on places to visit while in Europe. One blogger wrote that no one understands how profoundly life-changing a trip to Europe can be until they've gone and experienced it for themselves. Oh, how the truth embodied in that thought resonates! You can see all of the photos you'd like, read all the book on culture, on art, even literature, and while you'll gain a new type of insight and knowledge, you'll never truly understand until you're immersed, drinking every little bit up (or eating, as in my case).

That ten month wait to be in the arms of my beloved boyfriend was insanely difficult. But words aren't plentiful enough to allow for proper expression of the goodness I was fortunate enough to experience in a place I am fairly certain materializes happiness and glitter and love in midair. I left my heart right there, on that street behind the Eiffel Tower, in front of that blessed crepe stand, and in return, that city, that magical, historical, beautiful, whimsical "City of Lights" gave me a fresh heart, a renewed sense of romanticism, hope and beauty. To you, Paris, I will say, "merci beaucoup, et a tout a l'heure, mon ami."