Paris is Always a Good Idea

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From a young age, I determined to adhere to the words of the incomparable Audrey Hepburn, who once declared, "Paris is always a good idea."

 Paris is always a good idea: as a vacation destination, a place of residence, and as a setting for movies and novels.

In the movie Sabrina, Audrey's character writes a letter home to her father, waxing poetic about her feelings for Paris.  
"I am looking at the world through rose colored glasses and it says everything I feel.  I've learned so many things, Father...I have learned how to live."


 Why?  Why is Paris the setting parfait for an exploration of one's character...or for a novel?

 Because when you are there, every breath you inhale is tinged with hope, every exhalation with gratitude. Hope for a grand histoire d'amour -  a great love affair.  

 Hope for one of those serendipitous moments - when the light filters through the spires of Notre Dame leaving a lacy patterned shadow on the square in which you stand, when the setting sun transforms the Seine into a river of gold, when the scent of fresh bread permeates the air, when a handsome stranger strides across the bistro and says, 
"Je suis ravi par votre beauté."
"I am enraptured by your beauty."
Because, let's face it, those things don't happen in Poughkeepsie, Pomona, or Portland.  They just don't.


Edith Piaf got it.  La Vie en Rose.  Life through rose colored glasses.  Sigh.  (Click here to listen to Edith's version)

 So, if life is looking a little bleak through your RayBans, grab one of these fabulous novels and transport yourself to that magical, rose-stained city, Paris.  










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