Paris, Encore...

In the words of Frédéric Chopin:

"Paris répond à tous mes désirs. A Paris, on peut s’amuser, s’ennuyer, rire, pleurer, faire tout ce qui vous plaît: nul ne vous jette un regard, car il y a des milliers de gens qui font la même chose et chacun à sa manière... On trouve ici à la fois le plus grand luxe et la plus grande saleté, la plus grande vertu et le plus grand vice..."

Translation:  "Paris answers all of my desires.  In Paris, you can have fun, be irritated, laugh, cry, do all that pleases you: it's useless to throw a second glance, because there are millions of people doing the same thing and each in his own way... One finds here at the same time the greatest luxury and the greatest filth, the greatest virtue and the greatest vice..." 

Indeed, whether you are gleeful or dreary, in love or lonely, content or dissatisfied, Paris seems to  unroll the appropriate backdrop for the scene playing in your heart. 

A city with many sides.  There is historical Paris: not limited to the antiquities in the museums, but the museums (the 800-year-old Louvre) and the city itself.  Its age dawned on me when I was reading Victor Hugo's description of the same streets, squares, and bridges that I had crossed, and in the same paragraph mentioning that "America had not yet been discovered."  

There is artistic Paris with its Rodin sculptures and side-walk painters:

 There is gastronomical Paris: side-walk cafes, french menus that make everything sound enticing, chocolateries with boxes of truffles reaching the ceiling, little trees made out of macaroons.

 There is ritzy Paris, which I discovered by walking into Galleries Lafayette.  The tree inside was as dazzling as the lights without.  A entire floor full of Chanel, french perfumes, beautiful salespeople, women that still wear full-length fur coats...

Last but not least, there is romantic Paris, evidenced by a copious amount of PDA... Le Pont des Arts is a bridge riddled with padlocks, the result of millions of lovers locking their love, then throwing the key into the Seine. Awwww.

And, of course, Paris has a new dress for every season, which is why I'd like to, I'm planning to, return in the spring.  There's even a song about April in Paris.  I'd like to see the side-walk cafes, which I saw veiled against the cold, full of colorful people, and the Tuileries, which I saw under snow, full of flowers.  So, no "au revoir" for Paris, just "A toute à l'heure."