I love Paris in the springtime . . . but I also love where I am right now

I’ve written quite a bit on this blog about how much I adore France, how much I loved living in Paris, and how much I miss Lyon. And it’s true. I love France, I miss living there sometimes more than I can express, and I have daydreams about eating a pain au chocolat from my favorite patisserie more often than I’d like to admit.  

But the flip side is that I also love being right where I am, right now.

Dahlgren Quad on Georgetown's campus - one of my favorite places to go in DC. 

And since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I thought I’d list just a few of the reasons I’m thankful to be at this exact place in my life, even though I’m not sitting at a café on a cobblestone street in Paris drinking a glass of wine and chatting in my favorite language.

1 – I love my husband more than I love France, and every day I get to spend with him trumps any day in France. I know. It’s inconceivable that I could love anything more than France when all I do is write about how fabulous that country is. But it’s true. I love him more, and I always will. France doesn’t listen to me talk endlessly about my latest plot development or my next book idea. My husband does. France doesn’t pretend to understand what I’m talking about. My husband does. And France doesn’t bring me flowers mid-week just because I’m feeling a little grumpy. My husband does.

And truth be told, he’s too tall and muscular to live in France. He’d stick out like a sore thumb. Plus, when he mixed up bonjour and au revoir during his one trip to France, I knew there was no hope for my big, tall, all-American man:) 

2 – I’m thankful for Bella and Charlie - my two massive, furry cats who are the sweetest, cuddliest companions in the world. And if I’d been living in France all these years, we never would’ve adopted them. And then what would my husband and I have to talk about? 

Charlie - always alert and ready for danger. Who knows what could be lurking in our 2 bedroom condo??

Bella, after a hard day's work writing her next novel. Oh wait, that's me.

3 – I’m thankful for the fun chats I have with my mom, and for all of the wonderful friends and family who live nearby or within at least a three hour time zone. I wouldn’t get to see or talk to any of them nearly as much if I was living across the ocean.

Smart car in Alexandria, VA. I used to only get to take pics of these hilarious cars in France. Now they've traveled here!

Il Porto Restaurant in Old Town Alexandria - another one of my favorite places close to home.

4 – There are a million other things I could list here, but I will end by saying how truly thankful I am for all of the awesome friends, family, and new readers I’ve met along the way who have supported me in my writing journey and who’ve given my book a home.

So, in gratitude, I’d like to give a little bit of Paris back to you. Over this upcoming holiday, Sleeping with Paris, my debut novel, will be available for only $.99 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. So, curl up with your Kindle or Nook, grab a bar of chocolate and a glass of wine, and take that trip to Paris you’ve always been dreaming about. I promise it will be much more cost-effective than a round trip ticket . . . but on that note, if you happen to stumble across a cheap ticket to Paris, let me know. Even though I love him more than France, I still need to convince my huge, all-American hubby to take a trip over there with me! :) 

Happy Thanksgiving and Bon Appétit everyone!

Lyon - My First Love

View of the Saone River in Lyon at sunset . . . trop belle

I have a confession to make. Long before Paris stole my heart, I’d already fallen head over heels in love with another French city – Lyon. Don’t get me wrong, I love Paris, and I always will, but if I ever moved back to France, there is a strong chance it would be to Lyon.

I spent the spring semester of my junior year in college studying in this gorgeous city, which is about two hours south of Paris by train. When I was making the choice between Paris and Lyon for study abroad, I had an inexplicable gut feeling that I should choose Lyon. I’d never been there before, so all I had to go on were the recommendations of a few friends who’d studied there. But for some reason, I knew that was where I was supposed to go.

I lived with an amazing host family in their beautiful French apartment in the 6th arrondissement, ate fantastic home-cooked meals with them each evening, made some wonderful friends who I am still close with to this day, and spent an incredible six months falling in love with a city that I would never stop loving.

Since I could go on about Lyon forever, instead I’ll list a few of the reasons why it’s my favorite city in France:

In comparison to Paris, Lyon is a *small” large city. It is small enough and pretty enough that you want to walk everywhere you go, and because of the way it’s laid out, you can. There are two rivers that run through the city – the Rhone and the Saône. Each of them are lined with gorgeous, artistic bridges that make for beautiful pictures:

My favorite pedestrian bridge on the Rhone River in Lyon

One of my favorite places is called Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon). Winding, cobblestone streets packed with lively cafés, pubs and patisseries run through this quaint little area of the city. 

And don’t even get me started on the food. I went back to Lyon last year with one of my best friends and writer pals Sophie Moss (who, by the way, just released an incredible debut novel, The Selkie Spell, which you should go check out here:). And the running joke was that every single meal we ate was the best meal of our life. Seriously. The food is ridiculously amazing. Lyon is actually known as the gastronomic capital of France!

Scrumptious Risotto, a giant, breaded wheel of creamy Camembert cheese, and of course une bouteille de vin:)

La CleA Noa - The restaurant where we ate that fabulous meal above, in case you were wondering.

Rue Merciere and its row of fantastic restaurants. Also where you can find the restaurant La CleA Noa pictured above.

Have you ever visited or lived in a place that just made you come alive? A place that made you feel like you were home, like you were exactly where you were meant to be? That is how I felt about Lyon when I was living there, and during every visit since. And I suspect that will never change. 

 Two years after my semester in Lyon, I returned for my year in Paris. My attachment to the smaller, cleaner, more manageable city of Lyon actually made it difficult for me to completely fall in love with Paris at first. The weather in Paris can be gloomier, the city bigger and less personal. But by my second semester there, I began to fall in love with the charm and the beauty of Paris, almost just as much as I’d fallen for Lyon.

My husband sometimes has a hard time understanding my attachment to France, to Lyon, to Paris. And it’s difficult for me to explain why I adore a place almost as much as I love certain people in my life! The best way I can explain it is that over eight years after I first lived in Lyon, I still crave the city, the people there, the French language, the food, much in the same way someone would crave a lost love.

And the best way I’ve found to reconnect with both Lyon and Paris (without traveling there constantly and breaking the bank) is to plant my characters there. In Sleeping with Paris, Charlotte gets to live in both Paris and Lyon. That lucky girl. And in Kissed in Paris, Chloe gets to visit some of my other favorite French towns – Giverny and Annecy.

So, while I can’t click my heels three times and land in Lyon or Paris anytime I want, I can at least travel there every single day on the pages of my books.

What is the city or town that makes you come alive?  In France or elsewhere? I’d love to hear your stories:)