Yes, Paris had me at Hello! Once upon a time, now close to 40 years ago (Yikes!), I didn’t have to create a magical Paris, as the phrase on the photo above suggests, but rather all those people who lived before me, with their grand plans executed over the centuries, had already taken care of ‘making it magical’.

All I did was place my first toe down on the cobblestones and I felt the magic illuminate my whole being. From then on I have been putting down that first toe as often as I am afforded the opportunity to do so.

So, what’s more magical for you?

OR…. maybe this:

What better way to start off my time in Paris, since Covid first made its appearance, but to have the exceptional opportunity of spending time with a familiar face…seeing her smile, glowing with excitement, after she, also, was experiencing her first time back in Paris since the inception of Covid!

She is my dear friend and once-upon-a-time California neighbor. We latched on to one another over 35 years ago when we discovered our mutual love of Paris. Over those years, not only did we make sure we overlapped our times in Paris so we could wander our favorite neighborhoods together, or go to parts unknown and inevitably get lost, or slot times to marvel over endless museum exhibitions, or discover new as well as retest our old favorite restaurants (cafes, boulangeries, patisseries, chocolate shops…and on and on). We made sure we added in numerous garden visits, having been known to explore three major parks in one day. We even, over the years, found it possible to include some other European adventures to our ‘to dos’ when time permitted.

This time, our schedules only allowed us one day of cross-over in Paris before she had to head home. Magic, in Paris, comes in all forms…old and new, inanimate and animate…and, this time, it was so magically heartwarming to visit, face to face, with my friend (and in the days that followed, other friends who live in Paris). Yes, my friends who share a love relationship with Paris similar to mine could just be the most magical thing in Paris!