A Special Kind of Love

With Saint Valentine’s Day right around the corner, it seems to be all anyone is talking about. And while my special someone is 3,705 miles away, love is visible all over Paris, but then again it always is. Paris is known as one of the most romantic cities in the world, if not THE most romantic city, and there’s no doubt about why. All over Paris, you can find people kissing everywhere: on the streets, in shops, and especially on the metro … it’s no wonder Paris has such a reputation. My friend is constantly offended by the endless PDA and the amount of nude women we see in art (whether it be in a museum or a large mural in the metro station). Take a stroll through Pigalle where the famous Moulin Rouge is located and you’ll probably understand a bit more about love in Paris than you’d like to know. But love is an integral part of the French culture. The love I think of when I think of Paris is not crude or the kind of mushy gushy love that’s put into movies and commercialized, but the French idea of fierté. One major thing I have learned about French people since coming to Paris is that they are proud to be French. Fierté essentially translates to pride, but the pride that the French have for their own country is something I completely did not expect. Just take a stroll down any grocery isle in France and you’ll discover that the majority of items are produced in France. Coming from a country over 15 times bigger but where the majority of our goods come from China, India, Bangladesh, or even Europe, this came as a bit of a shock to me. I first realized it when I was sitting down at breakfast looking at the labels of all the items I was eating and 99% of what I was putting into my mouth came from France. The residents here don’t just consume French goods, they demand them. Almost every box of cereal I’ve seen has a big label drawing attention to the fact its contents are from France. There is no doubt that the French love their country, and I can understand why (and not just cause their cheese is delicious).

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

There is an old tradition of couples attaching their own lock to the Pont des Arts and throwing the key into the Seine to as a gesture of their commitment to each other