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Why Paris?
I go to Paris as often as I can, staying for as long as I’m able, with the intent of (one day soon) living there at least part-time. When I share this goal I usually get asked the predictable question: “Why Paris?”
My instinctive response to this question has often been “If you have to ask you obviously haven’t been there.”
But over the years I’ve come to understand that not everyone is as transfixed by Paris as I am. And to be fair, Paris and I had a bit of a rough start.
I first visited this beautiful city over 30 years ago, at the end of the first solo vacation I’d ever taken. I was recently divorced and trying to gain a footing in my new single life. Having gotten married right after finishing university I didn’t have any experience doing life alone, but having lost my father while I was still in school meant that I had grown some courage and confidence related to handling hard things.
As I contemplated life after divorce it occurred to me that waiting around for someone to adventure with might be risky. Which meant I had a choice — wait, in hopes of finding a new partner and then starting to see the world and it maybe never happening, or take a leap and begin to do it on my own. So — I leaped.
I signed up for a group cycling adventure trip in Provence, France. Traveling in a group seemed like a good way to go — I’d…
