Love at first sight

A woman passes by a fashion boutique on Champs Elysees. Photo Credit: Carlos A. Moreno

If I would have to sum up what I felt about my experience in Paris it would have to be love at first sight.

Inspiration flowed through my veins when I landed to Paris. It was all that I had envisioned and more. London has cosmopolitan down

...but Paris had charm and romance.

Everywhere you turned history and love filled the air. Pictures surrounded me effortlessly.

It was magical and exciting.

London was an interesting city but Paris had class and style - making the city a league of its own.

Parisian culture was both oddly adventurous and calm all at once. People expected you to be quite on public places but had no problem showing affection for each other on the streets.

The people, at least some of them, where friendly to me. I knew no French when I arrived, but after a few days in the mix of the streets and the Metro - I felt some of the language sip into my consciousness.

I had even gained an accent too. All without effort.

Maybe it was because I grew up with Latin roots. Possibly my fluent Spanish speaking abilities helped me in not feeling alienated by the culture and city's fast paced life style.

It definitely came in handy when I was conducting interviews and/or when I was getting around through the city.

One thing is for sure, it is a city that never sleeps. The food in Paris was the best I had tasted in a while.

Even a loaf of bread tasted more real. U.S. grocery stores have nothing on France.

It's amazing what a little traveling can make you realize. It allowed me to understand how others live, work and still manage to have time to play.

If only the U.S. was more like this.

If anything this trip to Paris confirmed to me my desire to venture on to distant and familiar lands and learn more about the people who inhabit them.

Paris struck me as a place I would like to visit again and maybe even live there one day myself.

Luckily, according to legend, I might have that chance to return to Paris, since I touched the star outside of Notre Dame on my first night in Paris.

So maybe my return will mean inspiration not just in waves but random as love at first sight.

Carlos A. Moreno
Photographer
Photojournalism