Paris, Je t'aime

There is a moment in the film Paris, Je T'Aime when Carol (the amazing Margo Martindale) discusses the moment she fell in love with Paris. It goes a little something like this:

Sitting there, alone in a foreign country, far from my job and everyone I know, a feeling came over me. It was like remembering something I'd never known before or had always been waiting for, but I didn't know what. Maybe it was something I'd forgotten or something I've been missing all my life. All I can say is that I felt, at the same time, joy and sadness. But not too much sadness, because I felt alive. Yes, alive. That was the moment I fell in love with Paris. And I felt Paris fall in love with me. 

I have never been to Paris but in my heart I know exactly what Carol means. I have been in love with Paris since I was a little girl (oh the cliche I know). I have no idea why I focused so specifically on Paris or even exactly when it happened but traveling to Paris is one of those life dreams/goals that has always been there. Maybe it started when we moved to Louisiana and I started taking French in school (the 4th grade y'all). Of course now my French is terrible (this is what happens when you don't practice).

In my mind Paris is magical and wonderful. I envision twinkling lights, the Eiffel Tower, and smartly dressed Parisian couples walking arm in arm down the Champs Elysee. I will immediately be smarter, funnier, and more interesting the moment I land. Despite the fact that my French is terrible I will be able to order perfectly in every cafe. I will finally understand why people wear scarves unironically. I will master the art of the casual glance and wearing red lipstick without issue.

And so finally I am going to Paris. I've been saying that for years but it's finally happening. This June I will celebrate my 34th birthday in the City of Light. Well not my actual birthday - I'm going a week later. I don't know why it's taken me so long to go. I never imagined that I'd go to Rwanda before going to Paris but maybe that's the way that life is supposed to work. You end up going somewhere when you're supposed to go. Now that I've picked my dates, am about to book my flight, and am still deciding on where to stay, the planner in me has been unleashed. What to do while I'm in Paris?

Do I take a literary walking tour of the Left Bank, stopping to see Paul Verlaine's garret, the original Shakespeare & Company, and many of the haunts of Hemingway? Do I spend the day wandering Pere Lachaise visiting with Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, and Oscar Wilde? What about all the markets and cafes and cookware shopping? Did you know that I can go to store upon store and just buy cookware and cookbooks like Julia Child? What about the Eiffel Tower? Shouldn't I see it at sunset and during the day? Is it wrong that I have no desire to go to the Louvre although I know I should probably go? What about Chanel? Do they offer a tour of Paris according to Amelie? That would make my life so much easier. Decisions are the worst.

My other conundrum about this trip is what to wear. Obviously, I need a very comfortable pair of walking shoes and probably something other than jeans. Why can't I just dress like Gwyneth Paltrow in View from the Top? Because I'm not a flight attendant, can't wear hats, and look awkward in yellow. Comfort is important but so is style in the fashion capital of the world.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I have months to plan and ponder and muse about how to spend my Parisian days and what to wear while doing it. For now, I just want to channel Carol and her fanny-pack and her love of Paris. I want to imagine myself sitting in a lovely park enjoying a bright and sunny Paris afternoon. And feel the city fall in love with me as much as I have fallen in love with it.

Gwyny P and the Hulk fall in love

I love a lot of really ridiculous movies. Xanadu, The Warriors, Troop Beverly Hills come to mind. I will watch favorites over and over again and find something new to love each time. A movie just gets better with time. You know what's even better? Being able to recite the dialogue. One day this talent of mine will come in handy. I don't know when and I don't know why but it will happen.

I'm not a huge Gwyneth Paltrow fan but there is one Gwyneth Paltrow movie I adore - View From the Top (2003). When I had Netflix, I used to keep adding it back to my queue after I had just watched it, not immediately after watching it but sort of as a bonus. I usually put it between a very serious documentary and something that I had missed in the theaters.

In the tradition of my You've Got Mail post, here are the 36 things I love about this movie.

1.  Gwyneth as Donna Jensen. She's spunky and looks flawless in every the terrible outfits she has to wear. Donna Jensen doesn't annoy me at all. Sliding Doors is my all time favorite but that has more to do with John Hannah and her haircut.
2.  This is Kelly Preston's second best role of all time. The first is as the hippie mom in What a Girl Wants. Her hair may have been the inspiration for Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls.
3.  The fact that Donna had never flown before but decided to become a flight attendant anyway. It's like me deciding to become a skydiving instructor.
4.  Rob Lowe as Co-Pilot Steve. He is literally made to be a pilot.
5.  Two words: Mark Ruffalo. I can't even begin to discuss how much I love Mark Ruffalo. The Kids Are Alright is my favorite but seriously, I'll watch him in anything. And he is the greatest Bruce Banner/Hulk ever. Hulk smash! Hulk fall in love.
6. Sierra Airlines uniforms - yikes but I also feel like they're totally appropriate for the destinations they fly to and the drunks and gamblers they serve. 
7. Flight attendants have a hierarchy. Who knew? Do you think this is a real thing? Are the US Airway flight attendants "better" than the US Airways Express attendants? Is this like some bizarre version of high school?
8. Toblerone is delicious.
9. Christina Applegate is flawless and evil. She cracks me up with her hearts and awkward attempts at putting the moves on Ted.
10. Ted fixes Donna's bikini top with the twist tie from a bread bag. He is a keeper.
11. I love Candice Bergen in everything she does. She does not disappoint in this movie. She's the best fairy godmother a flight attendant could ever have.
12. The Royalty Airlines Learning Center - is this place for real? Is this how flight attendants are trained? There's a point in one scene where I swear they're filming near this frontage road that I have to drive around on every time I go to Houston for work.
13. "You put the wrong em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble." John Whitney (Mike Myers) This is way funnier when you hear him say it.
14. Ted's family and their matching sweaters - if my family every decided to wear matching sweaters I might stop coming home for the holidays.
15. Mike Myers kills me. He's normally funny (even in only okay movies) but I just love him in this one. John Whitney would have made a hilarious SNL sketch.
16. I stopped dotting my "i"s with hearts when I was about 11. Maybe I shouldn't have ever stopped.
17. Didgeridoo, Tectonic plates - word association is fun! Seriously, try it. Tectonic plates - go!
18. Sally telling the story about how she met her husband, Jack. I'm wondering how many takes it took them to get through that scene without laughing given the continual use of the phrase "warm nuts" and the cast we're dealing with. (Yes, I just became a 12 year old boy for a few minutes.)
19. Sally Weston's closet. And her shiny pants suits. I feel like Hillary Clinton might have been elected President if her pants suits had been as amazing as Sally Weston's.
20. Sally remembers a time when people dressed to fly. I don't mind so much that people wear jeans or even yoga pants when they fly. I do, however, have a problem with people who forget to wear pants at all. This happened when I flew to Hong Kong in February. A woman was wearing tights, not leggings but was treating the tights like leggings. It was not pretty.
21. Remember kids, stealing guest soap is a gateway crime. It leads to stealing airplane minis and captain's wings.
22. Donna winds up in Cleveland and meets Ted again. I don't believe things like this happen in Ohio.
23. "Cleveland is like this great big, giant waiting room and all we have to do is put in our year and wait until someone calls our number." Donna to Ted on their time in Cleveland. I'm fairly certain this is what I would feel if I lived in most parts of Ohio.
24. The ghost rider on Christine's flight is the same guy who played Jimmy Valentine in Shag. And yes, I just knew this.
25. My life might be different if I could wear hats like Donna Jensen.
26. Remember how awesome airports and air travel used to be? Good times.
27. I have to question the Donna/Christine fight sequence. There is no way that Donna was the only person on the plane or that the gate agent would have started boarding the plane without checking with her first. 
28. The yellow coat she wears in Paris. Flawless.
29. Is Paris as magical in real life as it is in the movies? I hope so. I also hope to enjoy it and be wrapped in its magic one day.
30. Donna sends postcards too!
31. I love how her apartment changes as she travels to new places. Every time I watch this movie I notice something new that gets added. This time around, I noticed the lantern.
32. "We learn to always keep smiling even when we're out of Bloody Mary mix." Thank you, Sally Weston
33. "Welcome to New York, where the local time is 7:13 a.m. I'd like to personally thank you for flying with us today, and to remind you that the last one off the plane has to clean it." Another Sally Weston gem. Can you imagine if this was true?
34. I don't want to ruin the movie for you so I won't tell you what Donna becomes at the end but let's just say it's amazing. She's pretty rock star.
35. The random dance sequence right before the credits.Why don't more movies have an extraneous but awesome dance sequence?
36. As Sally Weston reminds us, every pilot needs a co-pilot. 

It totally made my day when I just happened upon this movie on Movieplex. I guess sometimes cable is worth it.