Camembert on baguette! It's been far too long since I've had you! Mmm, and with a sweet Cabernet. I don't buy French wine, I wouldn't know where to start. So my wine is Californian...and my baguette is take-and-bake, because when you don't get it from a French bakery, that's as close as it gets from your average American grocery store.
I still remember the first time I had Camembert. It was my first meal in Paris. Probably on a baguette, no less. I didn't used to have expensive taste, and I would say I still don't; the cheese was on sale, b.o.g.o., which as a forever occupant of Paris trapped back in America, you can't pass up. That's European pricing! It's something Paris does to you. Not necessarily that it imparts on one a hunger for the extravagant, but rather leaves one wanting life to feel full of zest.
You might think it's cliche to eat cheese and a baguette on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower, but when you're doing it it's not.
Living in the city [Paris] just seems to make you feel alive. Life seems more beautiful (and terrible) there. It has a character of charm and romance unlike anywhere else I've been - not that I've been much of anywhere in the scheme of things. But it left a heavy mark on me; the dreamer in me always wanting to move on, feel the excitement for life the way I did when I was in Paris. To feel the enjoyment that can be in simple things like a walk, or a meal, or a commute.
In one way, it nearly ruined me for every other city - but in another it won my affections; it taught me something. Now, I seek to find the beauty in everyday life. When I go to a new city, I find what there is to admire; attempt to etch memories of that place in my mind.
Silly as it sounds, biting into a Camembert and baguette sandwich (one of the best sandwiches I've ever had), made me feel Paris again, for a second. And who wouldn't want to revisit a love lost, if it were possible?
