The Story of Paris

There is something about the telling of a story that captures our imagination.

Maybe it is the anticipation of discovering the plot and then feeling the excitement of watching it unfold.  Or maybe it is the landscapes, culture, and time frame in which the story takes place allowing us to enter into these places just for a moment.  Yet above all else, it seems to me that the characters themselves arrest us the most.  Their personalities. Their virtues. Their vices.  Their achievements and their failures.  We love the characters because deep down we know that we are taking part in our own stories.  Therefore we imagine ourselves within their roles because maybe we need to escape our own, or validate our own, or help us in our own.  Whatever the reasons might be, we know that our stories are our own.  They are personal, made only for us.

I just returned from visiting Paris for the second time.  And although it is going to take some time to fully unpack my experiences, this much I do know, I have fallen deeper in love with the city upon on my return.  It is a city of culture.  It is a city of deep history.  It is a city of faith.  It is a city where love is found in the air.  It is a city filled with millions of stories from past and present within the great story of the city itself.  And still, it awaits confidently to help write more stories in the future to whomever will visit next.

The cafés are filled with people who engage one another in dialogue…helping each other develop their stories.

The buildings and landscapes of the city house some of history’s greatest stories that have helped shape the world as we know it.

The museums attempt to articulate the stories of the past, looking no further than the Louvre.  This architectural beauty is filled with artifacts, paintings, and sculptures of man’s attempt to express their own story or that of someone else’s.

 

The old churches are beautiful steeped in not only church history but the intersection of faith and culture.  All while housing the “Greatest Story Ever Told[1]” in the person of Jesus.

In the end, I know that Paris isn’t for everyone.

Paris ain’t much of a town.

-Babe Ruth

However, Paris has helped me uncover, develop, and enhance my own story in profound ways.  And although my experiences are too personal to share, I know that my time in Paris will impact the rest of my life.

So it is for this reason, I am grateful to this wonderful city of stories.

[1] Movie about the life of Jesus Christ, 1965