The One In Which I Try To Answer the Obvious Questions.
The first question we usually get is, why Paris? The Gorgeous Blonde (my wife) usually responds with a quick, why not? Most people laugh, but eventually they come back around and give us a, no, but really, why Paris?
There really is no one reason. TGB and I came to the same conclusion – Paris – via very different routes. I grew up loving Hemingway and Audrey Hepburn. Both of those roads lead inevitably to Paris. Before joining the Air Force I considered going to work for the Big Mouse at Eurodisney. I still have the packet of paperwork in a box in California.
TGB went away on a school trip in High School. I am loathe to tell anyone else’s story, so I will leave it at – that trip seemed to plant a seed.
Fast forward to 2019 and a trip to Paris together and something big took hold of us. Long talks about the wonder of this city. Longer talks about love of country and service and the seeming demise of that same country at the hands of an orange troglodyte and, voila! The question we were faced with was, why are we staying in the States?
It may seem silly to inject politics into a conversation about a magical city like Paris, but it was a big part of the process for us – for me. This city wrapped it’s arms around black US Servicemen in WWI and WWII while our country treated them as second class citizens. This country has enshrined bodily autonomy for women into their constitution while ours, well, you know. And then there’s Florida.
You know Ron DeSantis is probably gonna be POTUS.
Ugh, yeah, fuck that guy.
You bet your ass politics played a role.
So we came up with a plan to move in the future. It was vague and mostly a romanticized ideal that I wasn’t sure was serious. Until TGB came home one day and said, let’s do it.
Okay. So we started our research and came up with an honest to goodness five year plan. Bought a five year calendar and everything. Nerds, we.
In January of ’22 I started my own little tech company and got to work. Year one of Five Year Plan under way!
Then in February she asked the most innocuous seeming question: why are we waiting?
Because… five year plan.
…
Because… yeah, that’s all I got.
And then my beautiful bride laid out her reasons for leaving sooner rather than later. In short, politics (see above). We have absolutely nothing tying us to FloRiDuH – no family or obligations. We are still young and vibrant enough to really lean in and enjoy Paris. And, well, IT’S FUCKING PARIS!
So the five year plan was turned into an as soon as we sell the house for an obscene profit plan.
Paris is a magical city. It is huge and diverse, it is romantic and idealized to a fault, it is amazing fucking food and inexpensive wine, it is art and grit, it is noisy as it sexy, and she is our home now.
So, I promise to tell you all about this adventure in the coming weeks with none of the politics and a lot more of the hyperbole.
I don’t know how long we will be in Paris. Maybe a year, maybe three, maybe forever. I am fairly confident that France will be home for the duration of this sweet life of ours though.
Now I am going to take my third coffee outside, light up and delicious cancer stick, and enjoy watching and listening to this gorgeous dame wake up this morning.
