Belle Inspiration Magazine March-April 2019 FINAL COPY

ina, you’re an American in Paris. Is living in the City of
Light as exciting as it sounds? And do you think romantic
is the best way to describe her, and why?
Even after ten years of living here, I can honestly say that yes, it is
as exciting as it sounds. Paris is fascinating, and living in a different
culture means never getting bored!
And I think Paris is romantic in a broad sense. There’s so much
incredible beauty here, and the city never stops flirting whether it’s
with the alluring smell of some divine pastry or just the sparkling
reflection of light on the Seine, almost everything about Paris is
seductive.
What was your journey like from your hometown of Raleigh,
North Carolina to Paris?
Ha-ha! Complicated. I’d fallen in love with the city while on vacation,
and I’d come back a couple of times to see what it was like to be
here alone. It sounds odd to say, but I always felt very at home in
Paris – even before I could speak French. The decision to move was
relatively easy, but I didn’t have a job here, didn’t have the right to
work here, and didn’t speak the language, so making it happen was
a challenge.
The only way to do it was to come as a student, and since I needed
to learn the language anyway, I enrolled at La Sorbonne. I rented a
25 square meter studio, quit my job in the US, sold my condo and
my furniture, and didn’t sell my car until the morning I left to come
here! Although in retrospect, getting here was the easy part!
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