Appropriately, "cliché" is a French word...

Here in Paris, sometimes every day seems like a cliché. 

One day, I might sit along the Seine at sunset and hear French accordion music while couples in love walk hand-in-hand and circles of friends strum guitars, singing and laughing; another day I might sip espresso at a sidewalk cafe watching bicycles, mopeds, and impeccably dressed Parisians with their little dogs parade down the road under a drizzly gray sky; still another day I might picnic under le tour eiffel with wine, cheese, and baguettes as the sun goes down and it's light is replaced gradually by the golden glow of the tower, glittering on the hour.

 Or hey, maybe i'll just do all of those things in ONE day, so that the next day I can watch a mime in a striped shirt, a red scarf, and a French baret pretend to be stuck inside a little box. Anyway, you get the idea. 

Before coming here, I tried to expel all romanticized notions about Paris from my mind, so that I could be entirely open to absorb this new and exciting culture for what it is. Since I have been in Paris, though, it's sometimes like I've been living in one giant daydream, and all of those romantic images of the City of Lights are a tangible reality. 

Sometimes I wonder if the city has collectively decided to just pump-up the romance and embrace and perpetuate the stereotypes to make us tourists happy...

Now, I acknowledge that many of these clichés of which I speak are deeply rooted in Parisian and French culture, but I guess I just know there must be more. I see the façade of daily life out on the streets of Paris, and though it has been poetic, romantic, and beautiful, I feel like I'm just playing along with the game, seeing what I want to and am supposed to see as an American in Paris. While I may stop by the same local boulangerie for my baguette as any local, as long as I am here in this city I will always enter a different world than would a real Parisian when I leave those cobblestone streets and am tucked within the walls of my classrooms or my apartment.  I wish I could see the a different side of the city, beyond that beautiful façade...

Now, I'm still having the most amazing journey in Paris. It's because I am already in love with the city and the way of life here that I recognize how completely unfamiliar it is to me. I want to understand it more--at least be a little less of an outsider. I imagine there's only so much picnicking and cafe-going and city strolling that one can do before it loses its charm and the novelty wears-off a bit. What I wish I could find is what makes a Parisian really fall in love with her city, because I already know what makes visitors say to Paris, "je t'aime". I want to see the culture, which I know must exist, that seems to be carefully protected from the outside world by white stone walls of stereotypes embellished with flower-filled window boxes of red romance. I want to see the culture that distracts millions of visitors with fine wine and a sparkly golden tower in order to preserve its own authenticity. I want to see the real Paris.