Not that I've been to a lot of countries, but of the handful I've visited, France was the one that spoke to me the most. My husband and I went for work related reason to the Paris Air Show in 1997. I just fell in love with the pride Parisians had in their city. The attention to detail and perfection in their food, clean city. I had heard that Parisians were snobby but I didn't experience that at all - they were very polite and friendly and also I discovered very tipsy from wine consumption at 3pm every afternoon :) We actually got lost roaming through the streets the last night there and had the most amazing experience. We were a little worried that we wouldn't find our way back to our hotel before dark. Then we turned down this desolate street and this very tall Indian man dressed in white stood outside this huge hand-carved wood door. We approached him for help, but he just smiled and motioned us through the burgundy velvet curtain. Abandoning caution, we parted the curtain and walked into a candle lit room that was flickering and reflected off of a sea of crystal and silver. It was like something right out of a dream - surreal - unreal. The tall man dressed in all white, seated us at a table and like in some trance state from the beauty of this room, we obliged him. We didn't speak much French nor could we read the menu. The man just smiled and politely said, "Let me take care of you" It had to be a 6 course meal and every dish had aspects of the previous, superimposed with the next...like some kind of masterpiece created by flavors. It was like no other experience I've ever had before and probably never will again. The tall Indian man was also very tuned in to our silverware, placement of glass - if something was moved, he'd return and move it and say, "very important energy". We were the only ones in the restaurant and this went on for 3 hours. When we left, we were in disbelief of what we just experienced and amazingly were no longer lost....walked straight to our hotel.
I also loved that Paris allowed dogs in the stores and restaurants - they would set a table for the dogs as well with linens and porcelain plates :) And I loved the cleaning crews washing the streets with their perfectly pressed green jumpsuits :) It is a very beautiful city.
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