Thomas - Paris, my sweet : a year in the city of light (and dark chocolate)

I guess you could say my story began with a bicycle and some bonbons. At the time, it just seemed like a fun summer vacation: it was 2008, and I did an apartment swap with someone in Paris. I had already visited earlier that year, but what can I say? When the invitation to spend time in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) comes knocking, my first response is pourquoi pas?

Ive just always been one of those girls. I spent a college semester in Paris, and it was then I fell in love with the citys beauty and graceand Nutella street crepes. When I returned to the States, I wore silk scarves and a black beret; the only thing missing from my clichd uniform were the Gauloises cigarettes.

I binged on French films, schooling myself in nouvelle vague directors, falling especially hard for Eric Rohmer, before contemporary movies like The City of Lost Children and Amlie seduced me. I studied the Lost Generation, reading Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Janet Flanner, and built a mini-library so Id never be far from Paris. I had books about cats in Paris, dogs in Paris, expats in Paris; Parisian interiors, Parisian gardens, and Parisian cuisine, organized by neighborhood; bistros of Paris, ptisseries of Paris, and shopping in Paris. I became a regular at a caf in my neighborhood in San Francisco simply because it served caf au lait in little bowls instead of mugs, and I had more Eiffel Tower tchotchkes than I am comfortable admitting.

I was just another Francophile, like you. Until that summer of 2008.

That trip was the first time I was in Paris during the summer, and it was absolutely amazing. I loved that it was light out until after 10:00 p.m., giving me several extra hours to roam back-alley streets and sit by the Seine. I was excited to discover new neighborhoods like Bercy and Canal Saint-Martin and new bistronomy restaurants like Le Verre Vol and Le Comptoir du Relais. I got sucked into the semi-annual sales, les soldes , and hooked on Vlibs, the public bike-sharing system.

And then there were all the chocolatiers .

By that time, I was just as obsessed with sweets as I was Paris. I had a column in Metro newspaper called Sweet Freak and a blog by the same name. I knew every bakery, dessert bar, gelateria , tea salon, and chocolatier in New York City. When I traveled, I built my itinerary around a towns must-visit sweet spots.

So naturally during that week in Paris, I researched the citys best chocolatiers, mapped out a circuit, and then Vlibed between eight of them. It was exhilarating and exhausting, not to mention decadent. It was a chocoholics dream ride. I wrote about my Tour du Chocolat for the New York Times , and it went on to become a top-ten travel story for the year. As I was secretly plotting a way to spend more time eating chocolate in Paris, the in-house recruiter of the ad agency where I worked casually walked into my office one day and asked if I wanted to move to Paris. I was getting transferred to write copy for the iconic fashion label Louis Vuitton. It all happened so suddenly, and seemed so magical, that I had to ask: was Paris my destiny or sheer force of will?

I guess it goes to show that you just never know where life will take you. You search for answers. You wonder what it all means. You stumble, and you soar. And, if youre lucky, you make it to Paris for a while. Heres what happened when I did.

Can one question change your life? Im willing to bet a twenty-five-piece box of Jean-Paul Hvin bonbons on it.

In the fall of 2008, I was sitting in my office, living what I considered to be a pretty great life. I was single, owned a cute apartment in the East Village, and I was braving New Yorks dating scene. I had the best friends in the world and a jam-packed social calendar. I enjoyed my job as an advertising copywriter. But what I really loved were my moonlighting dalliances: exploring bakeries, dessert bars, gelaterias, and chocolate boutiques and documenting my delicious discoveries for my Sweet Freak blog and Metro newspaper column, along with other local magazines and newspapers. You could say my life was good: easy, fun, comfortable .