Love Letter to Paris
Paris has many names. The City of Lights. The City of Art. The City of Bridges. But the one that follows it everywhere is The City of Love.
And that makes you wonder - how does it feel to be single in the City of Love ?
The honest answer ? Not that nice. At least not at first.
If you are a romantic at heart, Paris can feel almost cruel. Couples kissing on the bridges, sharing desserts over tiny terrace tables and wine by the Seine. Love here is public, unapologetic, beautifully visible. Some days, it makes you smile. Some days, it makes you question your timing, your choices, your solitude.
But Paris is patient. And if you stay long enough, it starts teaching you something else.
Paris taught me how to love. First and foremost, to love myself without conditions. Without waiting. Without postponing life until someone arrives.
Coming here for the first time feels like coup de foudre - love at first sight. The kind that makes everything else fade into the background. You suddenly cannot imagine living anywhere else. You walk the streets looking at everything through the rose-colored glasses - the same way you do at the beginning of a relationship - seeing beauty everywhere, forgiving imperfections, thinking how lucky you are to have this place (or a person) in your life.
And just like any love story, the illusion slowly fades. Paris reveals its sharp edges. The loneliness. The gray days. The administrative questions you suddenly have to handle in French. The moments when magic feels distant and unreachable. You start noticing that it’s not as perfect as it felt in the beginning - not with disappointment, but with clarity. And that’s where the real love begins.
Because real love isn’t about constant enchantment. It’s about choosing - again, and again, and again. Choosing to stay. Choosing to try, even after another fail. To walk alone. To sit at a café table for one and still order dessert. To cross bridges without waiting for someone to hold your hand. To build a life with yourself at the center.
Being single in Paris (or anywhere else, really) teaches you a quiet kind of intimacy. With the city. With your thoughts. With your own presence. You learn that love doesn’t only live between two people - it lives in the morning light on Haussmann balconies, in long walks with no destination, in the freedom of belonging only to yourself.
Maybe Paris is not just the City of Love. Maybe it’s the city that teaches you how to love - deeply, imperfectly, without fear. And once you learn that, you’re never really alone here.
Locations to fall in love with Paris:
Jardin du Luxembourg
Palais Royal
Pont Alexander III
View point near Sacré-Cœur
Pont des Arts
Saint Germain
