and then we found the eiffel tower.

Listening To: Uberlin by REM
Watching: rain shadows dizzy-dance down the walls. And wondering: how shadows that look like tears can possibly make me so happy. I do heart rainy days.

Paris is always a good idea. - Audrey Hepburn

Today I'm thinking about The Eiffel Tower.

I like The Eiffel Tower because it looks like steel and lace.

Sometimes it looks like a needle, poking silver stars against the sky. Sometimes it looks like an iron corset (Fact: The Eiffel Tower was steampunk before steampunk was cool). Sometimes it looks like a scrawny giant. Sometimes it looks like the skeleton of a castle.

And sometimes, The Eiffel Tower looks like thread:

That particular Eiffel Tower is Kristin's creation. Kristin, who blogs over at Sew Technicolor, has been a friend of ye olde blog since way back when I first started writing. She is a crazy-talented designer/seamstress/pattern-wizard. I've been thinking about her Eiffel Tower ever since she shared that picture over on her blog. You should take some time to sneak over to her Etsy store and look around. Cause she seriously has an eye for mixing prints. Some people do "vintage" and they seem to get lost in it. Know what I mean? But Kristin's work isn't that way. Her work is still whimsical and modern, more vintage-inspired. Her originality shines through. I'm particularly fond of her needle point.

(Note: You people are way too talented for your own good. I feel cool by association.)

I particularly adore Kristin's Eiffel Tower. I'm not necessarily a Francophile myself, but I think there's something hard-wired in a girl's heart about loving The Eiffel Tower. And this girl - the girl typing this post (who is presently wearing yoga pants I have yet to ever do yoga in) (because yoga bores me out of my ever loving mind) - likes The Eiffel Tower because it is girly and tough.

Like, tattoo-tough.

I'm too much of a wimp to ever get a tattoo (not b/c of the pain ... but because I can't imagine ever being decisive enough to pick one thing I wanted permanently inked on my person), but if I did ... I would consider getting a small Eiffel Tower on my wrist. Either that, or the word "love." But that's kind of overdone now. So maybe either The Eiffel Tower or the Auryn from Neverending Story. *waves nerd flag proudly in the air*

I think The Eiffel Tower is architecture's most notorious ink blot: a castle or a cage depending on how you see it. Or where you are when you see it.

When I see The Eiffel Tower, I think about Ernest Hemingway, about how he called Paris "a movable feast." I'm not sure what he meant by that, exactly, but my understanding is that you take Paris with you when you leave ... whether or not you want to. (Maybe Paris was his Sam's Town. Everybody needs a Sam's Town.)

And. When I see the Eiffel Tower, the non-literary, chick-flick-loving, far-yonder-corner of my brain will forever associate it with Luc and Kate.

There's this movie I like a lot (that nobody has ever heard of) - a film that came out in the 90's called French Kiss - starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline.

(I seriously came [---] that close to typing "Kevin Federline" - ha.)Meg's character, Kate, is in France trying to hunt down her smarmy fiancee (who has fallen in love with another woman) and win him back. The only person who can help her is a thief named Luc, whom she meets on the plane (not knowing he's a thief). Luc is a trouble-maker. He is also funny and charming and gypsy-handsome and troublesome for all those reasons. Kate is buttoned up. She hates to fly. Hates adventure. Hates Luc.

Then she starts to hate him less.

Then way less ...

Luc is one of the very best parts of the movie, because he totally has a little something I call: "The Darcy-Factor."

Explaining: When I first watched Pride & Prejudice, I thought ... "That's Mr. Darcy?" I didn't get it AT FIRST. Were you that way? Because I'm pretty sure Jane Austen wanted us to be that way. I'm pretty sure she was going for the very-much-opposite of love at first sight. And it was the same way, for me, when I saw Luc in French Kiss. Initially, I thought ... really? That's the love interest?! She's going to fall for Luc?

I think I was prejudiced against the heavy mustache. I like facial hair on a guy - I like it way to the much if the guy can rock it. But Luc's stache is intense. That's got to be like kissing a bristle-brush.

Where was I?

Luc!

Their relationship is the very best part of the movie. Because as she falls for Luc, you fall for Luc. And then, as you watch, you get all gushy like, "Fall for Luc! Fall for LUC!!!" Luc is entirely lovable.

Luc is hilarious and confident and tres handsome and their chemistry makes for a fab movie. Kate had zero chemistry with Charlie, the smarmy jerkbag two-timing fiancee. But Kate had spades of chemistry with Luc the thief. They had a Beatrice/Benedict thing happening. The snarky sparring was only a front for the falling-in-loving. [Due to the wide age span on here, I feel like I should mention the fact that French Kiss has some adult content. I think it's PG-13 ... but I don't remember. Skip it if you're in middle school. You wouldn't be into it anyway.]

Which brings me back to The Eiffel Tower.

Throughout the film, Kate wants to see The Eiffel Tower because that's the only Parisian thing she knows anything about. And she keeps missing it. She's on a train. You see it out the window, but Kate never looks. She's walking down a street, arguing with Luc. The Eiffel Tower rises up behind the buildings. But Kate doesn't glance back. I really like that aspect of the story. I like it because Kate learns to love a thousand other things about Paris and France besides The Eiffel Tower.

I have decided that is always the best kind of story: when you set your heart for one particular something - one person, one sight, one trip, one goal, one job, one life that you've had plotted out since you were the seasoned age of ten - and then suddenly you wake up to everything else happening along the way.

You go searching for The Eiffel Tower. But you start to realize the searching part is pretty darn incredible too. You decide maybe it's time to start showing up for the life already in progress.

Dandelions,
falling snow,
falling stars,
chance meetings,
second chances,
gum wrappers,
The Eiffel Tower.

Sunrise. Sunset. They're all beginnings, if you want them to be.

And thus ... I like The Eiffel Tower. I like the fancy one made of steel and lace and the subtle one made of thread and imagination. (Also, the imaginary tattoo-one that I'll never be brave enough to get.) The Eiffel Tower makes me think about all the places I've stitched against my heart over the years: rainy day runs through Trafalgar Square, sunrise on the farm, stars over Stratford, sunset on Prince Edward Island, sun-shadows reaching through the carport at my grandparents' house. There are dozens of other places like that, places my heart pulls me back to, usually when I'm least expecting it.


They're all my movable feasts.

I've decided that the magic I felt in those moments had very little to do with the place. London rocks my soul. But how could London not rock a person's soul? My mountains steady my heart. But mountains do that for lots of people. I can't decide what it is about those places that gets caught up inside me. Maybe those places changed me. Maybe I was very aware of how much I was changing while I was there. Maybe it's the peaceful-easy feeling that pulls me back.

Maybe those are the places where I let my heart unravel, or I dared to be a much braver version of myself. I wrote my best stories there. I shared what I wrote there. I caught a fish the size of a school bus. I watched the sun go down and I made a vow to never, ever, ever give up. I danced in the park, with a million other people that I'll never see again (while fireworks shattered the night sky), and screamed the lyrics of "Hey Jude" until I lost my voice. Take a sad song ... and make it better. (I was here. Can you find spot me in the crowd? ; )

Those are the places where - for one little slip of time - I wasn't afraid to fall in love or fall out of love or get lost on purpose. Sometimes, when you get lost on purpose, you get lucky enough to get caught up in an adventure that is quite magical.

That's why I like the idea of an Eiffel Tower tattoo: because I think it would be cool to look at my wrist, and see The Eiffel Tower, and then look around and remember the good that's already all around me. That today is the day to live it up. I want to dance this one out. I want to make a memory that sticks with me, long after the sun sets.

I want to remember that the end of the story won't be as good if I don't fill in the middle with something amazing.

I hope you go searching for The Eiffel Tower today. I hope you find something better along the way.

Here's my question for you fine folks: Is there a place you often find your thoughts wondering back to? What city (or small town) (or theme park) is your "moveable feast?" Would love to hear about it in the comments. Happy Weekending to you!