Paris is the city of love. I’ve been there many times, the first time I was a freshman in high school. I’m from Belgium you see, so a Paris excursion isn’t that far. While in college, I wanted to explore the French capital with the freedom you didn’t have as a 15-year-old. I climbed the Eiffel Tower, went to Montmartre and took pictures of the Louvre. I also visited Musée d’Orsay, where a lot of impressionist paintings are being kept. But I never actually french kissed in Paris until I was 30 years old. It happened quite unexpectedly. This story is a true one, believe it or not.
The building up
I started talking with a girl in the summer of 2019. Not on tinder, but I found her on this app called kik, which offered the feature of public groups where you could meet likeminded people, in my case fellow vegans. Jessica had a cute picture of herself in the woods with her dog. She always sent ‘food porn’, incredible images of delicious vegan food, and I loved that because I am a true vegan foodie.
We ended up exchanging snapchat, since she didn’t have instagram or facebook. She was in California for the summer to spend time with her parents, but she usually lived in Seattle, in Washington state. I kept getting awesome food pictures of things she had in San Diego, and I shared some food as well. Then she left the United States for Italy where she would be doing a study exchange in Rome.
I’ll have to admit here that I just wanted to meet up with her as friends, I didn’t really have any other expectations. But a certain wise person once said that a Paris trip is never a bad idea, and I did want to check out the vegan scene in the City of Lights.
Maybe there was some tiny part of me with romantic ideas surrounding Jessica. However, I was prepared for her not being ‘into’ me, and in any case she would be fun to hang out with and try out French vegan food. I didn’t dare to flirt with her online, so we really only chatted as friends. I didn’t want things to turn awkward once we met in person.
I had mentioned a couple times I wanted to meet her halfway somewhere, maybe Paris, maybe London or possibly Berlin? She seemed open to it, so in the beginning of November I decided to book a last-minute train to Paris, after checking with her the dates she was going to be there. I also booked a bed in the same hostel, but of course not in the same room. I just figured it would be easier if we were going to spend time together (as friends!) so we wouldn’t have to search for each other too long.
My train arrived in the evening and her flight from Rome had landed in the morning, so she had some time to herself before I got there. We agreed to have dinner at 42 Degrés, a vegan raw food restaurant where everything is cooked under 42 degrees Celsius. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to check in into the hostel.
While I was waiting at the reception desk to have my ID and booking confirmed, she was sitting behind me but I didn’t realize this at the time. I went to my room to drop my stuff off, and then returned to the reception area to look for her. Finally our gazes locked eyes and we hugged each other, but this wasn’t a very uncommon greeting.
We departed from the hostel and walked towards the subway, but at first we were strolling in the wrong direction because she was talking to me while I was navigating on my phone. I did enjoy the conversation but was also nervous to be late at the restaurant. And I was the only one to have service on my phone, so I felt responsible to get us where we needed to be.
I wanted to know if the feeling flowed both ways (as the Arctic Monkeys sang in their famous song ‘Do I Wanna Know?’), because from the moment I saw her, I knew Jessica was the girl from my dreams. It really was love at first sight, I’m not kidding you. And the most amazing thing is that she felt the same way. But we were both in the dark about each other’s feelings.
I had dreamed about a phenomenon like this but never thought it possible. It seemed to only happen in movies or TV shows. Did my life turn into a movie? Was this all a set-up like in The Truman Show? Was I being played by a reality TV crew? None of that was true of course. But it just seemed so unreal.
A blur of happiness
The next two days were a blur, in a good sense. Somehow we started holding hands while walking the picturesque streets of Paris. She had never been there and was really looking forward to seeing the Arc de Triomphe. So we took a train there. Then we walked until we saw that magnificent arch. She had this polaroid camera with her, which I used to take a photo of her with the Arch in the background.
Then we were on our way again, and in a sudden urge I turned my head and kissed her on the mouth. Not just with my lips, I should add. She reciprocated, and said with a smile, “you went in”. I beamed back at her, and was lost for words but we were also still holding hands and going to our next destination. Now I knew why they called it french kissing.
