eNewsHound

It’s easy to dream, but hard to find, and almost impossible to live, but the ones who seem to fall in love in Paris are the ones who are already from there. It doesn’t hurt, however, to hear stories of grandparents who come from different countries, sometimes Costa Rica, and nearly always Poland, and fall in love there. It’s happened more than once, and even once is reason enough to book a Paris hotel and take one’s chances. The summer is coming, and everyone who falls in love, falls in love in the summer.

Or sometimes the fall is the best time, followed by winter and spring. Paris comes alive at all of these times, which is to say the obvious. It’s not a city that’s afraid of living up to its reputation, and it’s never afraid to show there are multiple sides to it, either. There are sections of unimagined beauty, but it’s large enough to contain its opposites as well. Sometimes opposites attract, but in the case of De Beauvoir and Sartre , it’s more likely a combination of similarities that were altogether enchanting. The best philosophy students of their time, they were charmed enough by each other to spend a life together. Then they became the most important philosophers, or perhaps, as many suggest, their love child was existentialism.

Whether or not existentialism has made the world better is a matter of choice, and whether or not their curious pact served as a model or a warning is also a matter of choice. But whether the issue of mind of matter is solved is a matter of mind, and in this regard, the best love stories are filled with fire and passion, but also filled with long conversations. For any lover who ever spent an evening drinking wine, or sparkling cider, with a partner, engaged in a passionate discussion that was heard by the rising sun, De Beauvoir and Sartre were there, and the ghosts that haunt Montparnasse cemetery are still together, arguing about whether or not love is a choice.