The Word for Paris is: __________.

If every city had a word, what would the word for your city be? Now I am by no means claiming Paris as “my city,” – never lived there, only been there once. But when I was thinking about cities and their essence, and what one word describes that essence – Paris’s word screamed out at me, making itself clear; while every other city’s word just sorta timidly came forward as a possibility. If that makes sense…

So what do I mean by “the word”? Well, I was watching my favorite part of Eat Pray Love recently (when she’s in Italy of course), and they started to discuss the different words associated with each city: “Stuffy” for London (I’d say expensive ha!), “Conformed” for Stockholm, and “Sex” for Rome . And by the way, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Rome, and that wasn’t the first (or second or third) thing that came to my mind, but whatevs.

But this got me thinking, if you could unequivocally describe the essence of a place in a single word, what would that one word be? Of course people experience places differently, so perhaps you and I may think of different words for a place. But do you think it’s possible to agree on a word that so perfectly encompasses the spirit of a place?

Here are a few of my votes:

• Napoli: Chaos (in a good way, if that’s possible )
• New York: Ambition (totally agree with the clip)
• Amsterdam: Free
• Los Angeles: [insert nicer word than "fake" here] Please know that I really do love L.A. though. I lived there for a minute and it was tons of fun but you gotta call ‘em like you see ‘em!
• New Orleans: Soul
• Rome: Passionate

Oh, and you want to know the word that jumped out at me for Paris? It’s the only word that describes the ability to hold a cigarette so seductively that it would make me, the anti-nicotine queen, consider a little puffy puff. That word, my friends, is….

Smoking in a Paris Nightclub

…sophisticated.

Let’s keep it going. Do you agree with any of my words? What are some words for other cities?

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