This photo comes from a trip I made to Paris for Christmas in 2009. I met my family in Paris to celebrate the holiday with our friends in France and then continued on for New Years with my first trip to the Middle East. The entire trip was magical.

France is old enough that even their massive apartment buildings are beautiful. This building is particularly beautiful as it sits in the heart of Paris and across La Seine, a 482 mile long commercial-use river that winds its way through the north of France.

There is something about the crisp French air while eating an almond croissant at a café that makes Christmas in Paris something so romantic you feel you must be stuck in some old Hollywood film. I have not been back to France since that trip but it’s a place I think about revisiting more and more all the time. Perhaps someday I’ll make some great leap of faith and move to France. Crazier things have happened.