Chloe

I have a baby, her name is Chloe. No, I didn't adopt a poor French child off the street. Nor was I pregnant in the States and forced by my conservative parents to live out my third trimester hidden in a French convent...but what a story that would be.

Nevertheless, Chloe is my baby. More specifically, she is the most important purchase I have made and probably will make in Paris. She is my first designer handbag (and by designer, I don't mean Coach or even Longchamps, I mean the designers that only celebrities, socialites, and Parisians can afford), and she is beautiful.

How did Michelle with her ever-declining bank account and the awful exchange rate afford to buy Chloe, you might be asking yourself? Well, once again, Suzanne's roommate provided us with an ''in'' to the Paris fashion elite: invitations to the sneak preview Chloe 70% off sale. It was in a nondescript building, off a nondescript side street, complete with bouncers and a mandatory coat/purse check. All you can take with you is your means of payment and your shopping obsession. According to Suzanne, who went earlier in the day with the die-hards, it was practically a scene out of Confessions of a Shopaholic.

I went in, and 30 minutes later, became the proud new mama of Chloe. And my credit card only has a slight dent in it, rather than being completely out of commission.

Now I really feel like I fit in. Although I might be falling a little too fast into the Parisian attitude. Yesterday, I was on the metro on the way home from work, and a group of American tourists got on - you know the kind: parents, loud teenagers, baggy t-shirts and sneakers, looking like they just came from a Burger King in Iowa. Well, my first thought wasn't, "Oh Americans! I wonder where they're from??" It was, "Damn, Americans, get out of my way, and put on a decent outfit." Horrifying, I know!!!

I'm sure my attitude will settle down as I have 2 American visitors that arrived today. My friend Missy and her sister. I am so excited to have visitors, and I plan to retrouver (re-find) my inner American tourist and paint the town red, white and blue!