This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sarah Pardi, 35, who moved to Paris in 2023. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. I've been obsessed with France for as long as I can remember. I don't even know where it started — there aren't any French people in my family. Maybe I saw a movie about it as a kid. But I grew up very poor, so I wasn't sure how I'd ever make it happen. When I turned 18, I was like, "Okay, I'm going to figure out how to start traveling ."