The first time Jennifer Crystal saw the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, she watched in awe as hundreds of bulbs flashed inside the monument just before midnight. Like a fireworks finale, the lights blinked faster and faster until the tower’s clock, counting down the days until the new millenium, decreased by one. “Et voilà,” said a Frenchman watching the show nearby. He flicked his wrist as if to say, “And there you have it.” This understated appreciation for the extraordinary encapsulates the five months Crystal spent studying in Paris. Detailing everything from her first glimpse of the city of light (alarmingly dark and desolate) to her first French dinner (four hours long and five stacks of crêpes wide), Et Voilà offers a unique spin on travel memoir. While many people have written about falling in love in Paris, Et Voilà is about falling in love with Paris, a non-traditional romance that touches on universal themes of coming-of-age and self-discovery. With wit and reflection, Et Voilà offers students, seasoned travelers, and homebound dreamers an intimate invitation to experience vicariously the formative, finite journey of studying abroad.