"You know how we always said it'd be fun to move to Paris for a year? You could study study French cooking, I could write and we could picnic along the Siene and go wine-tasting in Bordeaux." -Chandler, The One Where Emma Cries
2021
"Come on, give me one reason we shouldn't," Chandler said, absently flipping through Netflix one evening. Jack and Erica, now 17, were upstairs.
Monica sighed. "I don't know. What about our jobs? The kids? The house?" She paused. "Want me to keep going?"
Chandler rolled his eyes. He got up from his BarcaLounger - a Father's Day present years ago - and moved to sit with Monica.
"I'm serious. If the kids wanted to spend a semester somewhere, we wouldn't hesitate to do everything we could to make that happen." He could see her mentally debating it. "Let's get the kids settled in college, and spend a month or two in Paris. Be home by Christmas."
"What about thanksgiving?"
Chandler scoffed. "Take the year off. The kids can come to Paris, spend their break there ." He shrugged. "I'm sure they have turkey in France."
Monica bit back a smile. "It does sound pretty great."
"Are you kidding?! It would be phénoménal!" Chandler gushed, with a terrible French accent. "A couple months of eating and drinking our way through Paris?" He leaned in closer, kissed her temple, and lowered his voice. "Spend the rainy days holed up, making love, in a tiny Parisian apartment?"
She smiled, but it quickly faded. "It would be so expensive."
Chandler sighed. "Yeah," he conceded. "But we can start putting aside money now. Cut back on a few things. We saved some money this past year, staying home the whole time." He paused and looked thoughtful. "I don't want to wait until we're too old to get around. Never mind before the kids get busy with their own lives - careers and families and everything. And we just spent the whole year in this house, just the 4 of us."
Chandler gave her puppy dog eyes. "Please, mon amour?"
Monica sighed heavily, chewed her lip -- then beamed at him.
"OK! Let's do it! Let's go to Paris!"