Lovely Paris -- if you can afford it

Mary McNamara makes Paris at Christmastime sound lovely [Paris Is Christmas, Dec. 16].

For a few glorious moments I forgot that I have two children under age 4, little money in my bank account and that there’s a terrible exchange rate.

Mary, if you would be willing to trade jobs with me, I’m sure you would be a fine high school American history teacher, and I think I could manage being a travel writer. What do you say?

Patricia Palagi

Riverside

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Thank you for your vividly descriptive story on Paris. My husband, our four children and I spent the Christmas of 1999 in Paris -- an experience forever etched on my heart. I could smell the City of Light -- as well as feel, taste and hear -- all that you described, a testimony to the beauty of the place and the opportunity to share it with others.

Ann Holmquist

Pasadena