May we be direct? Mais oui!

Let's be quick with the cold, hard facts.

Some 50,000 people fly from Seattle to Paris each year; more than 600,000 from Seattle to Europe. Microsoft's European headquarters are in Paris. Boeing has business relationships all over that region, while France is loaded with aerospace contractors.

Bon. Merci.

Now let us swoon with thoughts of waking up to café croissants and walks along the Seine. Audiences with Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir.

Air France on Monday began direct service between Seattle and Paris, which means that we Polarfleeced, socks-with-sandals suitors have finally been kissed by the scarf-and-slingback set. And not just once on each cheek.

Oh, non, mon chéri. This is a commitment. The French have had their fill of New York, Miami and Los Angeles. Now they want us. Nonstop.

"People in France are looking for a new frontier," said Air France vice president Marie-

Joseph Male. "Seattle is high-tech. It's cool."

You think so? Go on.

Anne-Marie Rosaler, a district manager who came up from San Francisco, said we have a douceur de vivre.

"A quality of life," she said. "The names here are part of our daily lives in France. Microsoft, Starbucks."

Of course, we were doing fine without the direct flight. But there was a nagging feeling that Paris wanted to keep us at arm's length, forcing us to go through London first.

Not anymore. Flight AF41 will leave Seattle every afternoon at 4:45 and arrive in Paris just in time for lunch the next day. The inaugural flight landed in Seattle on schedule Monday afternoon at 2:35 — but was spotted long before by Percy Bouloux, an Air France station manager for 45 years.

"I can recognize my planes," he shrugged, while the Port of Seattle Fire Department set off a turret salute and the pilot waved French and American flags out the cockpit window.

The airline put out a celebratory spread: Champagne. Cookies shaped like airplanes. The Bonnie Birch Band's accordion oozed "La Vie en Rose."

I felt faint. So I found a seat next to Dennis and Janet Adams, of Wallace, Idaho, who were headed to Paris for their 40th wedding anniversary.

"I didn't know until we got to the airport," Janet said, while Dennis beamed. "I thought we were going to Boise to see the grandchildren. Then I saw 'Seattle to Paris' on the tickets, and I just about died."

Harvey and Cecile Ries felt like they're getting years of their lives back. They've been flying to Paris from Seattle since 1965, and every which way but direct.

"We went through Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco," said Harvey Ries. "It was always a very arduous trip."

It was just that way for Mark Reis, the managing director of aviation for the Port, who has spent the past six years selling Air France on a Seattle flight.

"There has never been much concern on the part of Air France of the Seattle point of sale," Reis said. "They have concluded that the demand for travel to the Northwest has increased to where it is worthwhile. ... "

C'est magnifique. Like a kiss.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

See you in September.