'The Bachelor: Paris' ends with Travis Stork selecting Sarah Stone

In the end, all The Bachelor: Paris reports proved right, with bachelor Travis Stork selecting Sarah Stone, his nearby Nashville neighbor, over Moana Dixon during Monday night's two-hour finale of the ABC reality dating show's eighth edition.


"I choose you," the 33-year-old Vanderbilt Medical Center emergency room doctor told Sarah as he informed her of his decision during The Bachelor: Paris' final rose ceremony. "I'm so happy right now, because every time I'm with you it's perfect." "Travis, you are so perfect for me," the giddy 26-year-old Nashville kindergarten teacher replied.

However Travis didn't propose marriage to Sarah, opting instead -- similar to earlier bachelors Charlie O'Connell (Bachelor 7), Jesse Palmer (Bachelor 5), and Bob Guiney (Bachelor 4) -- to present her with a necklace containing the 2.2 karat diamond engagement ring that she had selected during the show's ring shopping segment.

"So this is a ring on a necklace... what it is to me is a symbol of the connection that we've found here -- you are the person that I can see myself spending my life with," Travis explained after the couple had shared a celebratory kiss and a hug (and a quiet laugh about Sarah's squeaking shoes.)

"I'm not someone who would ever make a promise to you that I can't keep, but the promise I do give you is that I am so excited to go back to Nashville and spend time with you and see where this relationship goes and I want this to work and I can't wait... I can't wait to be with you, so can I put it on?"


Sarah replied yes. "Thank you... I'm so happy right now," she gushed after Travis put the necklace around her neck. "I'm so excited, I really am.. thank you."

"When I'm with you I'm happy," Travis had told Sarah before informing her of his decision. "I definitely never expected to come over here and have feelings -- I certainly didn't expect to have feelings like this and the greatest irony is you're from Nashville because when I spend time with you I feel like I'm at home."

The Bachelor: Paris' finale began with the women's visits with Travis' family, who were flown across the ocean to the 14th-century Parisian chateau that Travis had called home during the show's filming. The event proved to be a true family affair, with Travis' two young nieces joining Travis' father, mother, sister, and brother-in-law for the visit.

Sarah met with Travis' family first and the meeting went extraordinarily well, with every member of the family -- including Travis' young nieces -- gushing about Sarah by the time their day together had ended. "You guys loved meeting Sarah and Sarah loved meeting you and it's pretty obvious to me that you couldn't have gotten along any better with her," Travis remarked to his family as they later discussed the visit. "She's a fantastic young lady, I mean just her heart and soul, she's so pure and true and genuine," Travis' father Roger gushed.

"I don't think there's any chance Moana will make a better impression [than Sarah], it will be a question of can Moana make an equally good impression." Travis admitted after discussing Sarah's visit with his family.


Unfortunately for her, Moana's visit didn't go nearly as well, with her inability to articulate her feelings for Travis causing his family to long for Sarah before their visit with the 26-year-old distribution manager from San Clemente, CA had even ended.

"It makes you realize how much you like Sarah after going through this," Travis' frustrated brother-in-law Mike vented to the rest of the adult family members after Travis and Moana snuck away for a private moment. "Hello, I'm on your side," Travis father quickly shot back. "I honestly love Moana, I want her to fit in, I want her to be able to connect with all of us [but] there was something that was tense in the room, it just didn't connect," Travis' sister Andrea explained.

"The way dinner went, it definitely emphasized that I have a connection with Moana that only her and I understand," Travis admitted after Moana's visit with his family had ended. "I wish the night had gone as smoothly with Moana as it had with Sarah." "This is a lot deeper than 'Well you know what, Roger and Donna [Travis' mother] choose Sarah so then I'm going to choose her,'" Travis lamented after his family had made clear their preference for Sarah.

Sarah shops for her The Bachelor: Paris final rose ceremony dress (photo credit ABC/Craig Sjodin.) See more The Bachelor: Paris finale pictures in our The Bachelor: Paris finale photo gallery.

Afterward, both women were surprised by individual visits from their mothers, who took them on shopping trips for potential engagement rings and final rose ceremony dresses. Travis then had his final individual dates with Sarah and Moana, setting the stage for the final rose ceremony in which each woman arrived the chateau to separately learn of Travis' final decision.

"But, if I listen to my heart, I can't choose you... I'm so sorry," Travis told Moana after gushing about their relationship and his feelings for her. "I'm really shocked. I mean I'm truthfully shocked," Moana replied after the pair shared a parting hug. "I want to explain, but there's no great explanation," Travis responded. "You will always have a piece of me I can never get back," said Moana.


Romance novel comments aside, Moana held up well until Travis was out of sight. However once she returned to the "privacy" of her limousine, her emotions quickly surfaced. "I'm emotionally devastated... I'm so shocked, at first I almost thought it was a joke," Moana, still seemingly attempting to maintain a smile, explained to the cameras inside her departing limousine. "I've just never been so vulnerable before in my life.. and so dead on, to be so wrong, and to be made such a fool," she began crying.

"To be completely convinced that your affections for someone were 100% reciprocated and to be smacked in the face... rejection like I received tonight is so hurtful and I feel like such a fool... the good girl always wins, guys like that don't marry girls like me."