Last weekend, February 7-8, we traveled to Paris to celebrate Annie and Alexandre's birthdays. Of course, we have virtually no pictures of the celebrations... all pictures are simply of Henry. Click here to see those pictures. You will see that Henry is particularly handsome in his superman outfit.
We drove into Paris late Friday night, which proved much easier than the prior weekend, when we drove in on a Saturday morning. The drive wasn't too bad; I made sandwiches of brie to eat in the car for dinner.
We woke up on Saturday morning to snow flurries: pretty, but not exactly strolling-around-Paris-with-Henry weather. Nonetheless, Raph and his father braved the cold to go get Raph's suit jackets tailored (since we don't exactly know a reputable tailor in Luxembourg...). We had a nice lunch at home, including some bubbly to toast Annie's birthday.
Eventually, the weather improved a bit, so we decided to go out and try to find some soccer shoes for Raphael. Why soccer shoes in the middle of winter? Raphael has joined the (indoor) soccer club at his work! So, although we are in Paris-- city of the Louvre, the Seine, L'Opera, Les Jardins Tuileries, etc.-- being the dutiful wife that I am, I agreed to go to Raphael's favorite Paris store: Decathalon. For those who don't know, Decathalon is the equivalent of a Dick's Sporting Goods. Unfortunately, Decathalon, didn't have les chausseurs de foot interior (indoor soccer shoes), so we then took the metro across town to the Champs Elysee, where we went to the Paris St. Germain store, which is the official store of the Paris soccer team, and is equally near and dear to Raphael's heart. Fortunately, PSG (paris st. germain) was having les Soldes (sales), and we were able to find a pair of shoes that not only fit and were reasonably priced, but are also quite stylish.
From my perspective, Saturday night was an improvement from the soccer shoe shopping, as we had reservations at a nice restaurant, La Cigale Recamier, whose speciality is souffles. If you wanted, you could have a souffle appetizer, a souffle main course, and souffle dessert! I settled for appetizer (cheese souffle) and dessert (chocolate souffle), with a steak au poivre for the main course. I have had souffles before, but these souffles were so heavenly, fluffy, and perfect, they were like another food category altogether. While my choices were somewhat pedestrian (cheese and chocolate), for appetizers, Robert and Raphael took a souffle with camembert au lait cru, avec l'huile des truffes (raw milk camembert, with truffle oil), and for dessert, Annie and Robert took a souffle where they were required to pour some kind of alcohol into the middle of the souffle. Yum! Henry behaved fairly well at the restaurant, although at one point he made it clear that he wanted to sit at the table with the adults! (there is a picture of this included in the photos above).
On Sunday, we celebrated Alexandre's 33rd birthday with brunch at another restaurant, Les Editeurs. Alexandre's parents were there, as well as his sister and her fiance, Celine and Jeremie, (who are getting married July 4th weekend in Burgundy, the same region where Joanna and Alexandre were married). And, speaking of birthdays, Jeremie and I discovered that we have the same exact birthday! We will both turn 30 this March 23rd! What I find particularly satisfying about this discovery is that Jeremie and I are symmetrical on the Cohen-Dussaucy family tree: I am married to Raphael, who is the brother of Joanna, while Jeremie (will be) married to Celine, who is the sister of Alexandre. Interestingly, Jeremie detests celebrating his birthday, (whereas you know I love to celebrate mine), so we have jokingly decided that I will have a birthday party in Paris, to which I will invite all his friends. This could work out well, since none of my friends will be here to celebrate with me.
So, voila... there you have it- our weekend in Paris.
Next post will be some pictures of Henry during the week, followed by pictures from our trip to Trier, Germany on Valentines day.
