We had family come visit last week!
Uncle David, Aunt Ellen (from China Bee), and cousins Nancy and Richard arrived for an 8-day stay. Aunt Ellen studied French in college over 30 years ago, but this was her first time to France. We were honored to be able to host them on their first of what we hope to be many future visits to Paris. We also celebrated Uncle David's 60th Birthday while they were here.
Side note: Diapers here are really expensive. We complained about the price to my parents who must have related it to my aunt and uncle because they arrived with over 120 Huggies diapers, crammed into every nook, cranny, and fold in their suitcases! We now have a suitcase filled to overflowing with diapers... all for the little prince.
On their first day here, we took them on a walk around our neighborhood to visit our favorite haunts, including our favorite local park (Square du Temple) and the Place des Vosges.
Square du Temple
Place des Vosges
The next day, we met with Aunt Ellen's college classmate, Auntie Cynthia, who now lives in Paris with her Chinese-French husband and their two daughters. We had lunch at her house, followed by dessert at Le Train Bleu, located at Gare de Lyon.
The Belle Epoque-style restaurant had soaring ceilings painted with murals and had a clubby atmosphere. Business men in suits dined alongside well-heeled tourists. So imagine my surprise when the the waitstaff expressed great pleasure in seeing a baby in the restaurant. I was a bit nervous to bring him into such a elegant restaurant, but within minutes, we were surrounded by the staff who instantly adopted him as their own. One of our servers asked to hold him and later shared a photo of her 3-year old, Mateo. The maitre'd asked to hold him, as well, and paraded him around to the other staff near the door. I love the people in this city!
The next night, David and I hosted our first Paris dinner party for Aunt Ellen's friend, Auntie Cynthia and her family. It was a fabulous evening of comfort food, wine, champagne, cheese, bread, laughter, and fabulous little desserts.
Friday night was Uncle David's 60th Birthday! Since it was a special occasion, we wanted to take them somewhere festive and very Parisian. David chose La Coupole in the Montparnasse neighborhood, one of the grand old restaurants of Paris.
Our server, Lyes, was quite a character. He was our entertainment for the evening.
I ordered their house choucroute: various cuts of pork with sauerkraut and potatoes, cooked in Riesling wine. It was quite tasty.
Choucroute
Finally, we had fun cooking a few meals at home by gathering some ingredients at the farmers' market and assembling our own seafood platter.
We were all very sad to watch them pack up and go home. I'm not sure who had more fun on this trip, them or us.
Side note: Diapers here are really expensive. We complained about the price to my parents who must have related it to my aunt and uncle because they arrived with over 120 Huggies diapers, crammed into every nook, cranny, and fold in their suitcases! We now have a suitcase filled to overflowing with diapers... all for the little prince.
On their first day here, we took them on a walk around our neighborhood to visit our favorite haunts, including our favorite local park (Square du Temple) and the Place des Vosges.
Square du Temple
Place des Vosges
The next day, we met with Aunt Ellen's college classmate, Auntie Cynthia, who now lives in Paris with her Chinese-French husband and their two daughters. We had lunch at her house, followed by dessert at Le Train Bleu, located at Gare de Lyon.
The Belle Epoque-style restaurant had soaring ceilings painted with murals and had a clubby atmosphere. Business men in suits dined alongside well-heeled tourists. So imagine my surprise when the the waitstaff expressed great pleasure in seeing a baby in the restaurant. I was a bit nervous to bring him into such a elegant restaurant, but within minutes, we were surrounded by the staff who instantly adopted him as their own. One of our servers asked to hold him and later shared a photo of her 3-year old, Mateo. The maitre'd asked to hold him, as well, and paraded him around to the other staff near the door. I love the people in this city!
The next night, David and I hosted our first Paris dinner party for Aunt Ellen's friend, Auntie Cynthia and her family. It was a fabulous evening of comfort food, wine, champagne, cheese, bread, laughter, and fabulous little desserts.
Friday night was Uncle David's 60th Birthday! Since it was a special occasion, we wanted to take them somewhere festive and very Parisian. David chose La Coupole in the Montparnasse neighborhood, one of the grand old restaurants of Paris.
Our server, Lyes, was quite a character. He was our entertainment for the evening.
I ordered their house choucroute: various cuts of pork with sauerkraut and potatoes, cooked in Riesling wine. It was quite tasty.
Choucroute
Finally, we had fun cooking a few meals at home by gathering some ingredients at the farmers' market and assembling our own seafood platter.
We were all very sad to watch them pack up and go home. I'm not sure who had more fun on this trip, them or us.
posted by Lynna | 3:56 PM
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