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a very happy birthday
Apr. 22nd, 2008 11:24 pmProbably one of the best I ever had.
We woke up this morning an hour or so earlier than usual, but didn't actually get out of bed for another two hours, which is always a pleasant way to spend a morning! We then took the metro out to Vincennes and spent more than two hours walking around there. When Joel had come last both the tower and the chapel were under renovation so he could only walk among the grounds; today the chapel was still closed but the tower was open, so we got to go up. I got some pictures which I hope will turn out well; it's nearly impossible to get a sense of the scale of the thing, it's so tall and the moat is so close around it. It has the weirdest quality of being futuristic, for all that it's a 7 centuries old. It kept reminding me of the ivory tower in The Never Ending Story.
Afterwards we went to a little bakery across the street for lunch, we wanted something quick a simple and they had these excellent little single serving quiches. Afterwards we spent another two hours walking through the Parc Floral de Paris. Because a lot of the flowers aren't blooming yet, and most of the indoor gardens are closed, there was no admission fee, even though I would've been more than happy to pay for what we did see. The two most interesting gardens were the herbs and the medicinal plants, and then there were two great sweeps of flowers, one of hill surrounding a little lake that were covered with poppies and pansies, and another which was a garden of tulips (which we both hardly felt like we needed to see, given that I saw much larger tulip fields on the train from Amsterdam to Paris!) but the colors were gorgeous. In a few weeks time the iris section of the gardens will be blooming, and that I would certainly pay to see if I was here at that time. I love irises, and the gardens they had were extensive.
After that we came back home with the potential plan of going to the Orangery or to the Babylon exhibit in the Louvre in the afternoon/evening, but the Orangery is closed on Tuesdays, and the exhibit at the Louvre is open late on Wednesdays and Fridays, so we decided we'd probably go to that tomorrow night. Not too much later we both fell asleep, and there really isn't a much better way of spending an afternoon than curled up in the arms of your beloved whom you haven't seen in too long.
For dinner we went to a little cafe down the road from Joel's place, where he's been often enough that one of the waitresses knows him. I had a steak in a green peppercorn sauce with zucchini, tomato, and onion, and he had a baked potato with sour cream, three different types of Spanish ham, and chorizo, and for dessert we both had some of the most fantastic creme brulee that I've ever had. So all in all, definitely a fantastic birthday. I rather feel like I'm on my honeymoon again.
We woke up this morning an hour or so earlier than usual, but didn't actually get out of bed for another two hours, which is always a pleasant way to spend a morning! We then took the metro out to Vincennes and spent more than two hours walking around there. When Joel had come last both the tower and the chapel were under renovation so he could only walk among the grounds; today the chapel was still closed but the tower was open, so we got to go up. I got some pictures which I hope will turn out well; it's nearly impossible to get a sense of the scale of the thing, it's so tall and the moat is so close around it. It has the weirdest quality of being futuristic, for all that it's a 7 centuries old. It kept reminding me of the ivory tower in The Never Ending Story.
Afterwards we went to a little bakery across the street for lunch, we wanted something quick a simple and they had these excellent little single serving quiches. Afterwards we spent another two hours walking through the Parc Floral de Paris. Because a lot of the flowers aren't blooming yet, and most of the indoor gardens are closed, there was no admission fee, even though I would've been more than happy to pay for what we did see. The two most interesting gardens were the herbs and the medicinal plants, and then there were two great sweeps of flowers, one of hill surrounding a little lake that were covered with poppies and pansies, and another which was a garden of tulips (which we both hardly felt like we needed to see, given that I saw much larger tulip fields on the train from Amsterdam to Paris!) but the colors were gorgeous. In a few weeks time the iris section of the gardens will be blooming, and that I would certainly pay to see if I was here at that time. I love irises, and the gardens they had were extensive.
After that we came back home with the potential plan of going to the Orangery or to the Babylon exhibit in the Louvre in the afternoon/evening, but the Orangery is closed on Tuesdays, and the exhibit at the Louvre is open late on Wednesdays and Fridays, so we decided we'd probably go to that tomorrow night. Not too much later we both fell asleep, and there really isn't a much better way of spending an afternoon than curled up in the arms of your beloved whom you haven't seen in too long.
For dinner we went to a little cafe down the road from Joel's place, where he's been often enough that one of the waitresses knows him. I had a steak in a green peppercorn sauce with zucchini, tomato, and onion, and he had a baked potato with sour cream, three different types of Spanish ham, and chorizo, and for dessert we both had some of the most fantastic creme brulee that I've ever had. So all in all, definitely a fantastic birthday. I rather feel like I'm on my honeymoon again.
