Monday, May 11, 2009

Birthday Extravaganza!




Yesterday was my (Carla) 25th birthday. The day was a perfect Parisian birthday, with a little American action movie thrown in. In the morning, Bobby went to the local boulangerie and picked up deux pain au chocolat. Quick lecture: I posted on Facebook that I would be eating a pain chocolat, and many people asked me if the chocolate was painful. Silly people: pain is French for bread. A pain au chocolat is like a chocolate croissant, but rectangle-shaped. It is delicious!


Moving on: Bobby brought back the pain au chocolat and made us a pot of tea. While eating our pastries and drinking tea, I opened the birthday cards I've received from my family. I also found the present Bobby had hid in my purse (Bobby likes to hide my presents) and opened it, to discover a beautiful pair of earrings! Bobby picked a beautiful cut and setting; I love my new bling!

After our breakfast, Bobby did a some work while I read in bed. After our lunch at home, Bobby took me on 'a walk'. As a child, whenever Jordan (my younger brother) or I misbehaved in a public place, we were always threatened with 'taking a walk' with my father. This 'walk' involved a stern talking to, and because of this, whenever someone asks if I want to go on a walk, I assume I'm in trouble. The walk Bobby took me on held no such threat, though. We stopped at a café and ordered our favorite cafés cremes, and people watched as we sat on the side-walk. The pink-haired lady is one of the people we watched.
We then found a cooking store that Bobby had hoped would be open, but alas, it was closed. Bobby then revealed my second present: a cast-iron crêpe pan! These pans are especially made for cooking perfectly flat and crisp crêpes, and we've been talking about purchasing one. Now we can make our own crêpes at home!

After our cafés and cooking store search, we decided to look at one more cooking store in the Les Halles area of Paris. This cooking store is huge and has more pans and kitchen gadgets and gizmos that you can imagine. We took the metro to the Les Halles area, walked for 30 minutes trying to find the place, found it closed, then walked around the area for a bit longer. We stopped at the Irish pub McBrides (Irish pubs in Europe are always filled with Irish people! We met our Irish friends there while they were visiting Paris, and while there, they saw 3 people they knew from Ireland) where Bobby enjoyed a pint of Guinness and I enjoyed a 1/2 pint of Magners cider. We then walked from the pub (near the Pompidou Centre) to the movie theater, which was near Opéra. We watched Wolverine (not a French word, just an italisized movie title) in the largest movie theater I've seen in Paris!


After the movie, we walked to our favorite Japanese restaurant where we ate Yakisoba, Japanese beef curry, and gyoza. From the restaurant, we headed for the Latin Quarter, walking past the Louvre and Notre Dame. Despite the light drizzle, it was a nice temperature out and the night was not yet fully dark (it stays light out till nearly 10 now). In the Latin Quarter we stopped for gelato and sorbet at Amorino. I love this place because you can get 2 or 3 flavors for only 3 euros. Bobby got 2 gelato flavors: pistache (pistachio) and crème caramel (vanilla with caramel). I got three sorbets: fraise (strawberry), framboise (raspberry), and mangue (mango). It was the perfect end to a perfect birthday!

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