"Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young, Who loved thee so fondly as he? He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue, And joined in thy innocent glee." -- Margaret Courtney

My Daddy left today. I had so much fun with him! He arrived in Paris on Friday, surprisingly coherent despite the jetlag. We pretty much did tourist-y things all weekend: Notre Dame, the Louvre, etc., but he told me that he liked just walking around and people-watching and taking in everything the best. It was neat to see Paris again from an outsider’s perspective – after living here for two months, I sometimes forget to notice a lot of the things that make Paris really special.
I would have to say the highlight of his visit was the dinner cruise on the Seine that we took last night, his last night in Paris. It was amazing! If you visit Paris, you must do it! (The company, for reference purposes, is called Bateaux Parisiens, and is found at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Quai Branly.) We got on a big beautiful boat and had a delicious dinner while going up and down the Seine for 2 and a half hours. (I had escargot and spinach fritters, five-pepper pan-fried beef with courgettes, and a chocolate melt with raspberry coulis for dessert. Très fancy.) Included with dinner were two bottles of wine and a kir aperitif. Very nice! They also had a singer on board who sang songs in French and English. It was so lovely. They slowed the boat down when we passed the cathedral of Notre Dame, and the lady started singing Ave Maria, and I teared up – it was so beautiful! Funny stories:
There was this guy walking around taking pictures of everyone on the boat to sell, and while he was taking pictures of a French family across the way from us, a Japanese man went up to him to ask him where the restroom was. The Japanese man tried to communicate in Japanese, then broken French, but finally had to resort to using sign language – he grabbed his crotch and jumped up and down to indicate that he had to faire le pipi, and then photographer finally understood. I’m pretty sure the French family was mortified.
Also, at the end of the cruise, they started playing disco music, and people were dancing. My dad and I went to dance, and this funny little man got out on the dance floor and was dancing like a maniac. I come from a family of very enthusiastic dancers (Barr family functions, anyone?), but I have never seen an adult get into it like this man did. It was hilarious.
While my dad was here, on Sunday night, we also had a petite degustation du vin (wine tasting) with Mme. de Billy and Jean Claude, and then my dad and I took them out to dinner. It was so fun! We had wine from Alsace and from Jean Claude’s chateau. I also, by the way, found out that Madame has a chateau as well. I saw a drawing of it, and it’s gorgeous! It amazes me how they both play it off as no big deal – I’m pretty sure if I had a chateau, I would tell everyone I knew about it and show them pictures nonstop. But, then again, that’s what makes me a gauche American…We had dinner at a lovely seafood restaurant called Auberge Dab, and Dad and Jean Claude talked politics for three hours straight. Amazingly, Jean Claude did not manage to work Rudy Giuliani into the conversation…Nonetheless, it was a great evening.
Today after my dad left, I went to the Salon du Chocolat with Blair. It was awesome!! It was basically this big chocolate convention at the Paris Expo. There were chocolatiers from all over the world with booths set up where you could get samples. I ate so much chocolate I felt sick. There was every kind of chocolate you could imagine. We had truffles, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate liqueur, dessert wine (to go with chocolate), this spicy chocolate sauce from Mexico, and so on. Blair even ate a foie gras sandwich on chocolate-dusted bread with a cacao-onion compote. A little too exotic for my tastes, but she enjoyed it! They had candy sculptures, cooking demonstrations, and even a fashion show where the models were eating chocolate on the runway. (Leave it to the French to work haute couture in there somewhere…) It was so neat.
It’s really getting scary, though. Time is passing by so fast! It wasn’t even sad when my dad left today, because I’m going to see him again in a little over a month. I really need to take advantage of the time I have left here. I really have no free weekends until the time I leave, so it’s going to start going by even faster, I think!