May 16th marked our 10 year anniversary which is the tin/aluminum celebration. This sounds miserable compared to a Golden Anniversary, but it sure beats paper. So in honor of this anniversary, we hired a tin can (i.e. bought the tickets) and winged our way to the City of Lights and Lovers - Paris. Ariel and I had each been to Paris, but never together. It seemed like the thing to do.
Unlike ten years ago when we were poor and basically had the low standards of poor people, we booked a suite at the Hotel Chambiges Elysées for our weekend away and made reservations at a fabulous restaurant on the Champs Elysées called Copenhague. The room was fantastic and sumptuous (with taffeta-upholstered walls, high ceilings, and oak paneling/mouldings accenting the room) while the food was blow-your-mind delicious. A colleague at the Paris Embassy had recommended the restaurant for a special night out, but when I read that it was all Danish food, I was a bit worried. It was all Danish, interpretted by the premier French chef Georges Landriot, and we were blown away. Ariel had fois gras twice, and each time was different and wonderful. I had reindeer that was so tender and so flavourful, it melted in the mouth. It was a memorable meal.
True to our eclectic personalities, the only things that I planned were of a macabre theme, and so first we went to the Père-Lachaise cemetery -- basically a really groovy Gothic necropolis.
Coincidentally, Ariel's watch died while we were there. (We did not bury it.)
While I had been to Père-Lachaise before, neither of us had ever been to Paris' catacombs, and in my amazing planning (which included taking no books of either the travel or language variety), I only wrote down which Metro stop we were to disembark from. We wandered around and finally went back to check the neighborhood map at the Metro station to find that the entrance was directly across from the Metro station -- we had passed it repeatedly.
We walked about 500 metres through the old quarry corridors until we arrived at the ossuary where we traversed another half kilometer surrounded by bones stack 6 feet high and 10-15 feet deep.
Sacré-Coeur Basilica at Montmartre
At the top of the Eiffel Tower, having weathered a dreadful storm in the queue, we saw, not a rainbow, but a raincircle. From our vantage point, the rainbow made a complete circle. We took the stairs down.
All photos taken by me, except for the ones taken by Ariel. Special thanks to Kira for taking our kids.
4 comments:
10 years can seem like an eternity or the blink of an eye... it all depends upon perspective. I find it hard to believe that we have come so far in so short a period as 10 years, but I hope that the next 10 will be as good as those we just celebrated, if not better.
I have never had a meal so fine as the one I shared with Jenny in the Copenhague. For a few hours I was able to reach the vaunted Epicurean heights of a master chef. It was twice as good for the company I shared. I had actually tried to order frog legs as an appetizer instead of fois gras (miscommunication with the waitress), but was pleasantly surprised by the mistake, as each dish was strikingly different in both flavor and texture. I have never spent so much on a meal, but I have never been so in awe of the content either. It was a fair trade.
I don't know if visiting bones and cemeteries was the ideal way to celebrate 10 years of marriage, but it was something that I will never forget. We've never been a couple to walk the mundane paths of the everyman. Strolling around rich people's graves or seeing the stacks of bones 20 ft deep in some places was a sobering thought. I had a few moments where I remembered every bad horror story I'd read or seen and expected the skull sockets to start glowing an angry red, or a scream from someone else in the group. Luckily my momentary delusions were just that.
Although 10 years is a moment when compared in eternity's wide arc, I wouldn't trade the 10 I've had so far for anything... not even all the treasures in Paris.
Congratulations on 10 years. And in honour of those 10 years, I remind you of one of my favourite questions posed by MY dear sweetheart to you two: "So...what did you guys do last night?"
Hope your sightseeing in Paris was as lovely as your sightseeing was in DC many years ago.
First of all, you are the most fabulous photographer. Second, where is an original wedding picture?! By the way, LOVE the trench coat Jenny.
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