Belated Valentine's Dinner

What great food looks like.

What great food is.

I got this wild idea in my head in January that I wanted great food.  Paris kept popping into my head and I was trying to find a way to convice Daniel that this would be a great idea. I finally found the pitch.  Paris for a Valentine's dinner. I usually get a smile on my face that is hard for Daniel to resist and I ask him for something I know he isn't going to like.  Telling him he would only have to leave work early on Friday and could be back by Monday for school and work seemed to be the right angle.  He was pretty easy to convince which proably means he was on board from the get go.  I kept trying to work my schedule out, but it wasn't working out and kept being shoved into our Spring Break. Daniel said it would be just cheaper if we combined the two.

For Spring Break I told Daniel I was tired of waiting for him to get out of school so I could do Italy and for my 30th/midish life crisis I wanted to go to Florence and see the Unbreakables by Michaelgeo.  These are unfinished works by Michaelgeo in the same museum as the David.

On Friday we got off work and boarded the flight to Paris. I was a sweet wife and gave first class to Daniel since he had a hurt back and I thought he would sleep. Instead he just enjoyed himself which was okay because I didn't sleep either.  We arrived super early into Paris and set out for our hotel. Once we got settled I then set about taking Daniel around the city.  He had taken a history class so he knew some things, but not as much as what poured out of my head.  I think he really enjoyed having breakfest near the Seine while I explained how the city was set up and where things where and how they fit into history. It was so cold that weekend we drank drinking chocolate every chance we could.  I get seriously addicted to that stuff.

I wanted to take Daniel to some really tourist spots and then to some less tourist spots.  Our first stop was St. Chapelle, less touristy, but way better than most cathedrals.  I've wanted to go there since my first time to Paris, but always have to go to Notre Dame because that is where everyone wants to go.  This cathedral is as amazing as it was described to me. It was built to house a relic (the crown of thorns? It's now in Nortre Dame).  I could 't  believe the stain glass windows. I was really cool because we got to see the restoration, so one side was an amazing brilliance of light and the other was a dingy color.

We next walked over to see Notre Dame (more touristy).  We sat through the beginning of mass, mostly because we were tired and frozen even though the church was cold as well. I think Daniel was impressed by the size, but not much else.  We donated money for a candle which ended up being a rip off because we could have done it cheaper in Florence, but hey I helped keep Notre Dame up with my donation and Daniel got to light a candle (I think he wanted to just play with the fire)

After Notre Dame we were too frozen and had to go back to our hotel and sleep off the jet lag and warm up.  By then we were too lazy to go back out and found an awesome local restaurant to eat our dinner at (see steak picture).  I had the steak and Daniel had what he called glorified funeral potatoes, but he did say they were the best he had ever had.

 

Our last day in Paris we ran around a bunch of places.  We went to the Arch de Triomphe and  got our obligatory Asian photo.  This means that Daniel has seen too many Asians and there crazy picture taking that he has to mimic them with their peace signs. This one actually turned out pretty good, but then so did our Thailand Asian photos; maybe they have something going.

 

We then made a quick stop to Rodin museum gift shop because I wanted statue that I still think about to this day (I got a book, but that's hard to display and grasp the concept)  Of course I knew it was expensive, but I didn't realize that it was $500, so I still get to dream about this statute. I was surprised at how moved Daniel was by it. I had shown him the pictures, but he was moved by the statute and I can't imagine what he would be like see the huge sculpture. 

 

Next door was the Armory and Napoleon's grave.  This was one cool place.  The French either keep EVERYTHING or steal it from others because the had an amazing about of armor and WWI and WWII paraphilia. After we went into Napoleon's chapel/grave and it was ornate! His grave is elevated so that you have look upward toward it and the you can walk around it from above so your head is bowed down to him. Therefore establishing proper respect for him even though he is dead.  He was definitely prideful.  He also was 5'7, so he was not small, but of normal height and rather tall for his day. After we visited there I dragged Daniel to a tea shop  before our train left. It was in the square where Victor Hugo's house was.  This was the coolest find.  The square was totally happening and all the locals were in the park and cafes enjoying their afternoon. It had such a relaxing, truly French energy to it. It was such a great find.  We then made our way down to the train station and took the night train to Florence.