How Did I Get This Effing Old?

Twenty-nine is not old, I guess. I'll wait a few more decades to complain, when the ratio of years to gray hairs lies in favor of the gray hairs (right now I've only got about four so I'm doing good!) I began the day playing nurse for my poor Charlie who was fully sick at this point. Then I set out to collect the supplies for my traditional birthday breakfast: Biscuits and gravy! Normally my mom would be in charge of this, but she is a b'zillion miles away. The second in line would be Chef Charlie, who was down for the count. So it was up to me. And fortunately, I managed not to screw it up even after having difficulty converting the ingredient measurements to grams instead of cups... math has never been my strong point.

Presents!

 Arterial suicide, but sooooo good!

Since I got to pick the day's outing and I'm a total nerd, we ended up at the Natural History Museum's paleontology and comparative anatomy exhibit. And it was AWESOME!!! I felt bad that Charlie was missing it because he's a nerd like me and would have loved it. Oh well, now I have an excuse to go back.

 The disturbing sculpture in the entryway. Ape vs. Man. Ape wins.

 We're not so different after all.

If you are a two-bodied piglet you can spoon yourself!

 The gang's all here.

 The only thing cooler than an armadillo is a giant one.

After the museum I took the Hutchinsons to the Champs-des-Elysées so that Emily could do some souvenir shopping. I didn't tell them beforehand and chose for us to arrive at the metro stop right next to the Arc de Triomphe.

 Surprise!

The crapola feeling was kicking in at this point so we headed home for a rest before dinner. For our evening feast I chose (wisely) for us to go to the Lebanese restaurant Beyrouth Vins et Mets. As soon as we walked in we were greeted at our table by the owner's toddler, whose name was also Tony, who came over and began to dance for us. It was pretty cute. Throughout the meal the owner was gracious and friendly and even gave us a free dish just so we could try it out. We will be back!

 Mixed emotions

Elena and Tony

Cha and Em

A groovy light and some sparkling water

Nom nom nom

Step 1 - Consume falafel.

Step 2 - Be happy!

Dessert: Mini Baklava, fruit and rice pudding

After dinner we were too full and tired to attempt to eat birthday cake so we called it a night and left the cake for breakfast. Even though he had been sick all day, Charlie went to the trouble of making a pithivier for my birthday. It's made with puff pastry and filled with almond cream and is effing delicious. 

Despite my nutritious piece of cake for breakfast, I was not feeling up for an outing, so Charlie assumed the responsibility of tour guide and took his family to one of his favorite places in Paris: E. Dehillerin, the kitchen supply store. Along the way they also attempted to go to Musée d'Orsay but were dissuaded by the ridiculously long line. However, they did make it to one of my favorite churches, Église Saint-Eustache.

The following day, despite my ever-worsening health and Charlie's barely-recovered state, we dragged our asses out of bed before dawn to visit the Louvre, home of my doppelgänger, the Mona Lisa. Despite arriving 45 minutes before opening, we were still behind about 100 people in line. By the time the doors opened there were probably 1000 waiting to get in.

 Sleepy head

 Part of the French obsession with all things Egyptian

 Palace + reflecting pools

 Zzzzzzzzz

The Louvre is designed to accommodate a billion people at once, so even though we arrived early the thousands standing in line with us got in not long after we did. The result was an instantly overwhelming experience, not only because there were so many people, but also because the place is huge and completely packed with pieces of art. It's hard for any of it to make much of an impression because it all starts to blend together.

We did our best to enjoy it, but it was hard to be around that many annoying tourists in our fragile states of health. At one point, a woman who I am pretty sure spoke Chinese (because her tour group did) fell behind her group and actually pushed me out of her way in order to run and catch up with them. Sensing that a foreign language was required to deal adequately with this situation, I accidentally defaulted to Spanish and audibly called her a "puta". She did not react, obviously.

And now for some art:

 Cha examines some medieval iconography.

 I bet they don't teach this dish at Le Cordon Bleu.

A jewel in the very small "indigenous art" section

We had planned to tour the museum for 3 hours but only made it half of the time. Our bodies could not deal with the walking, noise and crowds. I did manage to glimpse the Mona Lisa from afar and found her to be meh. The closest you can even get to the painting is about 12 feet and then there are several inches of bullet proof glass guarding her. There was also a large camera wielding crowd flipping out in front of her and I wasn't in the mood to deal with it. Anyway, it's hard for me to appreciate art at that distance. I might as well just look at pictures of it in a book.

Charlie and I called it a day and went home for a giant nap. But before we left I took a picture of the number of people standing in line for tickets inside. Apparently this was nothing compared to what it became shortly after we left. Also, outside the building the line to get into the ticketing area now extended around the perimeter of the very large plaza.

Oh, hell no.

If I ever go back there, I plan to make my visit look something like this:

Running Through the Louvre from Marie Garcia on Vimeo.

Once we had napped, we headed out for a fancy dinner courtesy of Tony and Elena. The place we chose was recommended by one of Charlie's classmates but, as we later found out, there are two restaurants with the same name and we went to the wrong one. Interestingly, it was a kosher restaurant.

Classy

Some kind of miniature spring roll

Fried chicken spring rolls. The sauce was great.

The chicken tasted freezer burnt.

Carpaccio (that's raw beef, for those of you not in the know)

Foie gras platter

Le GIANT steak

Rack of lamb

Toward the end of the meal, as the quality of the service deteriorated rapidly, we began to question whether or not this was the right restaurant. I couldn't complain too much. My giant steak was scrumptious and the dessert of strawberries and champagne sabayon were well worth the wait.

Au revoir for now.