l'Anniversary d'Alexa

OK, I'm not sure if that's the correct spelling, but the gist is - Alexa's Birthday in Paris...

We had a lovely day to celebrate Alexa's birthday. She can now say that she heard the bells of Notre Dame, saw the Code of Hammurabi, and had "Happy Birthday" sung to her in French on her 15th birthday!

We got to Paris yesterday and, though we were tre fatigue (very exhausted) from the flight, we fought to stay awake. Well, sort of - we took a nap after lunch (on l'Avenue Hospital at a lovely Brasserie) and then headed out for the Batobus (water taxi) down the river. For those who don't know, we are staying literally ON the Seine, on a canal boat (peniche) circa late 1800s - its in the foreground with the yellow stripe.

We took the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower and got a feel for Paris along the way. We had a fun adventure 'joining' a group of Parisians looking to purchase the Batobus tickets at a discounted rate that required 20 people (and they were 3 short). So we felt like part of a crowd... which was nice because we all boarded together - a benefit when you consider that the French have a rather relaxed attitude toward lines. Had a dinner of crepes and ice cream (ya gotta love vacation food) and were home and in bed by 9:30.

Today, we celebrated l'Anniversary d'Alexa with a trip to the Louvre (I NEVER thought I'd get there and I must say that I had goosebumps when I thought about it), Notre Dame, the Shakespeare and Company bookstore (her ONE request for her birthday), and dinner at Hippopatomus in the Latin Quarter (her request for dinner). A good time was had by all (though we learned that its wise to check the bill BEFORE providing your credit card - a 25 Euro lesson as we didn't even try to resolve the bill because our waitress spoke about as much English as we spoke French - but the waitress did run out of the restaurant to give us the camera we left, which was priceless).

Now, we are headed to the terrace to watch the boats and drink the wine M. Valat (the man we are renting the boat from) gave us when we arrived - he is originally from the Loire Valley. Ben's first taste of wine (Alexa is not so adventurous).

Bon soir!