What a Birthday!

Early in the morning, we went to the pool. After that, I went to my Spanish Meet-up group. A friend brought a gorgeous, delicious cake. YUM!  Another person brought some delicious homemade chocolate candy. YUM! (sorry, no photo of them.) And I got a cute little tea pot gift.

When I got home, I discovered that a friend had left me a cool gift, something that I've seen and liked, and can display postcards on it.  Plus, the little girls from around the corner, had left cards, cookies and some bits of shells. How sweet is that?!

But there's more: We then went to VMFA to meet friends for lunch! I had salmon over French lentils.   The day was just gorgeous, not hot, not humid.  After lunch, we stood still and admired the sky and clouds. Like a painting, yes?  I came home and read until it was time to go to the First Friday Art Walk. We went to a few galleries and chatted with people, before heading to dinner. Yes, more eating. We met up with our niece and her husband, our son and near daughter-in-law, and had a delicious dinner at Aziza.  I had scallops that were really good.

And we couldn't leave with out having Aziza's fabulous Cream Puffs. I took a photo of one with the little replica Roman Doll that my friend had given me.  By this time, I was ready to head home, dazed in my brain, glazed over eyes, from all the good food and companionship throughout the day, from the good cheer and happy birthday wishes, exhausted by it all, happily merrily gratefully ending my day.  Lucky lucky me.

Maison Chardanoux

W & S had a restaurant recommendation from a friend. We'd planned on taking the metro, but with the strike, we figured walking was best and it turned out not to be that far away from us, maybe a mile or a tad more. It was in a neighborhood Chuck and I had never been in, east of the Bastille. The restaurant was small, Beaux Arts era (like the museum) and welcomingly warm. I took lots of photos, but these are the best. Check out the number of glasses! We had Champagne and a red wine, and a glass for water. W had escargots, which I tasted for the first time ever and, as I suspected, they weren't my favorite thing to eat. Chewy! But don't they look pretty on the plate? W said that they were very good. S had souris of agneau (lamb shank) W had lapin (rabbit) Chuck had boeuf Bourguinion and I had St. Jacques, which came with great garlicky mashed potatoes.

We had some really yummy desserts but forgot to take pictures of them before we ate them, and the photo of the afterwards was not very pleasant to look at. SO just imagine this...1) three little pots of cream in pistachio, chocolate and vanilla, 2) a little pot of vanilla ice cream with a little round chocolate cake filled with chocolate cream and 3) a millefeuille pastry with cream, chocolate and pistachios. We were happy that we had to walk "home."


If you're in the area, the restaurant is at 1, rue Jules-Vallès. Let the proprietor know we sent you.