Michael and I got to visit with another great friend of ours from DC this past weekend - the lovely Natalie! It was fab to catch up with her as she stopped by a few days in Paris before heading to Barcelona to catch up with good friends. We worked with Natalie for a few years before moving to Paris, and actually lived in the same neighborhood in Old Town Alexandria. Natalie was also the goddess who brought lunch and champagne to the ladies getting ready on our wedding day as I was getting my primp on - she's that kind of awesome person. I'm not going to document Natalie's weekend visit in only one post this time, but will break it up over two memorable adventures, which are too different to include in one entry. Before diving into our great weekend adventures, I must first introduce you to Natalie's new French boyfriend... Love at first sight!
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When the first fine days arrive, when the earth awakens and clothes itself in green, when the warm, scented air caresses your skin, fills your lungs, and seems to reach your very heart, you feel a vague yearning for an unknown happiness, an urge to run about, to wander at random, to look for adventure and gulp down deep draughts of spring. - Guy Maupassant
Michael and I got to spend an evening earlier this month with this lovely and happy couple! John and Mai recently became engaged and were traveling around Europe for a few weeks. Lucky for us, they made a stop through Paris and met us for dinner in our neighborhood.
Michael and I met John in 2011 in Hawaii, when we all worked together and survived the insanely busy/stressful APEC Honolulu summit (where they still live). It was excellent to catch up with John and to meet Mai. I have to say though, after having survived our second Parisian winter that can only be described as a cloudy-mass-of-freezing-rain-vortex-of-gloom, I only wish they had brought the excellent Hawaiian weather to accompany their smiling faces and good company :) To celebrate Easter this year, we attended a service at the American Church in Paris. The Easter service is absolutely beautiful, complete with full adult and children's choirs, handbells, trumpets, and a rousing rendition of Handel's Messiah to wrap it all up. After church, we packed a picnic, grabbed a few chai lattes from Starbucks, and headed to the Seine for a thoroughly American Easter "brunch". Today was the first day in a long time that we woke up to solidly blue skies without a drop of rain in sight.
A brocante market was in full swing on the quay across the river, so we headed over to browse through the lost treasures to see if something called our names. Today it did not - or at least not for the right price - and the stroll through the market was worth the view. So this was an exciting week... REBECCA AND CASEY CAME TO VISIT!!! I have been friends with these lovely ladies for 10+ years, from our good old days as poor grad students at Georgetown and NYU. Rebecca and I were roommates in DC, and we went on the same summer program through NYU to Hong Kong and Beijing in 2005, where we met Casey, cementing our friendship over a walk through a landfill in Macau. We all live much more glamorous lives these days ;) We have never all three lived in the same city, and it's been nine years since Rebecca headed back to California, leaving us respectively living in the Bay Area, New York, and DC/Paris. I am so lucky to call these ladies my friends. Other than the all-important task of catching up, we took to the rainy streets of Paris to do a bit of sight-seeing... Riding... Eating... And best of all... celebrating Casey's birthday at the magical land of Disneyland Paris! Their trip went way too fast, as it always does. But we banked another excellent visit, with some great memories (and photos) to show for it.
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AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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