Sunday, September 11, 2011

Lune de miel à Paris

My cousin Mark and his wife Julie came to Paris for their honeymoon. They were married in upstate New York just before tropical storm Irene arrived and flew out just after it had moved on. I went up to Paris to see them and spend a couple of days. I was lucky to be able to ride with our friends Evelyn and Lewis who were returning their rental car to Paris around the same time.

Mark and Julie at Le Métro café in the Place Maubert.

Mark and Julie stayed in a very nice hotel in the Latin Quarter and I had found a room in another hotel close by. Less nice, but it worked for me. Being in the same neighborhood made it easy for the three of us to meet up for our adventures. The weather turned out to be quite warm on Thursday evening, and it was downright hot on Friday and Saturday.

After I checked into my hotel, I met the Mark and Julie at their hotel and we walked to the nearby Place Maubert for a drink and to plan what we'd do in our short time together.

Mark is an artist; you might remember that I've talked about him before and that I have a print of his hanging in the house. He also works part-time in a wine shop. At the café, Mark ordered a glass of chardonnay and I ordered a glass of sauvignon. The waiter mixed them up. After one sip, we both recognized that we had the wrong glass and exchanged. We were off on the right foot.

19 comments:

  1. Meeting friends and relatives after a gap of some time is so rewarding - you have so much to catch up on. Sure you had a good time.
    Leon

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  2. Always nice to see Family.
    And that's pretty bad that a French waiter mixed up those drinks. Fred would have called the manager out. You know how sensitive the French can be.
    m.

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  3. Lucky you, having a couple of days in Paris. Although I forget that it is in fact "just up the road" from where you live !!
    That makes you pretty experienced in tasting your wine, I think ~ a lot of people would not tell the difference, especially in wines served by the glass.

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  4. What a lovely place for a honeymoon. They do look happy. I was no sooner wondering whether this was your artist cousin than you answered the question.His work seems really very good to me.

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  5. I hope they enjoyed their time in Paris :)

    The waiter probably figured, "Oh, these Americans, they won't know the difference." HA!

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  6. Judy, I'm one of the Americans that wouldn't.

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  7. A funny thing just happened :) I decided to do a google image search of Place Maubert, to remind myself what it looks like. Up popped a page with many, many pictures... I just clicked on one that caught my eye about half way down the page... and VOILÀ! It turned out to be one of YOURS from a 2009 post about the Marché at Place Maubert! Here is the link.

    The next one I randomly clicked on turned out to be of that same Le Métro Café ( here)

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  8. judy, thanks! I just went back and adjusted that post so the photos are bigger. I think it's cool that you found it like that!

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  9. Well, I'd finish that entire glass and would probably never know that my chardonnay was really a sauvignon. (I might, however, say it was an "unusual" chardonnay.) Thanks for the link to your earliest post of your cousin Mark's art. He is definitely very talented. (Does he have a website or online portfolio?)

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  10. I loved this print so much that I photographed it while I was staying with you, Boys :-)
    Bises
    Mary

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  11. I've noticed, lately, that the waiters in Paris seem to mix up the orders a lot. I wonder if that's the latest waiter in-thing?

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  12. So....you were making mountains out of mole hills?

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  13. I'd probably notice if I ordered red wine and got white. Might depend on if it was the first glass or not.

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  14. I think Lewis and I were the LUCKY ones to have you navigate our way to our hotel and the Avis rental garage;-)

    The newlyweds look like they are enjoying Paris life.

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  15. I'm so bad that once I was sipping the "coffee" I had ordered and I thought to myself, this is the weakest and worst coffee ever, just as my companion was saying words to the same effect when I realized that I had been handed her tea. I probably would make a similar mistake with wine.

    Mary in Oregon

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  16. Is it wrong for me to say your cousin is a bit of a hottie?

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  17. leon, it was a lot of fun!

    mark, I think it was an honest mistake. He was very nice.

    jean, Mark actually noticed first, and when he mentioned it, I agreed.

    kristi, he's a talented guy!

    judy, I think the waiter was trying so hard not to mix them up that he ended up mixing them up.

    chris, lol!

    mitch, he does; there's a link at the end of that post.

    mary, :)

    starman, I don't think so... and yes, I move the dirt to places where it's needed. I can't run the lawnmower through the molehills because the dirt will dull the blade.

    evelyn, it was fun!

    mary, hahaha!

    cubby, I don't think so... ;)

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