Valentine's Getaway

For Valentine's Day, C & I decided to do a little weekend getaway.  We wanted something within 1-2 hour of Paris, in a quiet area and with a cozy fireplace.  I started looking around on AirBnb and came across this adorable place.

 

We had the whole house to ourselves, and it was absolutely lovely.  There's a little river just behind it, so with the window slightly open, we could hear the water running by and a whole host of birds singing.  The covered patio on the left of the house had heaters and there was also an area for BBQing. 

The inside was adorable - the owners used very high quality materials to renovate the place, and also left a lot of the originals architecture in place - exposed beams, the fireplace, etc. There are two bedrooms upstairs (one with a bathroom), and the beds were soooo comfortable.  

I never got a chance to talk to her about it, but apparently the owner is half-American, and had mentioned her grandma had been staying there.  She must have been the American grandma then, because there were a lot of American books, magazines and products lying around (like Centrum Vitamins), so that was kind of funny and made it feel a bit more like home.  The kitchen was also extremely well-stocked and had much more than your usual rental apartment. We definitely had everything we needed to cook a nice meal.

We were mainly there to relax, but we took a nice walk around a nearby lake:

And there was also a château just down the road:

As well as a super adorable village about a 15min drive away:

The only two downsides were the breakfast (which was pretty sparse) and the cost.  This place was a bit more than we were wanting to spend, so what we did was have C sign up for AirBnb so he got an 18€ credit to use on his first rental (and as a bonus, I got an 18€ credit too).   As a side note, if you're not signed up for AirBnB yet, you can go through my link and get the same bonus offer off of your first rental here!  I haven't used AirBnB that many times yet, but so far it's been a great way to stay in some unusual spaces at a reasonable cost (and usually with more room than a hotel room).

All in all, it was an excellent spot for a relaxing getaway from Paris, and I would definitely spend another weekend there.  If you don't have a car, I think I remember seeing that she will come pick you up from the local train station for 5€/person, which I thought was a nice offer.  The place is also close to Beauvais, so it would be good for an overnight stop before a flight. 

So remember when I mentioned a Valentine's surprise? And then I promptly forgot to write about it?

C told me he'd planned my surprise for the day before we were leaving for the US. I was so busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off in the days beforehand that I barely had time to think about what it was until the day of. All I knew is that it was near Bastille, so I wasn't surprised when late that afternoon, we took the subway over there and then started walking along the quay. Just as I started wondering why we were walking into a homeless camp, we came upon a small dock. At the end of a dock was a boat. As a little background - every time we see any sort of large body of water, I go on and on about how I miss having a boat. Lakes play such a large part of life in Minnesota (they don't call it the Land of 10,000 Lakes for nothing!), and it is one of the things I miss most about the state.

I also love the Seine. It's the closest I can get to the water, and there's something about the light down there that makes it an extraordinarily magical place. So C managed to convince the Seine Authorities to lend him a boat and give me a private boat ride down the river. How awesome is that? After years of being with someone who rarely bought me gifts, I feel so lucky to be with someone who puts so much thought into what he gets me.

So off we went in our little boat - cruising down the Seine. We had the river almost completely to ourselves. How may people can say that??We drove past l'Hôtel de Ville:The Conciergerie:Until we finally reached my favorite Parisian monument, the good ol' Eiffel Tower. I've always had a special penchant for the Eiffel Tower - the Iron Lady kept me company many a night, sparkling outside of my shoebox window. Whenever I was feeling down or wondering what I was still doing in France, I'd only have to look outside and remember how many people would kill to be in my shoes.

We sat there admiring her for a while, but it was getting chilly and technically you're not supposed to stop your boat on the Seine, so we finally turned around and headed back down the other side of the Seine.

Going past all the lovers on Ile de la Cité:
Notre Dame:And arriving back at Bastille just after the sunset:Le Sigh. How did I end up with such an amazing man??

My Parisian Valentine

Yesterday was hands down the best Valentine's Day I've ever had (though maybe that's not saying much since Fab always forgot??). I had to work a little bit in the morning, but once noon rolled around, C came home with flowers and then we I headed out for a tasty lunch here. Living where we are now, it's often easy to forget we are in Paris, so I sometimes feel a bit nostalgic for my shoebox (or more so, the prime location of said shoebox in the 5th). So C thoughtfully planned out an oh-so-Parisian agenda for us.

After lunch, we walked down to Printemps and had a post-meal coffee while taking in the views of Paris, including my beloved Eiffel Tower:And then it was off to the Pont Neuf to take a ride on a bateau mouche. The sun came out, so we decided to walk along the Seine down to l'Hôtel de Ville to check out the ice skating rink.And then it was back home for champagne and a nice dinner, with C's famous sablé cookies for dessert:
The best part of the day though came afterward - the gift exchanging. C had already seen part of mine - the message d'amour*. I'd showed him a hard copy of it in the morning and he was literally speechless when he saw it. At first I thought he didn't like it because he's a fairly private person (which is why I didn't use any names), but then he said "Wait, how am I going to top this??". We'd been stopping all day long to look at different panneaux, and I was getting disappointed because mine hadn't come up yet.... My last hope was the one just across the street from our métro and by some stroke of luck, it ended up coming up just as we were exiting the station. Whew! I also got him a few books, including Dessine-moi un Parisien.

And then it was my turn - and I got one of the best gifts I've ever received. I love that C is so thoughtful with his gift-giving. What he got me is something that combines so many of the things I love. I don't mean to leave you guys hanging, but I don't think I'm going to say what it is yet - but I'll definitely write about it when the time comes. :)


*Sorry guys, for whatever reason, I'm feeling really shy about posting my message. A select few of you did guess it though!!

Squee!

Nous avons le plaisir de vous annoncer que votre message d'amour de St Valentin a été choisi. Il sera diffusé sur les 170 panneaux lumineux de la capitale, le 14 février, entre 6h et minuit. Chaque message est diffusé 20 secondes. Un total de 150 messages alterne tout au long de la journée.

Every Valentine's Day, the city of Paris offers up their electronic bulletin boards for all the amoureux. You apply online and then they choose 150 of their favorites to be run - so I was really excited yesterday when I got an email saying mine had been chosen out of over 2000 entries! C has the day off and says he has something special planned, so I wanted to do something unique for him too.

Y'all will just have to check them out and see if you can figure out which one is mine!! (Hint: It's all in French). For those not in Paris, you will be able to see them online here on the 14th.

C & I have gotten into the habit of watching American TV together once or twice a week. It's good for his English and it gives me my TV fix for the week. And as I've mentioned before, it also has the added bonus of being culturally informative. While he may not yet understand why Americans eat ice cream straight out of the carton, he at least knows that if he ever sees me doing it, he should either back slowly out of the room or come bearing flowers. Or both.

This past week, we ended up watching the Valentine's episodes of a few different shows. I could see he was confused about all the V-day talk and was just not quite grasping the importance of it in the US. So I pressed pause and explained what a big holiday (for better or for worse) it actually was. He was pretty surprised and exclaimed "You should've told me before!"

It's true, I hadn't really said anything - I was actually sort of looking forward to spending a low-key day together before I left on another work trip. I bought the fixings for an American-style brunch, sugar cookies (his fav) and then homemade pizzas at night, but that was about it. And to be honest, I'd spent so much time thinking about what to get him for Christmas and then for his 30th birthday that I just wasn't ready for another big holiday so soon. Plus Le Figaro said that only 18% of the 10,000 people they'd polled planned on celebrating V-day. So I was quite surprised when C took this new bit of knowledge very seriously. People, he got flowers AND a gift. In a continuation of his never-ending quest to make sure I'm not cold, he went out and bought quite possibly the thickest blanket I have ever seen. It is ginormous and I swear to God it weighs about 10 kg. I am hoping it will not suffocate me.

But because my apartment shoebox is so tiny, my lovely new present ended up sitting near the oven. And as I was oh-so-carefully trying to lift the pizza off the pan and onto the counter so I could cook C's pizza, the aluminum foil broke. Dumping my lovingly-prepared, heart-shaped pizza all over its shiny, new whiteness. And then all the sauce & cheese & fixings slid off the blanket and on to my beige carpet.

I only wish I was kidding.

C has not yet seen The Crazy, so I decided against freaking out and instead just set about cleaning up the giant mess. The crust was surprisingly still in one piece- but with no veggies or sauce left, I couldn't really make another pizza. I did however have plenty of cheese left, so I sprinkled some powdered garlic on the crust and covered it with mozzarella and what do you know - it turned out to be the best darn cheesy bread I've ever made. I actually liked it better than C's pizza.
The duvet however did not fare so well, and is now covered in orange splotches - anyone have any magical advice for removing tomato sauce stains?

Today marks my first ever Valentine's Day spent single since I started dating.

I'm not really sure how I feel about that.