Today is one of my favorite days of the year! Today is the day my beautiful boy was born. Happy Birthday, Thomas! I love you!

Joyeux Anniversaire, Thomas! Je t’aime! Je te fêterai toute la journee!

I’m so proud!

Last night I had dinner with my beautiful friend from India. We had decided to meet and talk about our trip to Giverny. We’re both artists, (painters, designers, in many mediums), and in fact she is a fashion designer. So about 90 minutes into our rendez-vous, and half of a bottle of wine later, we hadn’t said one word about Monet’s garden. We’d been chatting nonstop since we met on the corner, and both completely forgot why we were meeting. This is what happens when you get two artists together to make plans.

As we shared an insanely delicious chocolate mousse, which paired perfectly with our dry red wine, we hurriedly looked at our phones for train schedules and fares. We were going to, what? Figure it all out in 15 minutes? Next thing you know, Ruchi said, I’ve always wanted to go to Amsterdam. Me, too, I said. We talked about doing that before I leave, I reminded her. Maybe we could do Amsterdam this weekend, and Giverny next weekend, she offered.

So we continued checking the Paris train schedules and found out we could get to Amsterdam no problem, but the trains returning to Paris were completely sold out. Hmmmmm. Undaunted, Ruchi said, “We could fly!” And that’s when she found out we could fly from Paris to Amsterdam for $49. OMG, I said, we can’t NOT go at that price. (Who am I?) Wait, I said, what airline is $49? (I have standards.) Air France! Seriously? I’m in.

We laughed as we checked the weather forecast and paid our dinner bill. I was like, Ruchi, one more glass of wine and we’ll be going to Switzerland. We laughed all the way home since she recently moved into the 6th arrondissement, right around the corner from me. She’s ma voisine, maintenant, which is slightly dangerous.

I made her promise not to book anything. We’re both to do research and discuss again, over coffee, not wine.

Stay tuned.

(Life sure is different in Europe. Nelly went to Germany last weekend, and Jun just texted me from Mallorca!)