My fabulous birthday party

My oh la la Parisian party at Diane's. Wait until you see what's inside the party favor box...
A small Tour Eiffel, a red beret, an Edith Piaf CD, a small champagne bottle ornament and Lindt truffles!

Birthday at the Buckeye with gal pals

Veuve Clicquot with Sandy

Happy birthday to me

Actually, it's not my birthday anymore because it's after midnight... It's nice to be home. Here's a picture of the view we had from our little apartment in Paris. You can see the Eiffel tower in the back through the haze.

Bright colors are in!

Lots of bright colors this year, lime greens, coral, orange, fushia and teals. Lots of linens too, fur trims, patchwork, oversized knits, needlepoint, pompoms, pleats and texture, texture, texture!

Maison et Objet

Here's one of the booth at the trade show. Bohemian is big in the "ethnic chic" part of the show.

Avenue de Friedland

And here he is!

La tour Eiffel at night

Alex and I took the stairs up to the second floor. Amazing view!

Jardins du Luxembourg

After seiing the "Cezanne et Paris" exhibit at the musee du Luxembourg, a little stroll in the gardens.

Old uncle Jack!

A stroll through the Pere Lachaise side cemetery

Home to a lot of celebrities like Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrisson

Petit dejeuner

This morning I went to get fresh croissants and viennoiseries at the "Flute Gana", apparently one of the best bakeries of Paris. Pretty amazing indeed! Hope they are open tomorrow...

Window display

At Galeries Lafayettes Maison.

Galleries Lafayettes

A little shopping at the Galeries Lafayettes on a rainy day after an amazing art exhibit on the Expressionism movement at the Pinacotheque de Paris.

Chocolat chaud at Angelina's

A classic in Paris, the chocolate chaud and Mont Blanc at La Maison Angelina. It's like melting a bar of very expensive chocolate and pouring it in a cup and adding fresh whipped cream in top.The mont blanc is their signature dessert. It's meringue with whipped cream and chestnut cream vermicelli on top. After that I went I to a sugar coma and I haven't quite recovered yet.

Photo collage

Took this picture of a window display in Montmartre. Totally reminded me of one of my friend's Diane beeswax collage or a photoshop montage..

Moulin Rouge!

In Pigalle

Dave's own bakery in Paris

An old family tradition...

A stroll through Montmartre

Place du Tertre in Montmartre

McDonalds in Paris

We definitely don't have that version of McDonalds at home...McCafe with French macarons and fancy pastries?

Paris!

We had to show Alex the tour Eiffel. Unfortunately it was closed today so we'll have to go back if we want to go up to the top.

TGV from Annecy to Paris

First class tickets for only $10 more? We went for it. You can get this deal if you buy your tickets a few days in advance. It was sweet! The train is such a civilized way to travel. Of course we had lunch and cocktails in the Bar car too, did you expect anything less?

Raclette et tartiflette au Lilas Rose!

Alex went into a cheese coma last night after his "all you can eat" raclette dinner. Dave and I had tartiflette, a mix of reblochon, potatoes, cream, onions and lardons.

Visite au chateau d'Annecy

Castle from the 13th century. This is the view from one of the window. The old panes feel almost like stained glass.

Brrrrr!

Annecy is beautiful but pretty cold at this time of year.

Annecy sur le bord du Lac

Vin chaud!

This is what we do every afternoon! They sell hot mulled wine on the street everywhere, how civilized. The one we had today was flavored with "myrtille de savoie" (blueberries). Delicious!

B. Meyer

Le chocolatier d'Annecy and it's little snowman army. Bought one but too pretty to eat. I am sure I will succumb at some point.

Annecy!

As nice as I remember... Annecy is such a great little town by the lake. No more snow on the ground here but we are still surrounded by snowy peaks.

Last day in St-Martin

It's time to say goodby to our little village. Tomorrow we take the train to Annecy.

How do you keep a flower box in the snow?

Just use pine, spruce and Christmas tree branches, a few lighted branches and voila! Looks great.

Visit to the village of Les Allues

Today we took the cable car and chair lift without our skis and strolled through the villages of Meribel and Les Allues. Much faster to travel over the mountain than to go around.

And dessert

They call this "café gourmand". If it's on the menu, I usually order it. It's espresso with 4 mini dessert bouchées. Clever idea, and delicious! So all that and 2 glasses of wine and we are going back skiing...but maybe a little slower.

Main course

Magret de canard avec purée de pomme de terre ( in the little mason jar, cute idea) et ratatouille.

Lunch on the slopes

Today we had lunch at the top of Mont de la chambre at a little chalet restaurant right on the slopes. The dining experience is a little more sophisticated out here than in Tahoe. This was the appetizer.

Lunch at 10,000 feet

On top of la cime Caron in the Val thorens ski area. Another spectacular day. You can see Italy from here.

Skiing on top of the world!

Amazing skiing today. We skied Courchevel and Meribel today. Snow was perfect and the weather was beautiful. Tons of snow. Tomorrow we'll ski Val Thorens.

Saint-Martin de Belleville

View from our little chalet. Beautiful place right on the slopes. This village is connected to the trois vallées ski area.

En route pour les Alpes

On the train to the Alps, this sign was posted on the wall. Dave was so disappointed he wasn't allowed to practice his French horn on the train. I told him he should have brought his harmonica instead.

La case de cousin Paul

Still in Lyon. Tomorrow take the train to the .Alps