from paris: chronicling the more mellifluous part of this trip

Several posts about our trip are already up on NinaNet (starting here). If you've ever spent any time reading Nina's blog, you know that she really loves to post photos of food. As somebody with High Hydration Needs, I have always felt she was a little unfair about this, because she has never given drink anything like the kind of visual attention she lavishes on food. So, knowing that she was going to also be posting many photos of food from the restaurants we visited on this trip, I decided that I would make myself the official chronicler of the beverage encounters on this sojourn. Forthwith, my first dispatch:

1. Sure, Air France has free alcohol on international flights. But, if you have access to the business lounge, you don't have to wait until you actually get on the plane before you start drinking for free. Nina and I had a glass of champagne just before boarding:



2. Of course, we also took advantage of the drinks offered immediately after takeoff:



3. The second serving of wine came while Nina and I were playing chess*. Although she spent some time sentences to one of the Eastern European chess camps in a girl, Nina says she hadn't played chess in two decades; I hadn't played in something close to one. Anyway, she lasted 11 moves:



4. It's not like we were going to pass up wine with dinner. (If you've never flown Air France, by the way, be prepared for complete culture shock with the airplane food. I spontaneously shouted 'Viva La France' and started singing La Marseillaise while eating my pasta.



5. After spending something like three hours struggling with a series of delays in getting from the plane to our hotel--during which I was most certainly not singing La Marseillaise--Madeline**, Nina, and I had a carafe of white wine:



6. In a cafe in the late afternoon, I finally got a Coca-Cola. I'm not sure when the last time was that I went 24 consecutive hours with neither caffeine nor e-mail:



7. Nina selected the restaurant for dinner in part, she said, because of their attractive waiters. I didn't think they were anything to ecrire home about, but I'm not always good at judging the comeliness of members of my own set. In any case, the three of us had a bottle of burgundy:



*Also, according to Nina, the Camic family's favorite musical.

** I was the one who suggested this pseudonym, btw. Aren't I so the literary dickens?