Each year I have to be ever-more-creative in devising ways to celebrate my 29th birthday. This is no small task considering I’ve been celebrating my 29th for several years now. Last year I had donned my sparkling tiara and followed the somewhat-expensive German tradition of taking your friends out for dinner. But this year Soenke surprised me by suggesting a weekend getaway… my ears perked up, my imagination ignited, and I wondered if “Seychelles” could qualify as a ‘weekend getaway’. ..

Soenke recommended something more along the lines of Vienna, Prague, or Barcelona. But something intangible and gripping dragged me back to Paris… the idea of taking our in-utero baby girl on her FIRST trip there… and especially the idea of baby-clothes-shopping in les Grands Magasins! < insert Soenke groaning here > … I couldn’t resist.

Friday evening of the 5th, we jetted over just in time to meet our old Paris crony James for dinner at a sushi joint. Freshly back from a month in his homeland of Australia, James was still overcoming that 80F-to-45F temperature shock and loss of anything resembling sunshine. (I can sympathize with that). After 2 years, his French is outstanding and we gaped a bit as he ordered dinner like a native.

Saturday morning dawned brightly (ok, grey-ly) with the prospect of SHOPPING. After a sleepless night on a very hard bed (I guess my EUR 82/night bargain wasn’t THAT brilliant), we both rolled over for a few more hours of painful slumber. My early-morning-flea-market vision dashed, we headed instead to the top floor of Printemps department store for a leisurely – if late - breakfast overlooking the city.

And then off to the basement floor where Baby Shopping Heaven awaited… tears of joy filled my eyes as I gazed upon the most darling pink baby clothes to grace this side of the Atlantic. I should qualify this by commenting that Germany is VERY talented at left brain design activities: airplanes (big Airbus facility in Hamburg), elevators, CARS, etc etc. But the baby clothes in Germany are some of the most unattractive and uninspired that any of us Americans have had the misfortune to lay our eyes upon. It’s our wine-swilling, art-adoring, love-making French neighbors who have fully activated their right brains and excel at the art of clothing design. I was mightily impressed.

I picked out a few faaaaaabulous items sure to make baby Sophie swoon… haute couture pink dresses from Tartine et Chocolate, a pink-rosebud-studded sweater from La Petite Ourse, and little onesies with hand-decorated collars from Le Petit Bateau. We of course couldn’t leave the building without the fur-lined pink winter coat embroidered with colorful snowflakes… although at this point Soenke suggested that “perhaps the baby would like to wear something other than PINK”, to which I looked at him thoroughly startled, as if the thought had never entered my mind. It was a good thing that I was still contemplating this serious question when the cashier rang up the total… I had only a small part of my attention available to dedicate to the utterly outrageous sum staring at me on the cash register screen… in somewhat of a shock, I obediently handed over my visa and patted my belly, as if to reassure baby “oh honey, you’re WORTH it!”

A short restorative nap back at the hotel prepared us for the next leg of our shopping marathon: house shopping at BHV. This fabulous store (that is, fabulous for its housewares departments – including affordable home décor) is surprisingly unknown among visitors. I head there for every manner of drawer pulls, fabrics, wallpaper, pre-made curtains, lamps, and more. It did not disappoint, as I discovered the 5 tiny red lampshades I had been searching for our new dining room chandelier. Soenke counted the minutes to escape, and I counted the minutes to when my visa would recover and I could come back for some proper acquisitioning…

If all that wasn’t stupendous enough, Saturday night was the absolute pinnacle of the weekend. Soenke – of his own accord – had made reservations at Le Ciel du Paris… the gorgeous restaurant on the 55th floor of the Montparnasse Tower… the scene of our first date more than 2 years ago. All tables overlook the sparkling Eiffel Tower (the sparkling lights go on every 30 minutes). We spent the evening reminiscing over the past 2 years. I rhetorically inquired “babe, did you ever imagine on our first date that we’d be back here two years later with a new house in progress and a baby on board??” He shook his head with a smile and I wondered what wonderful thing we would be celebrating two years from now when we returned for our bi-annual date!

Sunday concluded this weekend of perfection with a small breakfast while waiting for the Roissy bus to take us back to the airport. Now, I violated my #1 Rule Of Cheap Eating In Paris: never, ever, eat at a normal-looking-joint that happens to be positioned in front of a major landmark. Why? Because the prices will be inflated by about 300%. Our modest croissant-OJ-coffee breakfast overlooking the Opera Garnier cost us no less than THIRTY FOUR EUROS. No kidding. We just laughed and lugged our now-very-full carry on out the door and across to the bus….! MERCI PARIS!

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Our first stop, Au Printemps:

Admiring the view from atop the store (you can definitely see the baby now!):

The pink winter jacket:

Some pink Frenchie dresses:

Next stop, Du Pareil au Meme bebe:

This baby Taj Majal (at the BHV) we simply MUST have someday!…

I almost forgot - per Soenke’s request we also visited the Disney store on the Champs Elysees!!

Soenke doesn’t understand why we don’t yet require a Nemo and a giant Eore…

Romantic dinner atop the Montparnasse..