Day 11: Giverny, Le Jardin des Plumes, Birthday Surprise

Prepare for a ridiculously dramatic statement:  I can hardly write about Paris without feeling a wild desperation to return.  And by "wild desperation" I mean I can feel a physical ache in the central region of my chest and I ponder researching flights that leave the very next day--and then vaguely play out the childcare logistics in my mind, convincing myself that no one would really notice if I just...left.  Thus the reason I have put off finishing my blog entries on Paris.  I waver between just throwing up some photos on the blog so I can claim to be done with it...to procrastinating for months on end because I can hardly (deep breath) bear to mentally place myself there again.  With great angst, here goes nuthin'.

Day 11, Day 11.  I love you, Day 11.  What a superbly-ordered day.  Oh gosh, it hurts (deep breathing).  I can do this.

Emily, Grace, Mary Beth, Shannon and I decided to use the better part of one of our days on the trip to journey to Giverny, to the home and gardens of Claude Monet.  I really can't claim to be an art expert or to have even been significantly moved by any of Monet's paintings my entire life.  I know very little about art and I may think a work is beautiful but am rarely affected in a deep way by it--I would be more apt to swoon at a perfectly constructed thought or descriptive paragraph in a novel...or any kind of excellent food or drink...or a worship song with deep meaning.  I mostly wanted to go because of the gardens and because the thought of venturing out into the French countryside appealed greatly to me.  We hopped the morning train and in about 45 minutes we arrived at our stop.  From the train station, there are shuttle buses that regularly take visitors to Giverny (less than a ten minute drive).

Once we got inside the grounds, we went straight to the gardens and simultaneously became engulfed in gardening technicolor immersion.  Monet designed the gardens himself, which is impressive.  We posed on the footbridge, we oohed and ahhed at each different flower, we took in the scope it of it all.  I went slowly...at times wandered away from the group...I wanted to feast with my eyes.  'Twas was a bountiful meal.  This was a day of drinking from a fire hydrant of beauty.

There are a couple of paths in the garden which have a wimpy plastic chain in front of them which, for some French reason, they don't want people traveling down.  This obviously makes naturally-bent rule-breakers want to pass over the chain and do exactly that:

After we finished misbehaving in the gardens, we toured Monet's house.  Again, we weren't supposed to snap photos but seriously how was I not going to take a pic of that yellow dining room with the red checkerboard tile?  Does Alice live here with the White Rabbit?  Ahhhh, the colors, the life!!!  The blue and white kitchen with that massive black oven?  Imagine if you were a visitor and Mrs. Monet invited you into the kitchen to fix you a cup of tea?!  Fainting spells of joy!!  And then tiny details like the blue trim on those ruffled sheers gave me heart palpitations!

All those heart palpitations were really working up my appetite.  During my research for the Giverny trip, I somehow stumbled across a blog post detailing a small inn and restaurant in the area called Le Jardin des Plumes.  The writer raved about the restaurant and I believed her.  I made a lunch reservation for us and this seemed like a suitable pairing to follow our visit with Monet.  It ended up being one of the most memorable meals of the trip--pure French luncheon perfection.  Look at it.  It's Snow White's guest house.

Le Jardin des Plumes (Garden of the Feathers?) just about knocked us flat.  The 1917 house, the beauty of the dining room, the hunk of Bordier butter with its own wooden knife wedge thing that was presented with crusty-edged spongy peasant bread, the little amuse bouche course that came in single servings of what looked like hollowed-out black eggshells sitting in a little egg crate, the homemade crackers (YES) and the herbed goat cheese that quite literally evaporated over my tongue in a miraculous cheese blanket in less than four seconds, the lady with the sliver brush that rid our table of the eight crumbs which had gone astray in our groaning over the Bordier butter, JUST THE WHOLE THING.  Glory hallelujah.  

And I cannot forget to mention the teapot (above, lower right).  Let me just say this:  anytime Lesli goes to an American restaurant and orders hot tea, I wait.  I wait for it to be an unsatisfactory experience.  Water is tepid instead of piping, no teapot provided, the tea is brought to the table before my accompaniments which means my tea gets cold waiting for the server to return with my milk and honey, the server thinks that when I say "milk" I really mean cream, etc.  Tea is not that hard but so many American restaurant establishments just don't get it.  I expect to be disappointed.  And if I know a place which will simply serve tea--very hot, in a teapot, with milk and honey--I will naturally prefer that restaurant over and over again...because they do tea well.  So when Le Jardin set before me the most glorious porcelain-bodied teapot with an outer shell stainless steel top, lined with felt to keep all the heat in... I swooned all over myself.  Guy Degrenne teapots have been made in France since 1957 and Le Jardin des Plumes made a customer out of me on that divinely-appointed day.  Somehow I fit two of these suckers in my bags on the way home--only to find they are readily available on amazon.  You're welcome.

Reluctantly, we started back to the train station.  If I had it to do over again, I would've overnighted at Le Jardin des Plumes.  I have no idea what the rooms are like but who cares?  The point would be to get to eat at that restaurant once more.  Anyway, we had special dinner plans in Paris that night and our missing roommates--Claire, Jennifer and Jenny--had opted for a bike tour to Versailles but were due to join us for dinner at Le Comptoir du Relais, aka "Le Comptoir," aka quintessential French bistro/foodie paradise.  We started back to Paris.

Sadly, the Versailles women got thrown under the guillotine by someone named Louis and were unable to join us for din din.  Not really, but didn't the blog post get trés interesting for a half-second?  Their trip took longer than anticipated so it remained just the Giverny 5 for dinner.  Here are Emily and Shannon strolling by the Hôtel de Ville on our way to Le Comptoir:

We waited in line for a short while and eventually scored two tiny tables to crowd around right on the sidewalk.  Our servers were intimidating and the hustle/bustle effect was constant.  Admittedly, I was still a little satisfied as a result of Le Jardin so I wasn't starving--but my Salade Niçoise, bisque, wine and chocolate raspberry pot de crème were all magnifique!!  *kisses bunched fingertips and throws hand in the air with flair*  Sometimes if I want to have a Paris fantasy, I watch this video.  Allow me to share:  http://www.hotel-paris-relais-saint-germain.com/flash/us/

 Click on "Savour the Restaurants" and then click on "Le Comptoir" for a short transportive video.  If you're very quiet, you will hear faint cries of grief as my heart wails.  

After dinner, we Vélib'd it back to Maison 1400 like the cycling professionals we wished we were.  Every time I rode a bicycle through the streets of Paris I had a saturation of heart which felt like I was savoring everything to the maximum capacity.  It was exhilarating.  It heightened all my senses.  I felt utterly unhindered speeding through the wind--so independent, so able, so freeeeee!!!  It's probably the hardest thing I coped with not being able to do once I returned home.  Bike riding met the part of me that craves a big city and the ability to access the discovery of a place without being strapped into a large piece of machinery.  There's something so addictive about that feeling!  I think as a mother, I sometimes feel so tied to schedules, my house, my car, my people, my lists, other people's perceptions of me, expectations I have of myself...and for some reason when I was on a bike in Paris, I felt completely unchained!  I felt like the woman I am--but with the spirit of a ten year old girl!!  I've grieved the loss of that feeling ever since I boarded my plane to come home....

Action shot:  Us on the way home from dinner.  Mary Beth & Shannon got separated from us in traffic but Emily, Grace and I had pressed through victorious.  One thing we learned in our bike tours was to stick out your arm and hold your hand up to communicate "stop" and to do this to alert cars to stay back or wait for you.  Fat Tire Bike Tours affectionately refers to the move as "the palm of power."  The video depicts the exceptionally cute Emily Miller visibly bursting with pride that she had just successfully used her palm of power.  Yes.

Transcript:  {Emily enters beaming}  

(Lesli) "Awesome, I saw that palm of power!!"

(Emily) "I used it!!"

I would have been grateful to roll myself into my bed in the red toile bedroom.  The day had been so sweet.  But lo, something sweeter my way came....

I walked up into the living room where the other girls were gathered and they presented me with a gift in celebration of my birthday--as IF coming to Paris wasn't gift enough!!  When I opened the gift I found a hot pink feather boa, crazy glasses and a crepe papered, ribboned, embellished extravaganza of a birthday hat.  Beneath those things, there was a card.

I opened the card to read well wishes from all the ladies of Group 2 and there were two photos of something framed.  My eyes widened and I leaned in close to the card to examine the photos.  The photos were of a custom poster, lettered and printed by our gifted friend, Sarah Pattison of The Happy Envelope.  The poster was a result of Sarah having taken my words and having turned them into something visually beautiful.  The words were from a note I wrote on Facebook on the first Father's Day after my dad died, 2010.  It was about how my dad appreciated every little bite of his favorite foods and how I learned to savor delights from him.  I could not believe what I was seeing.  I think it was the first time I had ever seen my words in print.  My eyes filled.
    

The girls had gone in together to commission it and have it framed before they left to come on the trip.  The frame was waiting for me in Knoxville when I finally returned home after the trip and it now hangs in my kitchen (of course).  Truly one of the most meaningful gifts I have ever received.  I'm still in awe.  Girls, if you're reading this--I still can't fully wrap my head around the feeling of love I felt from all of you that night.  I know I'll always remember it.  Many, many, many thanks.

The gift was so significant to me for a hundred reasons--not the least of which was that it brought my father into the room.  To have traveled 'round the world on my 40th birthday and followed through with a life dream without being able to talk to my dad about it...in some ways this left the experience feeling incomplete.  I knew that if he were still here, he would've cheered me on to do it.  He would've acted so amazed at the concept, at me.  The man who taught me to notice and to savor and to be fascinated with food, as part of the fabric of who I am, wasn't reachable in the middle of a trip that was non-stop noticing and savoring and being fascinated with food.

I feel like this is a good time to stop and just say that CANCER SUCKS.

And with that, here are a few words from The Larry Beckham School of Food Appreciation:    

 Big time Parisian spirit-fingers and props to our friend, Sarah, and The Happy Envelope for a most excellent wordy creation with super lovely fonts, styling and meaning.  You are a wonder!!

And that's the end of Group 2!!  Well, sort of.  Jennifer, Shannon and Mary Beth would head back home the next morning and Emily, Grace, Claire and Jenny would depart Maison 1400 but had plans to stay in Paris a couple days more in a nearby hotel before leaving Paris for good.  So you haven't seen the last of them!  Group 2 moved out--and Group 3 moved in about an hour later!  More on Group 3 to come in the posts for Days 12-15 which, Lord willing, won't take another six months to churn out!!