Playing catch up

Well, I guess the rest of the Loire Valley won't get blogged in detail. Basically, we went to the Loire Valley, had a lovely dinner at our château hotel, and the next couple of days looked around some more serious châteaux, of which some were closed for construction (Saumur, Chinon) and some were open (Azay-le-Rideau, Chenonceaux). Real castles with real moats! The reader is referred to the the photo set for more of an idea of what we saw. We got a stellar VIP tour of a winery, Bouvet-Ladubay, and they gave us each a bottle of sparkling wine to take with us. I chose the rosé, and (note the segue here) we had some the other day for my birthday.



And all in all, I had a very nice birthday! I talked to my family on the phone. JD went way out of control, in the nicest way, getting me a pretty cherry-red purse large enough to put my computer in, and a massage at a super-chouette-fancy place by Pont Neuf, not to mention a Hello Kitty keychain, a book about zen, and the Feist CD I had wanted. AND he got me flowers. AND an apple tart that he put candles in and the two of us ate the WHOLE THING for lunch.

In the evening we saw N and A and Js, drank the rosé (ooh, and Js brought me a bottle of Veuve Cliquot that is waiting in the fridge for next weekend!), and had dinner in the 11th on the other side of Bastille.