Fancy Fancy

I wore the nicest dress I brought to France last Saturday night to attend our first Parisian cocktail party.  Now, I have to admit that I don't own any 5 inch heels but actually the shoes at the party were not crazy.  The party was hosted by one of the moms from my playgroup and her husband, who is moderately high up in their country's embassy here in France.  They have a huge apartment paid for by the embassy with the expectation that they will entertain (they also have three children) so, as the mom explained, she felt like having a holiday cocktail party was practically expected. 

The first thing that differentiated this particular party from other friends' parties we have attended in the US is that there were waiters (that's right US friends, it's time to kick it up a notch).  A few came around with lovely passed hors d'oeuvres, but my favorite waiters were the ones with the champagne bottles who would just keep refilling your glass.  There were other drinks too, of course - I believe Mr. Oil enjoyed some nice Jameson as well as Guinness (can you guess the nationality of the hosts?).  But you know me - I'm a champagne girl.

Several other moms from playgroup were there, with their spouses, and we had a great time sipping champagne and not having our babies with us. Of course the next morning I remembered why the waiter refilling your glass again and again might not be such a brilliant idea when your child wakes up the next morning and wants to crawl/walk/fall all day long from the moment he arises to the moment he finally conks out.  But it wasn't raining so we went to the Marche de Richard Lenoir near Bastille. This Sunday morning marche is one of the largest in Paris and although it is true that the products are not markedly different from what we can get in our neighborhood, it's always fun to check out another marche.  Also we had warm, fresh churros - I have no idea why they sell these here but man were they good.

After the market we took the metro all the way out to La Defense - the very end of metro line 1.  I had been talking for weeks about wanting to visit a big Christmas market so I was super disappointed when we got there and it was LAME.  Lamer than lame.  Chintzy, cheesy, full of crap that even tourists don't want to buy. And why do they only play American Christmas carols?  Don't they have French Christmas songs?  I don't even celebrate Christmas and I'm annoyed.

So we ditched the Village de Noel and headed into the big mall at La Defense.  Where we learned how to have an American Sunday in Paris - go to the mall, get a Starbucks latte, and visit Toys R Us.  Yup.  And we totally own the awesomeness of this afternoon.  Just look at how much fun Baby Oil had at Toys R Us!

And just in case you had forgotten how totally fantastic France can be in her own special way, I give you this photo of a card I saw in a store yesterday.  The card is a "Congratulations on your new baby" card, but it really says oh-so-much about France:

Because all French ladies wear sexy lingerie while bottle-feeding their babies.