Yesterday was our sixth anniversary. We celebrated by trying to relive a bit of last year's anniversary gala (a trip to Paris) by dining at <a href="http://www.theparis.net" target="_blank">The Paris Bistro</a>. It wasn't much like the meals we had in Paris, but it was the best meal we've had out since moving here.  J. had steak au poivre with frites; I had duck confit with lentils and a roasted beet salad. Along with this we had a bottle bordeaux (the name of which I didn't bother to record); for dessert, crème brulée. 
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/cremebrulee.jpg">
<p class="caption">Crème brulée décimée</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/mirror.jpg">
<p class="caption">Anniversary mirror shot</p></p>
Everything was delicious. The menu at included a number of tempting frou-frou dishes, but we wanted food like we'd had at places like the 2 Moulins Caf&eacute;, what we came to call Parisian fast food. 
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/lalangousterie.jpg">
<p class="caption">"Parisian fast food" at La Langousterie.</p></p>
Soon after we were seated last night, three guys in black suits&mdash;one carrying a guitar, one carrying an upright bass, and one wearing a black hat&mdash;came in and stopped at the booth in front us. We'd seen these guys in back of the restaurant on our way in, warming up we discovered. The guy in the black hat announced that this was a special night for the two people in the booth (Tina and Jeff), then launched into a nice rendition of "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You." When the song was finished, Jeff stood up and&mdash;you guessed it&mdash;proposed to Tina right there. There were tears in his eyes as he told a restaurant full of strangers how much he loved Tina and appreciated all that she had seen him through. Did Tina have any choice other than to accept? I think not! It was very sweet&mdash;as I said to James, a very well-organized proposal. It made a nice accompaniment to our anniversary celebration. As the musicians were on their way out, the couple at the booth behind us stopped them and asked if they knew a particular song; apparently, that couple was also celebrating their anniversary. So we got to hear another acoustic standard (I knew the song but now don't remember what it was) before the wedding-proposal-and-anniversary-band left the restaurant. All in all, it was one of the nicest evenings I've ever spent in a restaurant. Too bad the Paris Bistro is so expensive; I could easily go there once a week.

In Paris last November, we spent most of our time in caf&eacute;s, not bistros, and only had dinner at a "restaurant" twice during the entire week. Parisian fast food, caf&eacute; fare, is not fast, but it is tasty.* Most mornings, we had our coffee at the 2 Moulins Caf&eacute;, just down the street from <a href="http://www.parisvacationapartments.com/prop.pl?6" target="_blank">the apartment we rented</a> on rue Lepic. If you've seen the movie <em>Am&eacute;lie</em>, you know the 2 Moulins as the caf&eacute; where Amelie works. The current owners don't hesitate to cash in on this fact; there's a giant movie poster on the back wall, and the caf&eacute;'s match boxes bear the tagline "Le Caf&eacute; d'Am&eacute;lie."
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<p class="caption">Caf&eacute; des 2 Moulins, rue Lepic, Paris</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/coffee2moulins.jpg">
<p class="caption">Typical "breakfast" at the 2 Moulins</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/stopcluny.jpg">
<p class="caption">The real Parisian fast food (crepes&mdash;note huge jars of Nutella) out the window of the Stop Cluny.</p>
We spent so much time sitting in caf&eacute;s, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and eating, that we hardly got to any of the popular tourist destinations. Fine with me, as I was on an expat, "lost generation" kick, traipsing around to caf&eacute;s once frequented by the likes of Ernest Hemingway. On the way over, I read <em>A Moveable Feast</em>, which put me thoroughly in that mood. I only regret that I wasn't writing the Great American Novel in those same caf&eacute;s (as if!). Those times when I wasn't tracking down writers' haunts, I was tracking down their tombstones. The Montmartre and Montparnasse cemeteries really are not to be missed (we did miss Père Lachaise, which I only minded because of Oscar Wilde&mdash;who cares about that Morrison hack).**
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/lilas.jpg">
<p class="caption">La Closerie des Lilas, one of Hemingway's favorite caf&eacute;s</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/larotonde.jpg">
<p class="caption">Trotsky dined here.</p></p>
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<p class="caption">Our table at Les Deux Magots, another caf&eacute; mentioned by Hemingway in <em>A Moveable Feast</em>.</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/sartrebeauvoir.jpg">
<p class="caption">Final resting place of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/ionesco.jpg">
<p class="caption">We found a <a href="http://www.bookcrossing.com" target="_blank">Bookcrossing</a> book on Eugene Ionesco's grave. I brought it back to Tuscaloosa and "released" it in the Romance Languages department at UA.</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/baudelaire.jpg">
<p class="caption">Baudelaire's grave</p></p>
<p class="photo"><img src="http://www.lunagraph.com/blog/images/serge.jpg">
<p class="caption">Love notes for Serge Gainsbourg</p></p>
Tourist attractions that we did take in: the Eiffel Tower (though we didn't go up), Notre Dame de Paris and the Musée d'Orsay (briefly, but long enough to see amazing sculptures by Camille Claudel and the breathtaking van Goghs). We skipped the Louvre entirely, thinking it would be too much of a time suck. Mostly we wandered around Paris, on foot and by Metro, awestruck by the beauty and age of it. It's too bad we won't be spending Thanksgiving in Paris again this year. What a marvelous tradition that would be, if only we could manage it!

<p class="note">*I suppose crepes and sandwiches from street vendors and walk-up windows are the real Parisian fast food. That we never sampled the street vendor crepes was a minor disappointment. </p>
<p class="note">**James appointed me "navigator" for the duration of the trip, which made him a slave to my predilections. He didn't seem to mind the inordinate amount of time we spent in cemeteries, although I think he got a little testy roaming side streets looking for the original Shakespeare & Company; we'd been walking all day, and my navigation skills were not at their best.