Add another year

As a friend said in the remarks of the last post, I turned 39 on Saturday the 16th.  Why does "39" sound so old?  To me, it sounds older than 40.  And yet, I digress...

Morgan decided she wanted to do a lot of research on what we could do for my birthday.  As her guide, she used a book titled "Fodor's Around Paris with Kids."  I'm pretty much a big kid, so that worked.  She found a place called Double Fond, which is a magic theater and cafe.  They have a kids show in the basement on Saturdays at 14:30.  It was in the Marais district, which is an area we'd wanted to explore anyway, so we decided to go for it.

Before the show, we went to The Red Wheelbarrow, which is an English bookstore in the Marais district.  It was a very small and fun bookstore.  We found a handful of books to purchase.  We'll definitely be back.

All of the reviews for Double Fond said that it was a great time, even if you didn't speak French.  Therefore, we figured it was just a lot of magic tricks without much talking.  We were wrong.  It was an hour show in which the magician interacted with the crowd (specifically the kids) in French.  It was fun, even though we only understood a few words of what was being said.  The kids had fun, and the slight of hand was very good.

From there, we started walking around the Marais district and (intentionally) wandered past a restaurant called Breakfast in America (BIA).  It was opened by an American and has real, authentic American food.  Since we weren't quite hungry yet, we continued on our walk of the area.  There were a number of stores we walked into.  We saw a group of 7 guys singing on the street:

We've seen them in the Metro before.  They are very good!

As we walked on, we heard a bunch of shouting through a microphone and loud music from a building.  We were at the back of the building, but it sounded like a riot was about to happen.  Sandy and I decided to quickly continue up the street.  As we wound our way around, we ended up coming to the front of that building.  There were a number of Red Bull Mini Coopers sitting outside.

It said "Entree Gratuit" on the front door so we decided to check it out.  It was a huge dodgeball tournament sponsored by Red Bull.  As we first went in, Sandy and I were given free Red Bull.  I think it gave us some energy.

We enjoyed the dodgeball.  Nick snuck between people to get up front.  All of the teams were dressed in fun ways.

After watching for a while (and finishing our Red Bull), we continued on our way.  After walking a little while longer, we found ourselves back at BIA for dinner.  YAY!

Morgan was slightly excited that they had Dr. Pepper.  She loves it and hasn't had any in close to 2 months.  She also got wings and fries.

Sandy and I got burgers and a drink each. 

Nick got chicken nachos and a 7 up.  It was wonderful.  You know how I've been talking about how expensive things are here?  That meal cost us about $75.  Yes, seriously.  Two burgers with fries, 6 wings with fries, chicken nachos, and 4 drinks.  That's why we don't go out to eat too often.

Anyway, we headed back home and walked past this amazing chocolate shop.  We immediately turned around and went inside.  It looked amazing.  It smelled fantastic.  It was expensive.  The chicken in the middle of the picture costs 90 Euros.  That's about $135.

Sandy and Morgan made me a wonderful cake.  Sandy actually found a box mix in France.  It was chocolate.  It completely rocked!  Honestly, I think it was better than the made-from-scratch cake they made for Nick.  It's okay, though.  Sandy agreed.

Overall it was a wonderful birthday.  Turning 39 in Paris.  What could be better?