1) Wake up at 4:30am
2) Drive to Germany
3)30 minutes after reaching German destination, get back in car and drive back home to France.
4) Arrive in back in France to meet friends for birthday dinner, drinks and dancing.
Despite a pre-dawn search for a gas station that nearly left us stranded in a deserted neighborhood north of Paris, we got off on our way to a little town in Germany where my Monsieur had an important errand to do. Yes, I had to come along and it was the only day to do it and I don't want to discuss it anymore than I already have. The upside was that I slept until we passed the Belgian border.
But I fuss not. What's your ideal way of spending a birthday? Have you ever actually spent it that way? Ideally, I would have had a day of drinking panachés in the sunshine instead of brief interactions with the tired looking cashier at that pit stop in Belgium or seeing right in the eyes of tailgating Germans in our rearview mirror.
It was yours truly at the wheel for the return home which, thanks to the speed friendly German highways, was quick. Thoughts of the limitless vitesse of the autobahn were still in my head as I flew through Belgium as well. What is the speed limit in Belgium anyway? Given the lack of signs, let's not worry about it.
We got home in time to take a shower, doll ourselves up and run to the restaurant where my friend Nacho was already the first to arrive. Friends trickled in, as did the champagne, and the night lead to a beautiful buffet and a dance floor that called come hither.Fun friend Vincent had given me a phrase du jour: C'est le pied. Literally, "It's the foot", which logically means "It's great!"
Between conversation, food, drink and music, yes , it was the foot. A size ten foot at that. The night's happy glow was revisited the next morning when I woke up to the little collection of gifts I'd received the night before.Spoiled? moi?
