Bringing Elegance to Complexity

On Thursday night I left Vancouver to start the most romantic weekend of my life. The trip for me was defined by the sights, the food and the love of my life.

Flights getting there were a little hectic; periods of intense activity followed by lulls of equally intense boredom. I arrived in London around noon on Friday and had to kill about 4 hours at the airport while Elizabeth found her way from Oxford to the airport. After an eternity of anticipation, she arrived and we whisked through security and on to the flight to Paris.

We arrived and taxied to the hotel Elizabeth had booked. This is where the game of Musical Hotels started... It was the comment "Oh.. and the elevator doesn’t work" from the clerk that foreshadowed the night. That and lugging four huge suitcases up two flights of a spiral stair case that was 2 feet wide... <sigh> To make a long story short, we’d booked it before the trip became an elegant one (I didn’t tell Elizabeth because I wanted it be a surprise <grin>).

I called Amex for help booking a new hotel, but after 30mins with them I discovered they were useless and scouted one out myself. Half an hour later we were booked into the stunning Hotel Meurice right in front of the Louvre. They were out of rooms so they had to upgrade us to a suite (*lol* Poor us!).

We spend that night walking around downtown Paris; what a beautiful city! I was introduced to croque-monsieur sandwiches (a delicious French version of a ham and cheese sandwich) and French beer (they serve it by the litre there... which is much more daunting than a pint). I found the food in Paris to be incredible... Their idea of junk food is a toasted brie and tomato sandwich on French bread!

The next morning we started off with crepes across the street from the Louvre at one of the ubiquitous cafes. I had chocolate and banana while Elizabeth opted for the (equally good) ham and cheese. Full and ready to tackle the Louvre, we walked all around the Louvre grounds and finally descended in the museum. We only saw the ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Middle-Eastern (Summerian, Babylonian, etc.) exhibits in the two hours that we were there; I think it would take a whole week to see everything! The antiquities were ... stunning.

We walked along the river and eventually ended up at the Eiffel Tower but didn’t go up because the line up was at least an hour long. It was a beautiful day.

That night I’d arranged dinner at L’Espadon in the Ritz. We got dressed and walked to Place Vendome which was only a few block from our hotel. Dinner was... magical. There was a violinist and a harpist for the evening along with at least two waiters per table. The food was stunning and the wine was incredible. It was undoubtedly the best meal of my life. It was special for so many reasons; I proposed to Elizabeth!

The next morning we slept in and had a leisurely walk around Paris when we finally rolled out of bed. Back to the hotel for a quick pack and off to the airport we headed. The cab ride was very interesting: our driver was a French Arab and wanted to talk about the recent events. I was rather surprised at how easy he was to talk to. I’m used to going to Quebec and struggling with my French; in Paris I had no major problems. I guess Quebecois French really is degraded. It was a really cool conversation!

The last night we spend in a really neat hotel in London, MyHotel. The room was designed with Feng Shui in mind and had a stereo! What an amazing feature in a hotel room. I put on some music when we arrived - they’d thoughtfully provided a really good trance/ambient mix from Amsterdam - and instant relaxation set in.

That night we had dinner with Elizabeth’s friend Neda and generally relaxed. Elizabeth rebooked her flight for later in the day on Monday (it was originally at 7am or some really early time!) and we got to sleep in again.

All in all, a fantastic trip!

Elizabeth’s Notes Posted on September 30th, 2001 Paris...city of lovers, city of romance....what better place for us to get engaged?? And it _was_ so romantic..... The sun was setting as we took a taxi from our airport to a little hotel in the center of Paris... as we drove, I caught glimpses of famous landmarks backlit against the night. As we got out of our taxi at the hotel, a woman -- some random stranger on the street -- was signing "Ave Maria" in a voice like an angel.... And then -- oh dear -- the hotel. Simple, quiet and clean, it would have been perfectly adequate in other circumstances, but it was not quite what Patrick had in mind for this occasion. After a few phone calls, another taxi whisked us off to a new hotel.....the St. Meurice. I didn’t understand why Patrick had been so displeased with the first hotel until I saw this one.....a magnificent gilded palace!! Our rooms were huge, decorated with mirrors and chandeliers and sumptuous fabrics. The bathroom was covered entirely in white marble. I felt like royalty, like a fairy princess with her prince..... First thing that evening, we took a long bath in the incredible marble bathtub. Then we went to a brasserie and sat at a little table on the street, and drank beer and ate croque-monsieurs..... The next morning we went to another outdoor cafe and had crepes for breakfast...and then walked to the Louvre....Paris is such a breathtakingly beautiful city. We wandered through the Louvre for a bit, looking at ancient art. Then we wandered through the Tuilleries and to the Eiffel Tower....then took boat ride down the Seine. Then back to the hotel for a nap, to prepare for the evening to come. As we got dressed, I felt inexplicably nervous.....Patrick said he felt nervous as well!! :) I put on a dark sparkly red dress....Patrick looked so handsome in his suit. I carefully applied my makeup - smokey eyes and dark red lipstick....following the instructions I had been given by the lady at the makeup counter.... And then we walked to the Ritz...to a beautiful tiny restaurant that was as sumptuous as our hotel, beautifully decorated in the Art Nouveau style with high ceilings painted to look like the sky.... The waiter poured us glasses of pink champagne to start off the evening. Patrick gave the most romantic toast.....and I started to cry, from the sheer beauty and romance of it all. And then he dropped to one knee and proposed...... and the ring was beautiful, an exquisite diamond in the center with a band of diamonds and white gold on one side and a band of yellow gold on the other.....yin and yang.....twin souls joining to form the light that is love..... The dinner afterwards was superb, every dish crafted to highlight the best in the food served, and delicious wines that paired perfectly with the flavours.... There was nothing, absolutely nothing about this weekend that I would change....it was perfect and beautiful and romantic in every way....it was truly beyond anything I could have dreamt, or wished for. :)