Le printemps à Paris avec Les Bagleys

Almost three weeks ago Jessixa and I returned from our Paris trip. It was perfect. We decided to spend a whole week there rather than rush around Europe making fleeting memories. Aside for Versailles we just roamed around the city on the Metro visiting odd bookstores, restaurants, museums, record stores and making friends with a music maker. Here are a bunch of pictures! Bon Apétit!

This is the apartment in Montmartre 18ᵉ where we stayed.

In Paris the graffiti is in cursive and orders you to look at the sky...

...So we did!

At the Louvre the paintings are double-sided!

This is a snap from Shakespeare and Co. This bookstore is like a billion years old. Frequented by Hemingway, Joyce, Pound, Bagley, et al.

Posing at the Place de Vosges, getting hungry...

...So we ate snails, er, I mean escargots. Very delicious (better than Kangaroo).

Versailles was amazing. No pictures can do it justice. Jessixa cried here (I cried at the Louvre). What can I say? Stendhal Syndrome kind of ambushes you.

Jessixa asleep on the train back from Versailles.

This is Maurice, the last maker of music boxes (all by hand) in Paris.
He is a wonderful man. Thanks to Jessixa's superb French skills we are
now invited back to stay with him in Provence. Maurice and his tiny
store were the treasure of our voyage.

This is some of Maurice's work.

Here we are posing like we're on a pretentious fashion blog. (No visible landmarks are required for a shot like this!)

Jessixa on the terrace of the Musee D'Orsay

Another friend we made outside our apartment. Jessixa named her Lady Marmalade.

Un Regarde Moderne, the world's most crammed/tiniest bookstore. It was hard to move in this place. We bought a crazy French comic here.

Eating crappy fondu at Le Refuge des Fondues. They serve wine out of baby bottles, make you crawl over the table to get to your seat and the service is like that of the Soup Nazi. Very fun, not very appetizing.

Lots of drawing in Paris.

We stayed in and cooked twice. It was nice having that option.

And of course, the Eiffel Tower at night (with my hand over the picture). We've all seen it though, right?

I am soooo excited to be an Aunt for the first time. Jemma Adelaide Creed was born on March 16, 2012. She was 7 lbs 11 oz. 20 1/2 inches long. I had been working on some scrapbook pages for Landa from her baby shower etc, but I couldn't show anyone because if Rib saw them he would know they were having a girl. Now that she's here it's time to post.

This is a first.

My first blog post.  Sure why not.  I would kinda like to blog about my 10 year anniversary.  It wasn't what I had in mind.  My plan was to always do a traditional gift theme.  This year was Tin, so here was the plan...Step one, Rib gets the day off work.  Step two, we eat delicious food.  Step three, we make a tin craft by making luminaries out of soup cans.  Step four, Go see The adventures of Tin-Tin in theaters.  Gladly but sadly my baby belly and exhaustion got in the way, so instead we had overpriced food and still a fun evening at the museum of natural history.  Next year the traditional gift is steel, what to do?

Jack's 83rd Birthday!!!!

I felt that this was a very sweet and special birthday. After cake and gifts, Ron Bagley had everyone go around the room and tell what they love about Gramps or a favorite memory. Many funny and sweet stories were shared, but I think everyone got a bit teary eyed when Rusty told everyone how thankful he was for the love that he's felt in our family. I know I was touched. That right there shows us that when Jack built his house with love, it has been, and will be felt by many generations to come.

Anniversary Dinner

It's way past our anniversary (November 18th) - but wanted to post this anyway since it was such a special evening. The seared foi gras was probably the highlight for me (never having experienced it before -- seared is the way to go). Jessixa liked the sorbet (which left a pleasant hint of cardamom in our mouths for days). The theme of the meal was foraged mushrooms.  If you ever have a chance to blow a bunch of money on a fancy dinner like this - DO IT! It's an experience you won't forget.

Hey everyone--

Okay so here we go with a Bagley Family Blog.  I hope to see photos and posts of 60th birthday parties, or cats, or baby showers, or 83rd birthday parties....Anything to keep us all in touch.  Hyperlinks to other blogs are a great idea if you've already posted elsewhere. 
If I missed anyone on the list of blog authors, let me know so we can add everyone.  The more the merrier!!

This is a test...It is only a test...

Just testing to see if we're up and running.