Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Lemons, Eiffel Tower & Bloggers, Oh My!

I have been remiss. That is, I haven't shared the details of what was the most fun Saturday I've had in quite some time. What with the Littlest and then P-Daddy and now the Middlest, and dare I confess it, yours truly, feeling a bit viral, well, I haven't had the chance.

Saturday the 13th, a fantastic and varied group of bloggers came together for lunch in Montpellier. There were 12 bloggers, two significant others and two ados (pre-ados, but still). We added some multi-cultural charm to Chez Boris on the Esplanade.

{this is KIRSTY'S photo of Chez Boris}

We were parleying the anglais like nobody's business.

The city was buzzing with pre-marathon activity and crawling with gendarmerie who were going on lunch break, bien sur, as Kirsty, Ma Fille and I walked from the tram station to the resto. They were sitting in their armored vans eating very sophisticated packed lunches on fold down trays, airplane style. Some of them were quite hunky. If you like that sort of thing.

Even Gary Dourdan, apparently of CSI aka, Les Experts here in France, was in town. Turns out he plays the guitar. The sweet waitress at the outdoor cafe Kirsty, Nicola and I went to for one last glass of the pink stuff tipped us off. Good thing too because we never would have known.
He was sitting at an outdoor cafe across from Virgin Megastore setting up for a sing along. It was heady stuff, I'm telling you.

Nicola from Growing Berries was there, having done a quick switch with her traveling husband for child duty and left her four little Berries behind in Paris to have lunch with us. She made me a pretty pillow (these people are talented) that is happily fluffed, cuddled and pined after by my three and Clementine. She really wants to sink her teeth into that floral Eiffel Tower. Thank you, Nicky!

{Pretty Eiffel Tower}


Jennifer from Gustia came with her husband and brought me these lemons all the way from Monaco, well really from her house in Menton. She didn't know this but lemon tart, lemon bars, lemon meringue, lemon drops, you get the idea, are a few of my favorite things. Plus, there's a really cool lemon festival in Menton in February that has always intrigued me. Now that I know Jennifer, I'll have to get over there for it. She also gave me some maple syrup, she's Canadian, and a handy foldable shopping bag with its own sleeve for socking it away at the bottom of your purse for any unexpected lemony purchases. Thank you, Jennifer!

{Menton lemons, chez moi}

Almost everyone has written a bit about it on their blogs and unlike me, they actually took some photos so have a look around if you'd like photographic evidence.Kirsty took some great ones of the restaurant and Karen got a cool one of the frighteningly professional cameras and talented sharpshooters in action.

These are some amazing women, people. Women that are doing fun things, following their hearts, raising their children, learning new languages and challenging themselves daily to find the silver lining in this life abroad.

All I can say is thank you everyone for coming and for making our third Blogapalooza or if you prefer, BlogFeast, a huge success.


Karen from Little Sweet Spots
Abby and Logan J’Adore Ma Vie
Jennifer American Mom in Bordeaux
Kirsty You Had Me at Bonjour
Heather Lost in Arles
Nicola at Growing Berries
Julie at The Provence Post
Colleen at Life 2.1
Jennifer Gustia
Sarah at St Bloggie de Riviere
Meredith Talking Story in Provence



P.S. I seem to have been nominated as a Top Expat Blog for France on Expats Blog. Maybe you'd like to head over and leave a comment and maybe even log a vote for me. The happy surprises I find in my inbox! You can tweet it if you'd like too.




9 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for organizing such a fun event. It was such a treat to meet you and everyone else who was there. The Eiffel Tower cushion looks very pretty chez vous. I hope Clementine doesn't eat it. We know a thing or two about dogs eating the handmades in our house!! Hope you all feel better soon.

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  2. Hi Aiden: Congrats on your nomination for Expat Blog. I'll be tweetin' that! If I had known you were such a big fan of lemons I would have brought more and picked our tree bald for a fellow lemon lover. BlogFeast really was a great get together and I've been too busy to post about it too but I think today's the day. Definitely, come to Menton for the FĂȘte du Citron. We will make lemon tarts together and then eat them.

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  3. It was indeed a lot of fun, and my boys managed to get all the way home on tram and bus successfully, so kudos to the lads for not failing miserably and interrupting our jolly lunch.

    The two young ladies were a credit to their mums too.

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  4. I'm so bummed that I missed this! It looks like I missed a great opportunity of meeting some really fun and fab ladies!

    Thank you for the invite and please consider me for the next one. : )

    Looking forward to checking out these blogs.

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  5. It was a great day, wasn't it? So much fun.
    Congratulations on your blog award. I went over to leave a comment but I'm not sure it went through - my computer wasn't too happy talking to their site (said it had a dodgy ID) so I can't say whether it took. Either way, well done and good luck!

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  6. You know I'm supremely disappointed to have missed this. I seem to have bad luck in this arena. And considering I went to Morocco instead and came home with a rotten case of the Moroccan two-step, I've been duly punished. Next time…I hope. xoxo

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  7. Thank you again Aidan for organizing such a great event!! It was great fun! I know my daughter enjoyed your daughter and would have liked to spend more time with her. Hopefully soon! Enjoy Toussaint break - and I hope your household is feeling better in time for vacation. Again, such a wonderful get together! So great for the soul!

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  8. I was honored to have been invited to attend and sad it didn't work out for us schedule wise. Hopefully, the next time we can come. Sounds and looks like everyone had a great time. So I can experience it a little, we are going to go eat at Chez Boris with my cousins. Have a great weekend.

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  9. I'm still squealing with delight over our lunch. Thank you for getting us all together Aidan. Big Congratulation on the award too! That is also worth a squeal. I'll head over to vote (if I'm not too late?) once the little miss is tucked in. Can't wait till next time. xoKaren

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It makes my day to read your comments. They're an answer to my floating words in blogland.