Last(?) date night

Huge thanks for Julia's cousin Fiona for making the trip over from London this weekend so that Julia and I could have one last big night in Paris before the twins arrive.

Julia and I went to see Don Carlo at the Bastille opera on Saturday evening.  We checked into our hotel(directly across the street from the opera) around 1630 and found our way to a brasserie where we had a light snack, as the opera was 4 hours long and we would not have dinner until very late.  While we were having our snack a few of the musicians wandered in and had dinner and drinks(coke only).  Something we never experienced in Cincinnati with the symphony. We made a slight mistake with what we ordered as our assortment plate came with a half bottle of wine.  Of course, Julia cannot drink and I hate to se good wine be wasted so I felt obligated to drink the entire half bottle.  In hindsight I should not have done so as Don Carlo is 4 hour is long and the wine made me very, very sleepy.

The opera was very good.  The voices of the cast were outstanding.  The art direction of the production was disappointing.  The lighting was quite unusual as the cast were mostly in shadows for the performance.  Not sure if this was because they are not good actors, with the shadows their faces were very seldom fully visible to the audience, or if the director was attempting to add an element of suspense to the production.

I learned during the performance that my French, while improving, still has considerable distance to go before I can read and comprehend. We decided not to buy the program  so Julia quickly used wikipedia to read the synopsis but I was confused throughout the performance concerning the plot.  I found that I am able to understand the verb context and tenses but the actual subject of the sentence would most often elude me as the subject word was not part of my limited vocabulary.

After the performance we had dinner at Brasserie Bofinger.  A classic French brasserie with glass domed ceilings and large pots of flowers and a great amount of brass.  The food was very good and Julia was treated like a queen(4 carafes of water, one of which was served without it being requested.  Unheard of in a French brasserie).  We both had the filet de bouef with poivre sauce.  Excellent.  Julia had the profiteroles and I the mousse au chocolat for dessert.  It was the largest mousse au chocolate I have ever been served in Paris.  We then returned to the hotel and proceeded to pass out as it was 0100 and neither of us had been up that late in a very, very long time.