A night at the Opera...

Last night, Dave and I had our last great adventure before the twins arrive.  We went to the Opera to see Verdi's Don Carlo, after which we went to a very famous traditional French brasserie (Bofinger) and spent the night at a hotel nearby before coming home this morning.  My cousin Fiona came to visit us from London and was kind enough to watch Samuel for the night while we were away. 

It was wonderful to be out on the town - particularly for me, after so many weeks of mostly just sitting or lying on the sofa, trying to be good and not do 'too much' (lifting, walking, anything.. which leads to contractions and pelvic pain, and an increased risk of early delivery).  The Opera was good... in parts.  It is one of Verdi's masterpieces, and the singing and music were really excellent.  However the scenery, staging and lighting were somewhat too austere/dark, the acting rather wooden and the concert hall much too hot.  Added to which was the fact that the opera lasted 4 hours, which got quite uncomfortable for both of us, and we had forgotten that the surtitles would be in French, and while Dave's French is good enough that he understands a lot of it, it is impossible to understand all that is going on if you aren't really fluent.  So... a good experience, and I'm very glad we went... but not sure we will be going to another 4 hour opera again, particularly if the surtitles aren't in english!

After the Opera, we walked around the Bastille square to dinner at the Brasserie Bofinger.  This is one of the oldest brasseries in Paris (built 1864), has beautiful art nouveau architecture / design, and is still very popular.  The great thing about being nearly 7 months pregnant with twins is that people see me coming from miles away!  When we made the reservation, we made sure they knew about the pregnancy, and as soon as they saw my belly we were wisked past the other waiting diners to our table - very close to the front door, but not in a high-traffic area.  The food was fantastic and the waiters surprisingly friendly and chatty. 

Our hotel was just a short walk away - opposite the Opera.  My assistant had negotiated a great rate with them for us, as well as an accessible room with a big bed.  The only downside was that this room was on the ground floor next to reception, so we had quite a bit of street noise during the night.  Since I also snore like a freight train these days, poor Dave got very little sleep!  But it was nice to be out until late for once and not to have to worry about waking Samuel up in the morning (thank you Fiona!!).

And that was the celebration to end our carefree days without 3 little terrors running around the house....!