Parents, Poilane & Pastries

We had the fun privilege of picking my dad up at the metro station yesterday.  We now have both my parents here for a week of Christmas fun in Paris.  I still can't describe the feeling of waiting for someone at the train station.  We were watching as train after train came in & left with no sign of him.  The boys, Halle & I were at one end of the station & Mom & Rebekah at the other end.  As his train approached - I see it swiftly pass with a familiar face at the front of the train.  I say aloud, "There he is!!"  The boys so excited, said, "Where, where?"  I told them he will get off down by Mimi & Rebekah - we need to walk that way.  So fun & exciting!  So glad you are here, dad!  We hope this week is full of super fun memories for you.

After walking the streets of Paris & winding down some of the smaller quaint streets, we made it to the apartment to show him his home for the week.  It was lunch time, so we sent Mimi & Dad downstairs for a lunch date at LouLou's & the kids and I had baguette sandwiches upstairs.

Afterwards, we all piled on the metro & headed to Poilane bakery.  It was on my top 10 things to do while here & today would be the day.  It is famous for their bread with their iconic P and incredible skill of making a loaf of bread.  We wanted to get some of their shortbread Christmas ornament cookies (as you see adorning the window), gingerbread, brioche, & the kids got pain au chocolat for breakfast the next day.  It's a tiny store, and only French is spoken here.  Thankfully I had enough words to manage through for a purchase & bring our treasures with us.   See below for a recipe courtesy of the poilane website for Apricot Bread.  This we have learned, they have some really good Apricot jam over here.  Grandmother - I wish you were here to enjoy with us.  Your apricot jam is still the best but I know you would enjoy it so much!  If you would like more recipes or to view their website - www.poilane.com.  Mema - mom & I tried some yummy walnut bread & it reminded us of your date nut bread!  So good - although I am convinced the date bread in the coffee can is better than what we tasted.  Wish you were here too!  It's been fun to Skype with you & Grandad Hey.  A fun thing a lady told us to try with the walnut bread was to slice a thin piece of sheep/goat cheese.  It sounds gross - but was so delicious!!!

Afterwards, we walked to Bon Marche for the kids to see the windows & dad to get to see the inside of the store.  We know how hard the first day of entry into a new time zone is so we wanted to keep our outing small.  It was a super fun time & the kids thoroughly enjoyed every Christmas window.

Check out the lights above - LOVE IT!!!

We headed back for dinner at home & pastries from Grandad from the Bon Marche patisserie.  We then tried to guess what each person's favorite was after splitting each pastry into 7 parts.

See if you can guess which was our favorite?

After dinner, Mimi & Grandad went on a walk to the closest bridge where you can see the Eiffel Tower.  See his post on facebook below:

Christmas in Paris with B