Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Dinner Cruise on the Seine

I've eluded to it once or twice this year but let me just state it for you outright: this has been a financially difficult year for Matt and I. In other words, we were pretty flat broke. Probably not as broke as we could of been--I mean, we weren't eating beans out of cans or anything but neither have I been able to afford more than one pair of jeans this year which I'm currently doubling up with black leggings because they're so worn that they're riddled with holes in all the, err, wrong areas. But I really can't whine too much because our poorness was actually a self-imposed choice that Matt and I made when we got married (nearly) three years ago. Knowing that I'd like to be able to have the choice to stop working someday when there are little Sanders in the picture, we decided from the get-go not to become too dependent on my income. 

Turns out, it was a good decision because those college student loans just weren't going to wait much longer. Already I'd accrued a few thousand in interest just in the time that I'd been deferring while getting settled in France. So we decided to take the rather active approach and pummel those student loans in the shortest time possible, taking into account our salaries and monthly budget. Well I am ridiculously happy (you have no idea) that after lots of scrimping and saving over the past three years, we have officially paid off my students loans! Booyah...take that Sallie Mae. 

And like any good financial dieters, we decided that as soon as we finished the money marathon we would jump off the debt free bandwagon and spend money like crazy people. Okay that sounds really extreme so in reality what we decided to do was go out one time and celebrate and do something really special. Enter our Groupon dinner cruise on the Seine River (in case it interests you, it normally costs around 250-300 euros to do but we found it on Groupon.fr for about 100). 

Here she be, ready and waiting for take off: 



Us, ready to be wined and dined to the extreme: 



Getting ready to order... 

The view out the window... 




I thought it was kinda funny that the woman behind Matt was taking all her pics with her Ipad...oh how times have changed since disposable cameras and the like... :)








There was even a window with the lovely view from the bathroom stall... 


But ever so lovely of course... 



The view on top of the viewing deck...





But what Sanders soirée would be complete without a bit of randomness though... 
first there was running into a parishioner just before getting on the boat...who wanted a full on consultation just minutes before the boat was supposed to take off. (The departure point is on the Ile aux Mouettes and she was out there power walking)  


Then there was knocking our bottle of sparkling Perrier water all over the table, me walking into the bathroom stall on a woman who was already in there, then not being able to close the door when it was my turn because she was sticking her butt in the way, discovering the famous second statue of liberty at the end of the island, running into a couple taking their wedding photos on a Wednesday evening (nothing like getting to things early I guess!) and getting serenaded in our faces by random trumpeters... Oh yes, life would be too boring otherwise I suppose... 






Well that's all for now... 

2 comments:

Kelsey said...

So fun! What did you eat? You two totally deserve a fancy night out. :)

Tal said...

Mmm, well first they started off with this plate with all these little mini starters which was delish, along with a bottle of champagne and bottles of sparkling water, next dinner was either veal, steak, or fish, and then dessert was another plate where you got to try a little of everything. Definitely yummy :)