Kid Ditchers

Since the kids preferred staying in, Laura and I decided to go exploring without them, which let's face it - was a great idea! We rode the bus (they don't have a car - how rad is that?!) up to the top of Parc Mont-Royal, the highest spot in the city and a park that was designed by the same dude that designed Central Park. It was gorgeous.

Then we rented Bixi Bikes and rode around. It's a beautiful, quaint, charming place they live.

And their house is sandwiched between a delectable boulangerie, Mamie Clafoutis, and a very popular ice cream place, Bilboquet. I may have gained several pounds while there....

While we were gone, Ana made a vlog for her YouTube channel. And took some cute pics of herself.

Okay, dinners at their house were an experience every night. I know this because I practically lived with them (upstairs, where the scent of their dinners wafted up and made me salivate nightly), but in case you, the reader, don't know this, let me explain.

Drew is like the rat on Ratatouille. He has this magical gift at knowing what will taste good together and he is highly creative and experimentive. Most of his meals are rooted in Italian gastronomy (REAL Italian, not the version we get in the States) and they are total gourmet food snobs. Dinner at their house is a total experience for all the senses.

 I will do my best to recall the details of the meals. Here we have ground veal(?) patties on croissants with Provencal dijon mustard, baby dills, roasted fennel, fennel fronds and goat cheese, served with fancy chips and arugula salad. Amazing.

 The Marrès have a ritual of toasting every night before eating. For some reason that I don't recall now, they play into a superstitious belief that you must have your eyes wide open during the toast. It made for a funny/creepy looking intro to our meals! 

 I tried to catch a tender moment between Laura and Drew, but was a millisecond too late. Still, can we give them props for being so cute and good to each other after close to 20 years of marriage? I love them!