A King's Life

We've seen the luxurious side of life and we can report this: It's boring. The Pavillon Henri IV was indeed very nice, but definitely not the sort of thing that we would ever spend our own money on.* The room was nice, though the comfort of the Louis XIV era furniture left me wishing for our IKEA bead instead.

The highlight of the trip was the dinner. I had an appetizer of langoustine (mini-lobster) spring rolls followed by an excellent plate of sea bream in a wild mushroom foam. Dessert was figs roasted in a caramel sauce with cinnamon ice cream, all washed down with a delightful 2007 Brouilly.

Now that I've exposed myself as having completely converted to the ways of the cheese-eating surrender monkeys, I think that it's perhaps best to simply post the photos. I didn't take any pictures during the dinner; it was an awkward, whisper-only environment (as the 9 year-old next to us announced to everyone, before being shushed by his mother, "Ambiance: zéro!") and I don't think the other diners (average age: 67) would have appreciated it.

Pavillon Henri IV

*Interestingly, this is actually the mark of a good gift, something that we enjoyed but that we wouldn't have gotten for ourselves. Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution puts it this way:

The bottom line? If you want to please the economist in me, send me cash. If you want to please my wild self (I know, not many of you, but you know who you are!) use your imagination.