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Take The Damn Trip | 012 · The Midlife Pivot

• Amanda Segal: Welcome back to the Midlife Pivot. It's just you and me this week. I know. And you've come back from the most exciting trip and we want to hear all about it. I'm going to ask you questions because really I have been so busy with all kinds of things. I haven't had a chance to sit with you. Now we're sitting together. I took it takes us to be on a podcast. I want to make sure that the mic is in front of your face. Yes. It it took us. It took us, have we just sit down to the podcast for me to have an opportunity to talk to you and tell you about my trip because it has been crazy. I literally got back and it's been go, go, go. And I haven't seen you. So today I came for my gifts. I believe I've got lots of chocolates coming to me. Chocolates and butter and Right. And you'll tell us all about it. So start at the very beginning because you've got so many incidences to tell me. You know what? We shared, I guess, a couple weeks ago, that I was doing this solo trip. And I was a little apprehensive, definitely, you know, definitely a little anxious about going, but it all started out really well because before I left for the trip, I had told we we just chatted about the fact that the twins turned 30. Yes. Twins and 30 somehow just don't go together, Mom. It sounds so weird for me to say that, but they did. Erin and I had the most incredible dinner at Jose Andreas's mini bar. That was for his birthday. Yes. So it was this Michigan Star restaurant. And I have to tell you, it was an experience. That was all he wanted. All he wanted for his birthday was to do this, you know, to do this experience, this dinner experience. So tell us what was different about this dinner. You know what? It was different in that it was a set menu. So you told them if you had any allergies, you told them if you had anything that you didn't, you know, particularly you like. I don't need scallops, for example. don't enjoy them. So I said that that was something that I, you know, that I that I didn't that I didn't like. but then you came in it was actually quite kind of weird. The restaurant when you walked in, you didn't even know it was the restaurant. There was a tiny little plaque outside that said mini bar and there were two kind of concierge standing outside. Now that's in DC, right? DC, yes, this was in DC. so we went ahead, we went inside, they first had us sit down at a bar, and they brought us some you know, fun champagne and it came with like smoke coming out of it. Wow. And then there were a little cut a few aperitifs that they gave us like at the bar. So was the restaurant packed? Yes. So they only seat twelve people in the restaurant. and you sit in the kitchen. It's literally like in the kitchen. So which is amazing, amazing. And the chefs are all in there. And in fact, you imagine, you know, you imagine like these shows like the bear and and these shows that they have on. So but before that there is this bar area and people can go there for drinks and they can go for appetizers and that type of thing. But we went they sit you there first and then I guess they get slowly but truly bring everyone back to the kitchen where you ultimately eat. And from start to finish, it was an experience. you know, they just everything. They give you tomato soup, but it's infused in a baby tomato. Uh-huh. So when you bite into the tomato the in into the tomato, it like it bursts in your mouth and it's this unbelievable taste. And they bring it to you on this hand. So it's like this one little tomato in this hand, and they say to you, no, be careful. And you when you bite into it, it out comes the you know the soup. It was it was incredible. So that was some of the things that they gave you beforehand. They're very heavy on caviar. One of the things about Mini Bar is that he loves his caviar. So a lot of the meal did have caviar, you know, caviar stuff in it. and then you sit down and they explain to you. So as they go about, there's, you know, there there must have been. Ten chefs in the kitchen, doing different things. and everything is a work of art. So everything that they're doing is you're watching the preparations as they're making them. Yes, yes. And everybody gets the same, unless it's something. Unless was a vegetarian, there was somebody that was a vegetarian, so they did get something different. it was sixteen courses. But imagine though, it's little things. You do get full at the end. You definitely are not hungry at the end. But it's all these little plates. These little plates and just everything. And I'm I've caught you know, blanking on on everything, but the crab dish that they gave us and then they have this beautiful Maryland cla crab, like a like a cutout that is on it that's like a c cracker. That you eat with the crab meat. Wow. And they did a pastry meat. There was one thing that they had like towards the end when it came to the meat. yes, like a pastry, sorry. but that they came towards at the end, which was the meat, and I I didn't recognize the name. And the worst thing that I could have done was have Aaron look it up. When I found out what it was, it was pigeon. And I just couldn't. The thought of eating, I mean it's a delicacy. I know my mother used to cook and stuff pigeon when I was a young girl. Yeah, it's a very big French delicatessen. And you normally stuff it. It has stuffed mushrooms and rice inside. Because there's tiny. This was this was he cut it up. It was like pieces of the chicken. He did it in there were three actually different things. One of it was like almost like a chicken leg that you had and you held onto that. Actually, was the tastiest out of it was done like in a car, like in a wrapped in a Pastry, like no, like a film kind of thing. Nice. and then there was the actual chicken. Anyway, the the actual not chicken, the actual pigeon. my favorite thing was the passion fruit popsicle at the end, which was a dessert. That was one of the desserts. And then they give you this beautiful box that it's everything's a production. You know, the box is all closed and they kind of go one, two, three, and the box opens up. And there was like these chocolates and little candies. That was a part of the dessert. Dessert. You know, at the end. Erin thought it was fantastic. He was happy. He loved, you know, the whole experience of it. and I was happy for him. I was so happy that he wanted to have this. And you know what? It was a special occasion. For sure. For sure. You know, you go out for dinner is lovely, but this is special. It was a very yes, it was definitely a one and done. There are other restaurants like that, if I remember. yes, there's pineapple and pearls. Pineapple and sorry, there's pineapple and pearls. There is a few in DC. He picked this one. There was another one that he had that was a Michelin star. It wasn't quite to the same effect of the you know 1617 courses. but he you know Jose Andreas is I think he's Puerto Rican, but he has that Spanish influence in him. So a lot of the food had a lot of the Spanish influence, which was was outstanding. So that was Thursday. I then left early Friday morning to head to New York. Now normally when I go to New York I drive, but because I was flying to Paris from New York, I remember I ended up taking the train. But bless my beautiful daughter's heart, wanted a picnic in the park for her 30th. And whatever. your children want, your children get. So she was like, Well, we'll there's this woman that does it, we can hire her. And the woman was irritating her. And she said to me, Mom, I can do this on my own. I do not need somebody to do it. So between Amazon and us, we created, and I have to tell you, it was phenomenal. I know. I wish we had pictures to show because I saw I know maybe Scott will put some up. I'll ask him to put some up so those that are watching the show can get to see some of the pictures. Decorations were so beautiful. I'm so lucky because October in New York can be very dicey. Yes. And this was the most magnificent day. So before I get to the day, I get to New York on Friday. Well, let me tell you a cooler bag of a cheesecake that I made, of meringues that you made, of What did I take with? I mean we had the cheese scones. I made scones with that I shipped. Well we made we've got the jab and cream, we the cluttered cream, but I made I made the scones, I made the cheesecake, I had your meringues, I bought smoked salmon, I had macaroons that I got. I had this cooler bag that I shipped with my suitcase and my carry-on and my overnight bag. Only a mother. Only a mother didn't. Were they macaroons or macarons? Macarons. Excuse me. They were from Costco, but they were delicious. I didn't make them, but they had them at Costco. They were pretty. They looked pretty on the table. Anyway. So that was on Friday. And I hit the ground running. I went to the apartment, I put everything down, and we then went. She was still looking for an outfit to wear for the party. So I went and met her and in in Soho and we found her an outfit. And then we went to Whole Foods and Crater Joe's and we got beautiful flowers. She had a vision. She had a vision. She had been an Etsy. She made an entire vision board of what she wanted. We must post pensions. I know. And I have to tell you, Mom, whatever she dreamed, it it was beautiful. It was so perfect. So that was Friday afternoon. Friday night we had she had arranged dinner at Faina. Which is a Miami, it's actually an Argentinian hotel chain. Hot it's one it's a boutique hotel in Argentina. They have one in Miami and they opened one in New York about two years ago. Wow. it was an experience. Beautiful. if anybody hasn't been, they really should go. They have live music. It's almost like a Kind of like the experience we had on Thursday night with the you know Michelin Star, this was a Michelin star, but the restaurant was stunning. They have somebody singing and it did you say it wasn't a Michelin star? No, it's not Michelin Star. Okay. No, no, no. The restaurant there is not Michelin Star, but beautiful, just beautiful. And and you know, the girls went and had a photo shoot and taking a million pictures of themselves and it was lovely. And and Kayla's boyfriend Austin joined us. so we we had dinner at Faina and then we went back. And had an early night because we had to, Saturday morning we woke up and now we had to do everything do everything. So her vision was that she wanted, you know, she works at the Mandarin Mariental and they do an afternoon tea and they have these beautiful tea sandwiches. So she wanted to recreate the sandwiches. And it was actually so funny though, because she obviously had some of her friends from work that came to the party and they all said to her, Did you get how did you get the Mandarin to make these sandwiches for you? They couldn't believe that we had made them. But Austin was fantastic and he helped make beautiful the cucumber he sliced very thin. So the cucumber sandwiches had like pieces of cucumber on top, and you know, in as well as inside with a nice like dill cream cheese. And then we made smoked salmon and cream cheese. And then Austin, also Austin's a great cook as well, made this unbelievable egg salad. And we made so we made egg salad sandwiches, we made the sandwiches with the smoked salmon, and then we had the cucumber sandwiches. We had the scones, which were a hit. They were a South African recipe that I've been making for years. You know it. Right. The Murna Rose and Scones. So I ended up making the scones and the cheesecake I did for the first time on the round. You know, I always make my cheesecake in a Pyrex. Yes. So Kayla said, no, Mom, I wanted it. on the round. So I did. I was so nervous about how it was going to come out, but it was beautiful. There's one of those springform pans that I used. And she decorated it too beautiful with some berries. She put blueberries and blackberries on it and then she had like sprigs of flour. Beautiful. and it turned out to be and then of course it was the most spectacular day. It was 75 degrees on October 10th in New York. There wasn't a drop of rain. It was absolutely perfect. And we laid it all out in the park. rose and bubbles. you know, that's that's what we ended up having. And yes, 'cause we had to bring it all down. we had it out there. And that was Saturday and it was beautiful. and then we woke up Sunday and it was torrentially downpouring. Of rain. It was like I'm telling you, I say this over and over. There was somebody that watches over us and he was on our side for that weekend because it was fantastic. I'm so pleased. Yeah, I'm so So that was the that was the the twins' 30th birthday. So I can check that one off. I'm over the fact now that I have thirty year olds. I guess it's just is what it is. I can't change it. It's is what it is. And we are moving on. And then kind of we hung on Sunday. Everyone was hung over and tired. Nicole came back to the apartment and we hung. I can't even remember what we did. I think we went, we went to go and return something, and it was just miserable. The weather was just miserable. We didn't relieve. And then I flew out on Sunday night. On Sunday night. So I flew out Sunday night. I want to tell you one thing, Amanda. You are the energizer battery. god. I don't know how you do it. Energizer bunny. The energizer bunny. With batteries. I think we should be promoting energizer batteries. Mom. Yeah. Yeah. I I don't know how I did it. I mean, it literally was Thursday was that, then Friday was getting on the train and going to New York. Then Saturday was the party. By the time Sunday came, I was spent. But I got on that plane, I closed my eyes, and I slept all the way to Paris, or most of the way to Paris. Got to Paris. That must have been Unbelievable. The excitement that I was feeling was definitely palpable. there was a feeling of I'm doing this. I'm actually doing this. I have pivoted in my life and I have taken myself off and I am now on my way to Europe. And I got to Paris. and I think I mentioned it on the episode where I spoke about it to say that I actually stayed in an Airbnb. And it was fantastic. I know because that makes you feel as if you're at home. It is. Your little house and you can do your own thing. I did and it was perfect. It was a one bedroom. It was a little noisy. not so much that the where I was staying. It was in the Marie, but it was in like a neighborhood. Just there were people in the building that were just they thought that two AM in the morning was when you start your day. Yeah. Well this is Europe. Very I know. Europe only starts at ten or eleven. I wasn't used to that. So I ended up Going, putting my stuff down and pretty much, you know, again, hit hit the road road, you know, the ground. And she messaged me and said, as soon as you get here, message me, let me know when you've arrived. Which I did. And I met them at which I was dying to go to was Lastafalafel. It's a very famous Israeli restaurant in the Moray. And it was just beautiful. It was so fun. So fun. And you know, Mom, it's such a bloody small world. It is crazy. So I'm standing in line, waiting for them. They had they were, you know, coming from where they from their hotel. and this girl taps me on the shoulder. I guess I was talking to the guy, because you wait in line. It's like a small restaurant. this girl taps me on the shoulder and she says to me, Are you South African? And I said, Yes. And she said to me, my goodness, she goes, I'm from LA. She had a bit of an accent, but she goes, I'm from LA. And I went to school with a girl from South Africa, and I was like, whoo! You know me. Yes. And the funny thing is, if my kids or Mark were standing there, they would have turned around and saying, Mom, you don't know everybody, you know. But Mom, she says to me, Do you know the Landaus? I'm like, What? I said, Yes, they're my cousins. She goes, I was at school with Lauren Landau. I guess Joe's daughter. Yes. So this is my Mom's cousin who lives in who lived in LA's passed away now. what are the odds that I'm gonna run into somebody that you know in Paris? But wait, it gets more. I mean, the the stories are just crazy. They go on and on. Anyway, so that was my first encounter. She was lovely and we had a good and she was, I used to love Sheila's cooking and I used to always go there for the South African cooking and we had a good you know, it's just The familiarity of bumping into somebody that's from South Africa is always or knows somebody, but she wasn't South African. She was American. she was actually Israeli and American. Anyway, so that was fine. And we had I had lunch with Mani and Paul and the boys, and they had been there for a couple of days. So they gave me some tips and things of what I wanted to do. So already I'm there and I'm not solo because I'm like with them, which was amazing. And I'm it was my God, every moment of every day worked out perfectly. So that was Monday. And then Monday night I was solo. And Brandon, not Brandon, Jordan. She's got two boys, Brandon and Jordan. Br Jordan, her one son, is an incredible photographer. Incredible. His pictures, I said to Marnie, next time I'm taking him with me on holiday. I mean, yes, Kayla's a fantastic photographer, but he really Took some pictures of Paris that was phenomenal. Anyway, Jordan had said to me there's this hotel that has a rooftop bar. Go to it because you get to see the whole of Paris. And mom, the weather that day was again spectacular. It was blue skies, it was 72 degrees. So I went back, got changed, and off I went. Now walked the 45 minutes to go to it was on the on the other bank. So I was on the right bank, went to the bank. Went to the left left bank and I walked there. I get to the hotel and the woman says to me, I'm so sorry, madame, but it's closed. I'm like, what? No. She says to me, I said, No, no, no, my friend Satan was just here last night. They closed for the season. That was the last night. So you couldn't go the next day either? No, I couldn't go. I couldn't go. Up the thing. But you know what? I pivoted. And off I went, and I Googled, popular French restaurants in the vicinity. And they sent me off to a restaurant. It was an absolutely quintessential French restaurant. You know, very old, beautiful. And I w went in there. And of course, being one person, you can always get a table. You know, so it was so easy to get a table. They gave me a table. I sat next to two women from Texas who, in two minutes, were my friends, and we were chatting and talking, and you know, told them our whole substory and whatever, and everyone listens. Anyway, I had my French onion soup with my bread and my butter and it was just delicious. And it was a lovely evening. And then I'm messaging Kayla as I'm sitting at the table. She says to me, You know, Mom, the Eiffel Tower lights up every hour on the hour for five minutes. So eight o'clock, nine o'clock, ten o'clock, it lights up and it twinkles. It li it's it's lit in the nighttime, but it twinkles. And it was seven thirty at this point. And I said to myself, Okay, I'm done with my dinner. I'm gonna go. And off I went to the Eiffel Tower, and that very first night I got to see the Eiffel Tower twinkling eight o'clock. And I got there and it was fabulous. and then I ended up Ubering back to the the Airbnb, and that was day one. day two was so fun. And I know I use use their examples a lot, and I mentioned it last time, but I told you about Sunny and Jen when they had gone had told us about this company called Cedric's Paris, where you have somebody, a tour guy that takes you in a citron, like a little citron, it's an open-top, you know, car and it's really not for more than two people. Yes, yes. And they take you around Paris. And I had arranged for that. Well, Hugo arrives, he is the most adorable thing you could imagine, this young French guy. I mean he was younger than my kids. what a sweetheart. my goodness, he was amazing. And it's funny because Sunny and Jen actually had him. There you go. The same guy. I mean, what are the odds? He remembered you. He remembered them. And in fact, Marnie had had the had him as well a couple nights before. And he remembered them. Anyway, he took me and he said, you know, what do you want to do? And I said, Well, I booked to go to Sacro Cura in Montmartre. He says, All right, let's go. And he said, We're gonna, you we've got you three hours and we're gonna go all over. And of course he asked me what I was doing there. And I said to him, I'm, you know, I came to Paris because I'm going to see Celine Dion. And in two minutes, he had Celine Dion blaring in the car on the radio. And he was singing all the songs in French. He was this my God, he was so divine. So so divine. We had the best time together and the two of us were ch ch ch ch ch chilling. So knowledgeable. I mean, he told me stuff that I would never have You'd never have known I'd been walking by myself or I didn't you have to do something like that. If you're in a in a strange country like that and you don't know You need a guy I mean he took me, he showed me where Picasso's apartment was and you and he showed me like the explained the the relevance of the of the Moulin Rouge and and I forgot that Moulin is windmill. Yes. And it all kind of came together and he took me past some of the windmills and we went up to Sacrecour and we stopped and I didn't go inside, but we stopped and got some pictures outside the beautiful church. and then of course he knew that I was there for Celine. So he goes, I got a surprise for you. I got a surprise for you. I'm like, Okay, what's my surprise? He drove me past the hotel where she stayed. And as you said on our episode. How she stands outside every day. And these people stand there waiting for hours for and she's so sweet. So this was on the Tuesday, so it wasn't one of her performing days because she only performs Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. So I don't know if she was busy or what she was doing. She didn't come out, but we stayed for a little bit and we waited. There were a couple people hanging milling around, but there weren't that many people out of the hotel. But I could see where she's been staying for the last two months. And then from there he drove me around the Arc de Triomphe. Which was just so amazing because, you know, I've got this amazing video. I've got to post all these pictures because it's just so fantastic. But we drove around the Arc de Triomphe. He took me back to the Eiffel Tower. I got some fun pictures, like standing outside of the car, like this. Like at the top of the, you know, with the Eiffel Tower behind me. he was he was absolutely fantastic. So that was Tuesday. And then I get a message from a girl. That I know from Maryland from Potomac, Monica Parsons, who says to me, Are you in Paris? And I'm like, Yes. She goes, my god, Amanda, I'm here with Gabby, her daughter. The two of them were in Paris. And she's like, We've got to see you. We've got to see you. So they invited me for dinner Tuesday night. Wow. And I ended up meeting them. So your solo trip is turning into solo trip solo. Visiting friends. But I don't go away on a holiday, as you know, without there being a story. So there's a story. You mean this is not the story? No. This is not the story. So my experience of Paris and having lost my passport when I was 18 is now behind me because I have a new story to share. So what happened? So when I bought my tickets for Celine, I bought them through StubHub. Uh-huh. And Everything looked kosher, paid what I did, got, you know, it all went through, told me my tickets were going to be coming. I was chatting to Erin on Tuesday night before I went to bed. And I said, you know, I haven't got my tickets yet. He says, you know what, Mom? You should message StubHub and just kind of figure out what's going on. So I did, message Stub Hub. They sent me a message the next morning when I woke up and they said, We've contacted the seller. We don't know why you haven't received them. You'll get your tickets. And half an hour later, my ticket was in my In my email. There was my ticket. I downloaded it. And you can't take a screenshot though, because they don't want you somebody else giving, you know, somebody else taking the screen the screenshots. You can't take the screenshot. So you haven't got any so you got it on the app, but you can't like there's no like proof or anything that other than it's being on the app. Off I go, and actually on Wednesday I ended up going to the Dior Museum. And if anybody's going to Paris, you cannot miss the Dior exhibition. Yeah. It's phenomenal. It was absolutely incredible. And I walked an hour to get there, but it was so beautiful. It was a f fresh, brisk morning. And I walked all the way to the Dior Museum and I got to see the exhibition. It was fantastic. And then I met Melissa, who was going to the concert, and her friend Lindsay. And we we were together and we shopped a little bit. Long story short, I go back to the apartment to go and get changed now for the concert and I'm meeting L I'm meeting Melissa for a bite to eat before we go to the concert. so the concert is at 8.30. I'm meeting Melissa at 5.00. I message her to say I'm running a few minutes late. I'll be at you at 5.15. I'm on my way. And I go in, I think, you know what? I'm gonna check, make sure that everything's kosher and the tickets there. No ticket. No ticket. It says it says your transfer has been cancelled. Your seller has cancelled your ticket. Well you must have gone ballistic. You know what? My my my stomach, you know me, I'm I'm very positive. I don't believe that thing if things happen for a reason, but I just didn't believe that this could be happening to me. So I call my girls or I message email, text my girls, and I said, Guys, what do I do? And you know, the girls said to me, Look, mom, Stubup is renowned for having these scams. People have been scammed. Yes. And Kayla said to me, get on the phone right away. The girls were at work, though. It was the morning for them. So they couldn't really do anything for me. So Kayla said to me, Mom, just try and get a hold of something. You need to get a hold of a person. You can't just talk on a, you know, on a chat or whatever. Anyway, I messaged Melissa. Melissa says, Come, just come to the hotel and we'll figure it out. I have to tell you, that woman was an angel. She was so calm. And she just grounded me and she said to me, We will figure this out. Between the two of us, we will figure and as I mentioned to you on the last on the last podcast that we spoke about this was I know I've known Melissa for a really long time. She's not in my everyday circle. We don't speak every day. I see her sometimes. I very rarely we comment on each other on Instagram, you know, like Instagram friend and whatever. Yeah. She was the most incredible human being. She said, We've got this. We sat in the hotel. She said, let's not leave the hotel until we 'cause we don't want to lose Wi-Fi and and you know, service or whatever. Long story short, I was able to get a hold of a person, which was amazing. At Stub Hub. At Stub Hub, because I really do believe that that was and I just said on in the instant chat that I was on there, I said, I need to speak to somebody. I need to speak to somebody. We got a hold of him. Now it's six fifteen. The concert is an hour away. We have to take the train there. And the concert starts at 8 30. So now I'm getting anxious. Forget dinner. Melissa goes, We don't need dinner. We gotta sort this out. So I said to the guy, what should I do? Should I leave? What should I do? He says, Yes. He said, Here's my email. I had sent him now what thank God I was there with somebody because what she did was she took a picture of what I had. So the cancel ticket thing. She had a picture and we had where where I was sitting. Couldn't use it because there was no barcode, but it had all my details. It had my name, it had all of that. So at least I had proof that I did have a ticket. Anyway, I emailed him all this information and he said to me, When you get you can't, I can't, you can't call me because you're just gonna get a random person when you call. He said, But email me. The minute you get to the arena, email me. So we get on the train, off we go, we get to Plintitude Arena, and it was beautiful. Felt sad for her though because we lost all the excitement of getting there and seeing the 40,000 people and everyone walking towards the arena. You know what I mean? So we lost a lot of that because we were so we were stressed, and she was keeping me very calm. I did keep myself together. And I really, really, I have to say, I was impressed with myself. But You know, yes, you can pivot and you can do these solo things, but it did help to have somebody by your side that was there to kind of just kind of walk you through that. Long story short, was I ended up standing in line. I was in the ro wrong line. I then got into a ticket master line. The guy did eventually call me back. Eight five. I'm standing at the front of the line. I finally get to the front of the line. And as I get to the front of the line, he says to me, and there's so much more to the story, but the bottom line is he says to me, Okay, here I've just given sent you a new link. Go ahead and reload it. Let's see what happens. And it popped up in my in my app. I walked into that arena at 8 15. So what happened? What did we don't know? He couldn't have sold it to anybody else because nobody else came into the seat. It was my original ticket. It was my original section, my original seat. Everything was the same. I don't know what happened. So I guess my nugget to anybody listening to the show is just be careful. Make sure you prepared. Make sure you have I mean, Melissa also got hers through Stub Hub, but hers was through Access, which is a different it wasn't like Ticketmaster. And it can happen and other people we'd heard that it had happened too. But it was But it w in the end it was worth it. But it was worth it. It's I sat down and it was so funny because there were three Americans sitting behind me and yeah. I live in Potomac. She was from Germantown, Maryland, which was, I mean, what are the odds? And she looked at me and she had two glasses of champagne and Celine Cups. And she says to me, You need the second one way more than I do. Here you go. You told her the story. I told her the story. I tell everyone my stories. And in two minutes, she gave me her champagne, and the rest was history. And it was the most incredible experience of my life. She was phenomenal. Everything that I dreamed of that it was going to be, it was, and more. The only thing I'm sorry to disappoint you, she didn't call me up on stage. my god. You told me that I was gonna get called up on stage in the last episode. You said to me, If I know you, Amanda, you're gonna have a picture with her. There's no picture of me and Celine. I was hoping maybe she'd come on the podcast after you're telling her the story. Just just imagine that. Imagine I Selene Dia and how she pivoted after her illness. And came on to the podcast. Anyway, she sang a lot in French, which was beautiful. I I she spoke a lot in French too. I was bothered by it. I understood most of it, but I Melissa said to me now, she said to me, it was a French, it was she was in Paris, she was in a French, it was a French concert. But again, you've got to understand she speaks Canadian French. Yes, Canadian French is very different from Parisian French. And you who are not Offay with French per se. It wasn't even from that perspective. no. And she spoke for it. And the feeling she's got and this remarkable woman. I know. I mean, if you'd seen have you ever seen the movie? Yes, of course, the documentary. I tell you, I was crying. I thought this woman is finished. And look at that. Yeah. Unbelievable. Talk about it. Unbelievable. And all the haters, people saying that she lip synced, and people saying that she was off key and bull, bull, bull, bull. She was incredible. the fact that she was doing this was incredible. And I think I may go back in May and see it do it all over. Wait, she's doing it again. She's doing May, coming back to Paris. Going back to Paris and doing shows. Wow. I'm coming with you. You're coming with me? Absolutely. I don't care. So, yes. So, I think that it it was just incredible. So that was our my experience. So there's always a story. That's my story. I waited to share it here so that people could hear about it. it was it was insane. The next day I did a fantastic food tour, a walking food tour. Remember, we spoke very similar to what I did it. I did it. We spoke about it last year. Yeah. We spoke about it on that on that. And I did it, and it was fantastic. Fantastic. It was actually an Israeli woman, interestingly enough, who's living in Paris for the last 16 years with her partner, who she actually met on the food tour, who was taking her on a food tour, and they ended up falling in love and getting married. And the two of them live live in Paris together. very knowledgeable, knew. mean, it was just fantastic. We met in one of the Marie, one of the marchets in Saint Germain. And it was just fantastic. We did the patisserie, we did the boulangerie. Well just explain it a little bit more for people who would like to do Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what basically what you do is you meet, you meet the person and they don't take more than small groups. I got to do it all on my own. So she doesn't mix people. So if you come with like three or four, like like Marnie did it with her husband and the boys and the four of them did it together. And I did it with your sister. You did it. Yeah. And the girls. I did it on my own, which was lovely because I could I was a one on one. It was a private one on one tour. Unbelievable tour. it was too much food though, because she makes you eat all the time and she gets very upset when you don't eat. But when she talks to you about the different cheeses. Well, first we started at the boulangerie and she gave me the baguettes. And I you know you check try baguette and then she gave me the most unbelievable croissant that you wanted to like die. and these other like one or two other little pastries. That's where I learned. When you make bread, any type of bread, you turn it and at the back you knock it. And if it's hollow, you know the bread's gonna be perfect. it was unbelievable. Not dense. Unbelievable. So we started there. and then she had in the marché, she was explaining to me in the market, They basically through the government they come and secure their places. They only have these markets for a couple hours in the morning. Right. And everything's fresh. They have this fresh fish out there and people from the restaurants will come and pick up, you know, come and buy, or people will buy for that and they people buy for the day. You know, in Paris you don't go and buy for the day. Freezer. You know, no, you're buying for the day. You buy your vegetables and you buy your fish or your meat or whatever you're doing, but you get it for the day. And that's what you cook that you know, that's what you cook that day. And then there was a fantastic guy who we went that had different honeys and they had different jams. I bought you back that delicious raspberry jam. they have different jams and nougar oils, and so you get a little bit of tasting and you get to taste all of that. Then she took me to the pâtisserie, and it was a specialized pâtisserie where they made these unbelievable like meringue things with like a hazelnut. cream inside and they perfect it. You go to the fromagère and he was like a famous, you know, fromagere with all the cheeses. Yeah. And you get to taste all these different cheeses, we stayed. But they brought they brought cheeses out. Because we went into the vault and they show you these aged cheeses. Years old, you know, and they cut into it to see when it's ripe enough. to bring up so that she even died was so divide. So divide. And then she walked and then we kind of walked around and she showed me different you know, other little different patri patriots. And the chocolate. And then we walked first we went past the Sorban. Yes. And she told me about the Sorban and she explained some of the history. and then we walked all the way to the chocolatier. my God. Never in my life. I know. I mean Unbelievable. I have some for you. We're gonna have some we're gonna have some this weekend. it was divine. I'm saving it. I wasn't giving it to you because you have to savor it. You have to like have why each piece was like like fifty dollars. One it was you know ridiculous anyway. We did that and then she ended sh I ended it off and she left me in a coffee shop with this you can't call it a macaron because it wasn't, it was like this unbelievable meringue. with a lychee rose and raspberry filling. No, that's not a macaron. It was, no, it was like a I don't know what it was, but it was a dessert. A dessert. So I ended up ended off with that. But the time by the time I was done there, Mum, I thought I was gonna roll out of there. and then I went to the canned epicerie where they have the butter. And there I was I was determined to bring my butter home and I did. and I went Is that the butter that comes from Normandy? The Normandy butter. Yes. And I got like a garlic butter and I got a like a herb butter. Wow. and then I got like the demisol, you know, the the half salted butter and the the whatever. Demisalt. I didn't bring a lot because I wasn't sure there was some rumors that you couldn't take it into London. But because it was vacuum packed, I was okay. There wasn't a and you weren't scared that by the time you came home it would be ransomed? No, because I froze it. So I froze it in that because I was in the apartment. It was a freezer. So I froze it in Paris. Yeah. It stayed frozen while I was on the train. And then when I got to London, I froze it. Okay. And then it was in the hold. You know, it's freezing cold in the hold. By the time I came home, it was still frozen. And I stuck it back in my fridge, in my freezer. Yeah. So so yeah, so that was that. And then one of the other things that I did, I was told that there is There is the most amazing cutlery in Paris that you have to come home with. It's called Subray, which Sonny and Jen told us about. And you actually go and you can design your own cutlery sets. And you can pick different handles, like different colored handles. wow. And you can mix it with What are the handles made out of They're made of some. You can either get wood. I didn't. I got like a what would you call it? like a baker light. yeah. Yeah, like the perspective. They don't call perspects in this country. But no, baker lights. Yeah. So I ended up getting a set of those. But of course, there's a story. I'm going on the train to London. And I have my beautiful subray set that's in my suitcase. And you go through security because you have to be protected on the train. And they go, Madame, can't you say I see? What do you have in there? I said. What image? Because do you have knives? And I'm like, yes, I have my set. She was like, no, no, no. You're not taking those knives on the train with you. Wow, that's right. Are you kidding me? Anyway, as Amanda does, Amanda does. There was a way that I could pay to get my knives put underneath the train and they weren't on me, but I had to walk 20 minutes to the security sw Or whatever that they could wrap in their Anyway, I got it sorted, was able to take my damn knives under the train. When I got to London, they brought me my suitcase afterwards. I'm exhausted listening to you. I mean, by the time I got to London, I was like, my God. but it was so fun. It was amazing. I I left out my part, my friend Jamie arrived in Paris on that Thursday as well. And that night, she on on the leaderboard, I think I mentioned it. in the episode that we spoke about Paris before, her leaderboard name is Peddle to Paris. So she loves Paris and knew all the spots to take pictures at the Eiffel Tower. And we went and we had the best time together. So it wasn't quite so solo, but it was magical, and I wouldn't change it for anything. Well, I'm so glad that you can come back and tell us all about it. And you can pivot, you can turn things around, you can make it the way you wanted to. And it all works out. It all works out very much. Look at you. And then I went off to London and I got to do my peloton and we had a fantastic ride with Bradley Rose and we got to do John's takeover, which was fantastic. So the t shirt fun. We had the t shirts made and it was so much fun. I got to do it. Now why exactly just explained to me the t shirts? He has a f he had a five year pellersary. So five years that he's that he's been at Peloton. Yes. And that was what that was what we were celebrating. I see, you were celebrating that t shirt. He was so he was so happy about it. And we had a great weekend in London. We just really did Peloton, that was really all we did. and that was that was my trip. Well, I hope that everybody's enjoyed this episode. I know I have. I've been waiting patiently for you to tell me. Every day you've been crazy since I've gotten back Well, you came back so exhausted that you were sick. I did. I did end up getting sick. But I'm fine. I'm good and I'm happy to be home. And it was everything that I could have dreamed of as more. And I guess my message to everybody listening to this is, if you can, take the damn trip. Do it. It's worth it. You will never regret doing something for yourself. You will never regret. empowering yourself in something like that. So that is my bit of advice that I can leave you guys with is take the damn trip. It's worth it.