3 years...

December 30th marked 3 years of marriage for James and I. Out of curiosity, I looked up what the traditional gift was for year 3 it said that it's leather and the modern gift is crystal/glass. Well it's save to say, we didn't follow this guideline (does anyone follow this? maybe when you reach the platinum and diamond levels?).

We spent the few days around our anniversary in Paris. One evening we walked over the "Pont de l'Archevêché" by Notre Dame Cathedral.

As you can see this is one of the famous love locks bridge in Paris (the other being Pont des Arts). We decided what a better way to mark this anniversary than to add a love lock to the bridge.

Conveniently there are often people selling locks on the bridge so you don't have to go searching too far!

 Here I am writing our names and wedding date on the lock with permanent marker.

 James is getting the keys ready, double checking that they really match the lock.

 We have found the perfect spot for the lock to go.

Making sure it's all secure...

Since it came with 3 keys we decided that each of us would make a wish on a key and we would keep the 3rd key (how cute would it be to make a necklace or something out of it as a keepsake?)

Sealing it with a kiss

And into the Seine River the 2 keys go!

The night sky was beautiful and Notre Dame looked picture perfect.

This was such a fun thing to do and a great memory to have for years to come. We hope that years from now we will be able to find our lock amongst the sea of love locks!

Anniversary dinner and drinks

James made plans for the evening of our anniversary and just told me to be ready by 6:30pm. We walked into the city center even though it was lightly raining, same sort of weather as our wedding night but probably a bit warmer here.

We started the evening here at this wine bar.

We had a few glasses of one of my favorite wines, Coteaux du Layon, to start off the evening.

Then we went to dinner at the restaurant that James had made reservations.

It was a cozy Italian restaurant and we had a fun window table with a view of the rain and trees still all lit up.

The view outside of the restaurant

The inside of the restaurant

I started off with a salad that was really delicious. It had artichokes, tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella.

 
James had octopus with some pasta as his starter. I tried the octopus and it had a great flavor. 

Of course wine was in order. The restaurant carried only Italian wine so James did some serious contemplating to decide on which bottle we should have.

James reviewing the wine menu. To make the process easier, he had a whiskey while making the big decision.

  After much contemplation he did his best and made a choice, a great Chianti wine. Now on to the important decision of what to have for our main dish. I was really lost in trying to decipher the menu (more lost than usual when it come to ordering in French). James suggested that we order pizzas and decided on one he thought I would like.

All smiles ready to try the pizza

It was essentially a ham and cheese pizza but with multiple types of ham. Now I don't mind ham and it is very plentiful here in France, but historically it's not my first choice of meats. Back in the states I would choose turkey every single time when it came to deciding on a meat for sandwiches. I had never had pizza with ham unless we are talking about Canadian bacon with pineapple. This pizza wasn't my favorite. It had a variety of different kinds of ham on it, some of which I didn't really care for and was trying to pick off. However, the crust of the pizza was fantastic!

While the pizza that James chose looked a bit strange to me it was really tasty!

I preferred his over mine and he was willing to share a bit (I am sure we would have totally traded but he doesn't eat ham at all).

Looks can be deceiving as it was great but it looks strange right?! I have never seen an egg on a pizza before. I have no idea if this is "normal" in France or Italy but it was a first for me.

 It was a great evening of drinks and dinner celebrating our first year of marriage and reminiscing about what we were doing a year ago and all of the fun we had as we became husband and wife. After dinner we went home and I surprised him with wine and the cheesecake I mentioned in the previous post.

Looking forward to what the next year has in store for us!

Paper and cheesecake

So now that the big 1st Anniversary is over I can give the details of what I had planned for James. I had researched what the traditional gift was for the 1st wedding anniversary and it is paper. Really, paper?! According to the sources I checked the more modern version is a clock. So I tried to get creative while wanting to stay with the traditional gift idea just for fun.

I decided on giving James a journal and I wrote a love note to him including all that we have accomplished this past year and the things I see and hope for during our second year of marriage. I asked that he play along and also write a note in it with the hope that we can use this as our anniversary journal to reflect on each year and share some of our favorite moments. It may be something really fun to look back on as time goes on. He loved the gift and agreed that he would play along with my plan and that we would both write notes in it to each other around our anniversary every year.

Anniversary Journal

The inside of the journal, love letter #1 to follow

The second part of my surprise to James had to do with cheesecake. James loved cheesecake when he had it in the US this past summer so I thought it would be nice to make him one for our anniversary. Some of you may remember that I attempted to make a cheesecake not long after my arrival in France (read more about how that went here). Since that time I have gotten better prepared for a second attempt at making a cheesecake. Three major things have happened since then:
1. My mom mailed me an amazing stash of baking items which included the ever important graham crackers
2. I found Philadelphia cream cheese here in France
3. I accidentally found a spring form pan at a store (James and I searched high and low months ago for one but could never find one)

So needless to say I was MUCH better equipped this time to make a cheesecake. I made it on Thursday evening while James was at work. He had no idea about it until I brought it out on Friday evening to have as dessert after our evening out.

The cheesecake baking in the new fancy spring form pan!

He was surprised and excited!

The cheesecake was pretty good, I just need to perfect the crust a bit more. I used a recipe from a friend along with one I found online (I didn't have all the things needed for 1 crust and the other had cinnamon in it which James hates). The only other thing missing was a strawberry topping. Since it isn't strawberry season I wasn't able to find any and they don't seem to believe in frozen fruit here (or if they do I haven't been able to find it yet). However considering how the first attempt at cheesecake went I think this was a much bigger success and his smile when I served it with the wine was a perfect ending to our anniversary celebration.

If I needed further confirmation that it was a success, James had 2 pieces of it for breakfast the next morning. The only change was that we got brillant and added some of my grandma's homemade strawberry/peach jam as the topping, according to James this was truly the missing link!

Adding the jam, Grandma if you are reading this we already finished this jar!

Looking a bit tired but loving cheesecake for breakfast

Anyone have a cheesecake recipe that is to die for? I am game to try a couple different varieties to perfect this adventure of making cheesecake in France.

365 days as Madame Léger

Happy Anniversary James!

One year ago today I married my amazing husband! Wow, that is a bit crazy to write considering all that has happened in our life this past year. The day of our wedding was almost perfect (only missing some family members from afar)! I woke the morning of our wedding and had a calm about me. I remember being a bit surprised by this as I have attended many weddings (and been intimately involved in many as well) and it often seemed that there were more nerves and anxiety present. The morning was spent with some of my favorite people in the world, getting pampered and made beautiful. It was relaxing and wonderful. Since it was an evening wedding there was no rush felt during the day and things just seemed easy. The only minor glitch was when I went to leave the hotel and walk over to the ceremony and I got stuck in the elevator. Thankfully I had one of my best friends with me who reacted enough for both of us and made it very clear that there was a bride in the elevator on her way to her wedding. I remember once I arrived and saw James he laughed and said, "I wasn't worried, the wedding wasn't going to start without you!"

The ceremony was intimate, dinner was delicious and the desserts and dancing were fantastic. I know I have a biased opinion but it really was perfect! The day went by way too fast, don't all couples say that looking back on their wedding?
 
A year ago we didn't know how long we would have to wait for paperwork to be complete and allow me to move to France.  James had to return to France 4 days after our wedding and we didn't know when we would see each other again. I think back to that and I am really proud of how strong we were to make it through all of this. Sometimes I am impatient and feel like things are not happening fast enough for us. I have to remind myself of all that we have accomplished and try and be patient. 

James and I haven't completely decided what we are doing today to celebrate but I have a few things up my sleeve. I can't tell you yet because he may just read the blog and I want to surprise him first.