Chapter Six: Birthday in the City
"Joyeux Anniversaire, Joyeux Anniversaire, Joyeux Anniversaire... notre belle Clary… Joyeux Anniversaire!" I am awoken by Izzy, Jon and Jace singing their beautiful French rendition of Happy Birthday! How sneaky of them to learn this and practice it somehow without my knowing! I applaud heartily.
"That was wonderful! Thank you all so much!" I smile up at them.
They're all perched on the bed beside me, so, being half asleep still, I pull them all into a group hug without thinking, only to hear Isabelle exclaim "Clary, Darling, you're crushing your roses!" That's when I realize that they are each holding a bouquet of roses!
Izzy's bouquet is red, Jace's bouquet is orange, and Jon's is lavender. "They're all beautiful! Is there anything significant about the colors?" I ask.
"Yep, mine are red. Red represents romantic and abiding love. And they represent your courage and passion as a person." Isabelle says holding them out to me.
"They are beautiful, thank you Sweetheart!" I smell the sweet roses and sigh blissfully.
"Mine are orange which represents my fascination, passion, desire and enthusiasm for you. They also represent the positive energy you give me and how proud I am of you. I love you, my Little Spitfire!" Jace says and hands me his.
"Aww, thanks Jacey Baby!" I sniff them as well and turn to face Jonathan.
"And lastly, lavender represents enchantment, adoration and love at first sight. They also represent the mysterious and unattainable, which, for all intents and purposes is what you should be to me, so it's my way of showing you how grateful I am that that isn't the case for us. Thank you for loving me in spite of what the rest of the world thinks about it. I love you, Clay."
Okay, and now I'm crying. "Oh, my Jonathan! I love you, big brother. Don't ever doubt it, okay?" I take the flowers and hold them off to the side so I can kiss him passionately.
"Let me take all of these for you, so that they don't get squished anymore hunny." Izzy says.
"Yes and I'll grab your tray and bring it in. We made you a Parisian breakfast in bed!" Jace grins.
They've intentionally given me a moment alone with Jonathan as he obviously needs it. I grab him and pull him onto the bed with me. "Jon, are you having doubts about us?" I ask, hesitantly.
"No! Clarissa, not for a second! I just, well, keep half-expecting that you will. I mean, I just am so glad to have you in my life, I'm afraid I'll mess this up somehow. Two years ago, it never would have even crossed my mind that I could even get to know my sister, let alone that she'd be this beautiful and could possibly ever fall in love with me, it's just unreal."
"Oh Baby! I want you to stop this line of thinking, right now. Maybe it's not that common for other people, no, but for one thing, you and I did not grow up together, and for two, I was raised to accept the idea of siblings as a couple because of close family friends of ours, and you, my Love, were raised on a hippie commune. So I'd say personally that what constitutes 'normal' for us, as opposed to mundanes or even other Shadowhunters is a totally different thing, okay? So yes, for us, this is very much real, and I, your sister, very much love you Jon. Please don't ever forget that."
"Thank you, Clarissa Morgenstern, for alleviating my concerns, as well as for loving me in the first place." Jonathan sighs in relief and wraps me in a big hug, just as Jace and Izzy return.
"And on that note, here is your breakfast, Milady." Jace smiles widely, placing the tray on the bed for me.
"And I made you a café noisette, its espresso with a dash of cream. I gave you raw sugar on the side because it tastes really good if you leave some granules not stirred in when you drink it, trust me." Izzy laughs.
The coffee is really good! And so is the tray of food, which includes baguette with brie, croissant with jam, a yogurt and some sliced strawberries. Since an ordinary French breakfast might be one of these items not all of them, it's evident that they are bent on spoiling me for my birthday.
"So, where are we going today?" I ask, hoping to get the inside scoop on how I will be spending my birthday.
"Well," Izzy says. "We have each selected an activity for the day." She smiles and casts a look at Jonathan.
"For the first part of the day, I've booked us in at Sur un Arbre Perché, translated it means perched on a tree. It is a restaurant and shiatsu, so we will begin with shiatsu massages and then have lunch. I've booked the swinging chairs which are suspended from a 'tree' in the restaurant. So we can eat in the air. I thought it might be kinda cool. Jonathan says.
"That sounds amazing!" I grin, wondering what could possibly be as cool as that.
"Okay Clary, now brace yourself. For dinner tonight, I got us tickets to the dinner show of the Revue Féerie at the Moulin Rouge!" Jace practically squeals.
"Moulin Rouge? Isn't that the windmill place in that movie with the singing and the dancing?" I ask.
"Yes, but it's more than just that! It's a cabaret, Clary, the first of its kind. It's the very place where the can-can dance was invented." Jace smirks.
"The can-can? Isn't that the one where they flip their skirts up and show off their panties?" I grin.
"The one and only, yeah and from the looks of their website, there are even skimpier costumes than that."
"Sweet!" I laugh. Leave it to Jace to come up with something tawdry for my birthday!
"And last, but I hope not least, is my choice, the after party. We'll be heading to Le Carmen for dancing and drinks which is a bar and nightclub that just so happens to be open until five in the morning, so we can party the night away Baby!" Izzy gushes.
"Why thank you, my beauty. It all sounds awesome! Thank you all so much for all of this birthday excitement!" I smile.
"Don't thank us til it's over, you may not like any of it." Jace laughs. Of course he knows I'll love it.
"Sure, sure, maybe we should just stay here and stay in bed all day?" I suggest, teasing of course.
"No can do Angel, we have reservations!" Jonathan laughs, dragging me out of bed. By this time I'm done eating, so now we decide to play the 'let's see how well four people can fit in the shower' game (which is definitely one of our favorites). After everyone is ready for the day, we head out to go first to our shiatsu massage appointments.
After our amazing shiatsu massages and a delicious lunch, eaten on swings, which is super cool, we decide to go to Place de l'Étoile to see the Arc de Triomphe, since we have some time to kill before our dinner show and we want to see as many Parisian landmarks as we can before we head back to the good old US of A.
It's a lot bigger in person than it looks from a distance. I hadn't realized this before but it was commissioned by Napoleon. He never got to see it finished though because he was defeated at Waterloo in 1815. Construction was put on hold until 1833 when it was resumed during the reign of Louis Philippe and it was completed in 1836.
The tomb of the Unknown Soldier is pretty surreal to see as well. Its flame never goes out. The grave represents all of the French soldiers who died during the first (and second) world war. It's very interesting to experience all of this rich mundane history because as a Shadowhunter, our history lessons are much different and we don't learn a lot about the mundane world because we are too busy protecting it from the constant barrage of demonic onslaught. It's nice to experience some of the beauty of what we are protecting.
The Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and everything else we've seen here has been exactly that, beautiful. Paris is a beautiful city that I would encourage anyone to visit, given the opportunity. When we finish touring the monument, we leave to get to the Moulin Rouge in time for our dinner reservation.
As soon as we pull up to the Moulin Rouge we see the famous windmill! I'm already getting excited. We make our way inside past the crowds of people and eventually take our seats. It is seven o'clock when we begin the meal and are delighted by three courses of the finest French gastronomy and wonderful wine to accompany our meal.
After indulging in all of these wonderful delights, time flies and soon, it is nine o'clock and time for the show to begin. The lights go out the curtain is raised and the troupe appears onstage. The first scene begins and we are treated to spectacular costumes and rousing musical numbers. The dancing is beautifully choreographed and the first scene is magical! And the little red lamp at our table made it possible to still see each other and our drinks while enjoying the show. Speaking of red, the red ostrich looking costumes are tres sexy! Wow!
The second of the four scenes brings us, of all things, pirates in Indonesia. Oh and the pirate captain is pretty sexy! Not to mention the gold clad temple girls. There are mystical priestesses, a Gorgon, and a woman being offered to an aquarium full of snakes, but don't worry, she comes out on top. Oh and now, there is a man and a woman floating over the audience in brightly colored, glow-in-the-dark costumes. Aww, and it looks like the pirate captain and his dream girl live happily ever after, despite the crazy Gorgon lady.
The third scene is of a circus, complete with a ring master, different kinds of clowns, miniature horses (complete with jockey girls), Siamese twins, a lion tamer, acrobats and jugglers, etc. It's a lot like a regular circus but with a lot more skin showing and a whole lot more singing, which is pretty cool.
The fourth scene is a tribute to Parisian women throughout the years. It showcases the different styles of each different time period from 1900 onward. There are even some crazy pink costumes that look like the Truffula trees from the Lorax but also light up like neon signs!
The best part of the whole thing though is by far the Can-Can dancing. The costumes are gorgeous and they really go all out with the stunts. You can tell they take a lot of pride in the dance because it originated there. I even think one of their hiring requirements for the dancers must be the flexibility to do a full side split as well as a full front split because they can all do them, which makes me think they'd also make excellent Shadowhunters!
Anyway, the show is amazing and we all have a total blast.
Before we leave, I insist on picking up the soundtrack and a few souvenirs. Now, it's time we head to Le Carmen to get our drink on and dance on!
We have an amazing time at the club dancing. There are two stories to the bar, one is quieter and one is more like a club environment. We dance the night away, as planned and by the time we do eventually have to leave they are closing the place up for the night and its already five o'clock in the morning! I cannot believe we partied so late or that this entire day has gone by so quickly!
We head back to the Penthouse and after we all get out of our evening wear and Izzy and I take off our makeup, we crash right away, since we are all so exhausted from our long day of birthday festivities. What a fun day it was!