Happy Valentine’s Day! This year, Matt and I spent our Valentine’s date in France. Well, sorta. Let me back up a bit. You may remember that I’m not usually the kind to make a big fuss over Valentine’s Day. This year, though, I came up with a great idea in advance so I had some time to plan.

You see, whenever someone asks where Matt and I would like to travel, we both say France. Then I read a post on Live Creating Yourself about Midnight in Paris. She said watching it was like taking a trip to Paris. Sold!

On the menu, I had brie en croute with sliced baguette for an appetizer, beef bourguignon and asparagus gratin. I grabbed a bottle of nicer wine from our growing collection — it was made in the French style by a local French transplant.

As for the atmosphere, the lights were dim, candles were lit and there was French music playing in the background. (The Amelie soundtrack, namely, and some others found on Spotify.) I also found a cute cutout of the Eiffel Tower and used our decanter.

The evening was a surprise for Matt. He looked confused when he came home from his workout to find me atop the stairs asking for a passport. I then gave him one (I had just drawn it up before) with a “stamp” that said welcome to Paris. This idea came from my friend Jillian whose husband had done a similar date for them in the past.

For dessert while watching a movie, we had chocolate covered strawberries, which has kinda become a tradition around here. They were to be paired with one of our favorite bottles of sparkling wine that’s only for special occasions, but truth be told we were tired from a long weekend and we skipped it this time. Tired or not, we both agreed that it was a fun little date. I’m glad that Matt was the one to receive a surprise because he’s usually surprising me and I’m also horrible at keeping surprises to myself.

Did you do anything fun for Valentine’s Day?