Ah, there's one of those breadsticks, hiding among the stemware. Paulette and I sit on either side of Nicole, and we exchange gifts: for her we'd brought recent photos (of our four children, whom she had met on an earlier visit to Paris, and of my parents and my sister, whom she hadn't seen for 25 years) and a box of Enstrom's almond toffee; Nicole in turn presents us with a bottle of Mumms from the celebration given in honor of her mother's 100th birthday the year before.