Rihanna Gaga is still fascinated by the restaurants being built on the beach, so we're walking down the beach once again this Saturday. Coming Monday, we will visit my mother, so we're having to Monday brunches right after another, neither of them on an actual Monday. The big cranes moving the building material, the men working on the rooftops, the trucks offloading - Rihanna Gaga's enthusiasm for all of this has no boundaries. I have to cycle up and down the boulevard three times because she can't get enough of watching all of it. She's just a little bit worried that there will be no beach left to play on, but I ensure her there will be planty of sand between the restaurants and the sea.
After the third round along the boulevard, Rihanna Gaga says she's hungry. Now she wants to go to the Pier, she tells me. I comply. When we park the bicycle in front of the Pier, Rihanna Gaga says "There's many restaurants on the Pier, some with toys and some without toys".
"That's right," I reply.
"And I want to go to one with toys!"
So I take her to De Pier Zuid, a place we've been more often and about which I have mixed feelings. What's nice about it is that it's very nicely decorated with a real beach club feel: wooden furniture, blue and white colour schemes and comfy couches around fireplaces. Less nice is that the food is quite bland, with limited choice. And the place somehow doesn't feel clean. From the smelly toilets to the dirty toys in the playing corner, from the dusty floor to the fact that my girlfriend once saw a mouse (or worse?) running around here: De Pier Zuid has something uninviting about it.
There's not a lot of people when we arrive and I order a tea for myself and chocolate milk for Rihanna Gaga. On the radio, a string of hits from the nineties is playing: Alanis Morissette, Michael Jackson, Des'ree. Rihanna Gaga runs straight to the playing corner and I don't really have to mind her after that - which is another good thing about this place: the playing corner is large, clearly lined by a low wooden demarcation and there are plenty of toys to play with. Rihanna Gaga quickly finds a stroller, a small doll and other stuff and I sit down next to a fireplace that is lit up by the friendly waitress wearing impossibly long fake eyelashes, once she's brought our drinks.
I order an omelette du fromage (€7) and a grilled cheese sandwich (€4,50). When the food is brought, I call Rihanna Gaga and we share both the sandwich and the omelette. Then she needs to go to the bathroom and when we return, we're sad to find out that the waitress has taken our not quite finished food and tea away. She apologises (and indeed, since our coats are at the fireplace and not at the table, I sort of understand why she thought she could take it away) and offers me to replace the tea. I don't feel like arguing over the sandwich too, so I return to the fireplace and read a little. When the tea is brought I discover that the teabag is torn, so that needs to replaced as well, but then I settle back and enjoy the view over the sea and the beach, where there's lots of people walking around.
After a while Rihanna Gaga returns with a few children's books that she wants me to read. I do so, even though I'm not quite happy with the food remnants that make their pages stick together. However, I am very happy that Rihanna Gaga likes books so much (after all, reading books together is the main reason I wanted to have a child in the first place - and that's not even entirely meant as a joke). After the third book, I tell Rihanna Gaga that this is the last one. She says she wants to go and look for shells on the beach and I say that's a good idea. Quite some time later, when Rihanna Gaga is covered in sand and her hands are cold from being dipped in seawater and digging holes, we end up in Bora Bora, still the only beach club that's already open for business.
After the third round along the boulevard, Rihanna Gaga says she's hungry. Now she wants to go to the Pier, she tells me. I comply. When we park the bicycle in front of the Pier, Rihanna Gaga says "There's many restaurants on the Pier, some with toys and some without toys".
"That's right," I reply.
"And I want to go to one with toys!"So I take her to De Pier Zuid, a place we've been more often and about which I have mixed feelings. What's nice about it is that it's very nicely decorated with a real beach club feel: wooden furniture, blue and white colour schemes and comfy couches around fireplaces. Less nice is that the food is quite bland, with limited choice. And the place somehow doesn't feel clean. From the smelly toilets to the dirty toys in the playing corner, from the dusty floor to the fact that my girlfriend once saw a mouse (or worse?) running around here: De Pier Zuid has something uninviting about it.
There's not a lot of people when we arrive and I order a tea for myself and chocolate milk for Rihanna Gaga. On the radio, a string of hits from the nineties is playing: Alanis Morissette, Michael Jackson, Des'ree. Rihanna Gaga runs straight to the playing corner and I don't really have to mind her after that - which is another good thing about this place: the playing corner is large, clearly lined by a low wooden demarcation and there are plenty of toys to play with. Rihanna Gaga quickly finds a stroller, a small doll and other stuff and I sit down next to a fireplace that is lit up by the friendly waitress wearing impossibly long fake eyelashes, once she's brought our drinks.
I order an omelette du fromage (€7) and a grilled cheese sandwich (€4,50). When the food is brought, I call Rihanna Gaga and we share both the sandwich and the omelette. Then she needs to go to the bathroom and when we return, we're sad to find out that the waitress has taken our not quite finished food and tea away. She apologises (and indeed, since our coats are at the fireplace and not at the table, I sort of understand why she thought she could take it away) and offers me to replace the tea. I don't feel like arguing over the sandwich too, so I return to the fireplace and read a little. When the tea is brought I discover that the teabag is torn, so that needs to replaced as well, but then I settle back and enjoy the view over the sea and the beach, where there's lots of people walking around.
After a while Rihanna Gaga returns with a few children's books that she wants me to read. I do so, even though I'm not quite happy with the food remnants that make their pages stick together. However, I am very happy that Rihanna Gaga likes books so much (after all, reading books together is the main reason I wanted to have a child in the first place - and that's not even entirely meant as a joke). After the third book, I tell Rihanna Gaga that this is the last one. She says she wants to go and look for shells on the beach and I say that's a good idea. Quite some time later, when Rihanna Gaga is covered in sand and her hands are cold from being dipped in seawater and digging holes, we end up in Bora Bora, still the only beach club that's already open for business. 
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