As you saw in the first half of our trip, we had THE BEST time! Well, let me tell you what, we had a truly climatic moment in this second half that quite literally changed our entire lives. All four of us walked away from that moment different than we did walking into it. Can’t wait to share…
A singular photo caption cannot fully convey the magic that we experienced from Baptiste, which is why I’m about to write a complete and total narrative here so you all can fully understand our love for this French Prince.
We had a 6:50 dinner reservation at Chefs de France in the France Pavilion. Prior to dinner, I assumed I would return to the hotel following our meal and sit and soak in the jacuzzi as Nancy and I had just wrapped up our fifth Disney day in a row and I was tired. I expected I’d be on my way back to the hotel by 8:00 at the latest. That most certainly didn’t materialize and I couldn’t be more thankful for it.
We got seated about 6:45 and right away we hit it off with our server, Baptiste. In EPCOT, all the individuals working in the World Showcase hail from the country in which they work, so in Baptiste’s case, he’s from France. I was fairly exhausted and restaurant was quite loud and Baptiste’s accent was pretty thick, but totally understandable when I could fully hear, so when we first started talking, I had difficultly hearing and understanding him. He immediately apologized for his accent, but I wasn’t having that. I told him to not dare apologize to me because I’m a dumb American who’s tired and can’t hear. It wasn’t his fault, it was mine. From that moment on, our experience launched itself into an otherworldly orbit.
I’ve had hundreds, if not thousands of Disney dining experiences. These are some of the best moments and memories of my life, but I can say with absolute confidence, this was the best of the best. Baptiste shared with us all about his personal life as we did ours to him. I shared all about my blog and would definitely be including him in it and that I love reading. He told me he had been doing a lot of reading and gave me a book suggestion, which I promptly went and got from the Cutesville library upon returning home. We asked him about half way through dinner if we could take photos with him at the end and he said absolutely and that he’d contemplate the best place in the restaurant to take them.
Remember, we got there at 6:45, well, we didn’t leave until 9:05. It was two hours and twenty minutes of pure perfection and esteemed enchantment. By the time we walked out of that restaurant, we all felt like we had known Baptiste for years, not hours. There is a place on the Walt Disney World app where you can leave a Cast Member compliment, I’d never done so before, but you can bet I did that night. When we walked out those glorious restaurant doors Baptiste hollered out at us, “THANK YOU FOR YOUR HAPPINESS!” No Baptiste, thank you. We immediately started referring to him as our French Prince, which seems bizarrely possessive, and why I titled this post using “The” instead of “Our.” We don’t want to come across like a bunch of weirdos, but to us, that’s exactly what he was, our French Prince who we all got to know on a complete and total spiritual level. The conversation we all shared and the laughs we had were really and truly like that of old friends, not new acquaintances. I use this phrase often, but really and truly, Baptiste was second to none. He is simply the best.
It is with great confidence that I can say that we will be referencing this interaction until the day we die. It will be the standard in which all future dining experiences will be held to. Baptiste hopes to return to France to be an event coordinator or party planner kind of role and he was doing so in Saint-Tropez before coming to work in Walt Disney World for the next year. I know that whatever he goes on to do, he’ll do it flawlessly. His charisma was bigger than all of us and we will always hope for and wish him all the best. He became an immediate Living Legend in our lives and how could he not, all this amazingness I mentioned above AND he was an avid Céline Dion fan! Truly doesn’t get any better than that!
Well, there you have it, the second half of our Walt Disney World vacation! As always, THANK YOU so much for viewing! I appreciate you greatly! Feel free to leave a comment below as I LOVE reading and responding to them! I’ll return soon with another all new post, so until then, I wish you all, all the best!
You all always have a good time and that’s really neat you made friends with the waiter! How cool! Keep it up my good sir!
Thank you, thank you! We’re just out here trying to live our best lives!