While still in Paris, one day we decided to go for Moroccan food. All of us are huge couscous fans and we had heard that this little place was like stepping back in time.

As I was trying to have a conversation with my family, I couldn't help but notice that my children were very distracted, unable to participate in our table talk.

"What are you looking at?" I asked.

And there I saw them, these two cute litte birds sitting on the chandelier.

My very Swedish self panicked a bit because on the island of Gotland, birds inside a house or building means somebody's going to die soon. ( In case you didn't know, I have a very strong and keen superstitious side. At times it can be annoying.)

"Mom, it's not that. These birds live here, I don't think they've even been outside. They're free living indoor birds." 

This inquiring mind wanted to know,"What makes you say that?"

At just that moment the table next to ours got up to leave. After they departed, those same cute little birds flew down from the chandelier and started eating couscous crumbs. They got a fairly good meal before the waiter came over and really wiped down the table. 

What went through my mind wasn't, "Oh my word what a health concern." The first thing that ran through my mind was, "If they eat this much couscous all day long, why aren't they fat and how do they keep flying with all of that weight?"

So much for logic. 

I'm happy to say the meal was fantastic and that no one died after having seen living birds inside a building or eating off a table.

We did discuss that if "bird flu" were prevalent in Paris at the moment, that it would be the most incredible death story ever. "I went to Paris, died of bird flu, caught while eating couscous at the Casbah."

Fortunately that story will just have to remain in the minds of this creative family. :)