French Family Days, part 1

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Luckily we didn’t have an early train this morning. Eliza was up at 6:30, which meant that since it was Jonathan’s turn to get up he only had about 3.5 hours sleep! We left our first house guest, Jonathan's cousin Eric, to see himself off on Monday morning. We had a great visit with him and the boys especially had a lot of fun last night at MachtRock as there were bands on stages all over town (hence the three hours of sleep!) We got out of the house easily and made our way to Brussels to catch our 10:45 train to Paris. There was a French woman and her two kids in front of us and two Chinese businessmen diagonal from me. As we were about to leave a man came up to one of the businessmen and started tugging at his pants. I watched this and wondered what was going on, and so did the Chinese businessman. A few minutes later we would all discover that this was a distraction because another man had made off with his briefcase which was on the overhead rack. Wow! Jonathan and I agreed to be a lot more diligent. This couldn’t happen in Paris because you need to show your ticket to get on the correct car, but in Brussels anyone can get on and off. The rest of the train went well. Once we got to Paris and had to deal with the Metro everybody’s pulse started to quicken. Jonathan didn’t want to wait in line so I waited with the kids while he tried three different kiosks, none of which would take his Belgian bank card and of course neither of us had anything smaller than a 50 euro note having just been to the bank. Out comes Abigail’s dirty sock of money! How handy that she has been squirreling away loose change in a dirty sock in her bag. It was pretty hysterical. Got the 5 to the 8 and found that there was a metro stop right at the end of Jose’s street. His street is lined with electronics stores all selling the same stuff for the same prices but nevertheless there are people crowded everywhere trying to figure out the best deal. We found his apartment, got in the front door and instantly got confused. He told us that his apartment was on the 3rd floor, which would be 4th floor US. We go up to the fourth floor (everything is a walk up in Paris) and are confronted by three doors, no names, no numbers. Luckily I remembered, or thought I did, that he was actually one floor lower in the corner. Hesitantly Jonathan tried the key and it worked. We were “home”.

We decided to let everyone rest for awhile in hopes that Eliza would nap. Abigail, Eliza and Jonathan all took a nap while Emma played her Leapster and I took a run. Having been to Jose’s apartment before I knew about the garden promenade and knew it would make an excellent run in the afternoon sunshine. After that I showered and Emma and I found a local grocery store and stocked up on supplies (bread, cheese, cold cuts, yogurt, bananas, carrots, fruit bars, and wine). One back we decided to head to Luxembourg Gardens. I had this fantasy that this little break would be like playing a part in the play, French family on holiday in Paris. My goal was not to be so sight oriented, rather just enjoy the city and do things that a French family might do. Luxembourg Gardens was a perfect Saturday afternoon event. We arrived and watched kids play with the little sailboats in the pond in front of the palace. We wandered through the gardens and found pony rides. The look on Abigail’s face as she rode that pony is one that is burned in my memory forever. She LOVED it. Eliza, for all her love of horses, was too scared. Emma had no interest, but they all went on the little carousel. Couldn’t compete in grandeur with the one in Lyon but the ride was three times longer (which sort of made the kids sick) and there was a game involved if you were on the outer horses, which Emma was. She was handed a baton and they had to try and get a ring from a pole. It took a few tries but she managed to snag a few. After the carousel we wandered through the park. The flowers were insane and we found ourselves drawn to the bright green grass. We ran around and played tag. Then we broke out our portable Frisbee that we carry for just such occasions (thanks here to Abigail’s friend David; I first saw this at his house and thought it would the perfect lightweight, flexible thing to keep stuff in a bag for just such an occassion). Perhaps the highlight for the girls was the pee break. They had a special bathroom for kids and the toilets were SO small. Emma just had to take a picture!

After our afternoon at the gardens we decided to hunt down some food. Unfortunately as we would discover we couldn’t follow the suggestions of our guidebook as a lot of places were on summer holiday. We did find a nice place for dinner though with outdoor seating, Crepes A Go Go. The kids, of course, love crepes and the restaurant served them sweet and savory. It was a really good meal. Perhaps the highlight for Jonathan and I was that they make their own hard cider which we were able to compare with ours (sort of similar but ours is a little harsher…we’ll have to work on that next year when we return home). We made our way back to Jose’s and got the kids settled in the bedroom (E&A on the bed, Eliza on the floor). I didn’t pack any reading material but luckily Jose had some good ones to choose from. I found the 6th book in the Harry Potter series which means I will be primed for the finale next week. Jonathan found a book, You Must Be Joking Dr. Feynman, about a Nobel prize winning physicist from Cal-tech. He devoured it over the next few days. We drank wine and read and enjoyed not having a tv or computer for distraction.

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Photos

Sailboat at Luxembourg Gardens
In the pool in front of the palace you can rent little boats. They aren't motorized but rather just go where the wind takes them. You see little kids running around the pool with big sticks trying to push them off the edge every once in a while.

Abigail on the horse
The smile on her face riding the horse almost rivaled the smile on her face when we went to Gravensteen castle on her birthday. Priceless!

Luxembourg Palace
This building was built in the 1620s for Marie de Medici, Henri IV's consort. It now houses the French Senate.

The little potty break
These were two of the tiniest toilets I have ever seen and the girls thought it was a riot!