Jack’s Taste of Paris

I was going through the last of our Big Big Trip photos to make the monkey’s pages for their scrapbooks, and I realized that I had not blogged about a few parts of the trip.  I had two days in Paris with my cousin Chloe while Eric took Owen to Normandy. Jack stayed us.

Chloe and I walked around much of the city those two days going to a wonderful arrangement of cafes, art museums, and Paris sites that Chloe picked. We had amazing, sunny weather (unseasonably warm – which was typical of our whole vacation)  Jack was in heaven having two grown-ups to dote on him (and the stroller) all to himself.

We started off in a little Cafe and ordered baguettes and coffees.  The baguettes were served with freshly made butter and jam, and the coffee was served in bowls (no, that is not soup I am holding!) Everything tasted soooooo good. 

I ordered a croissant for Jack, and he was incredibly happy.  At the end of his snack, the plate – table – and child – were covered with the flaky crumbs of the croissant…

Jack had many croissants while in France after this first one.  I was happy for him to experience the delights of good food in different countries, but I think I also ruined him for anything else but a Parisian croissant.  Ever since our time there, Jack has staunchly refused to eat any other croissants.  (I later told my Aunt Lynne this story and her response was, “It is good for 3-year-olds to have good taste too.”  I am sticking to that idea.  He’s not stuck-up, he just has good taste!)

Below is Jack making his acquaintance with Le Chat Noir (the black cat)  He loves cats, and Le Chat is one of the French words that Eric taught him that he remembered.  He actually yelled, “Le Chat” when he saw this little guy in the street.

After our cat-encounter, Jack picked out this souvenir (a poster from an 1890s cabaret).  It makes me laugh, but he LOVES it!

Here is Jack’s self-portrait outside the little store where he bought the poster.

We stopped for a drink at a little Cafe that Picasso frequented in the art district.  You see artists walking around and selling their paintings in a square a few streets over. 

(not my photo)

We rode around on the Metro quite a bit, but were delighted when we found this little train that rode on the street right to the top of the basilica, the next place that we wanted to go!

During our two days, Chloe and I walked around Notre Dame and the Basilica of Sacre-coeur (the beautiful basilica shown below which overlooks the entire city).  We toured through back streets just to explore, ate more baguettes, and walked through the Musee de Orsay (a wonderful impressionist museum, where I spent two hours open-mouthed gawking at the paintings.)

Of course, despite all of these great sites, it was the normal (or not-so-normal) things what were Jack’s delights.  Like garbage trucks.  Jack loves garbage trucks so much, his third birthday had them as a theme.  This one was too funny because it was so small. I think the black car to the right is a Volkswagen Golf! 

This is where Jack learned that when kids speak another language, English just doesn’t cut it (no matter how loudly you yell).  He really wanted to play with these kids, but they weren’t too sure of him.  He kept yelling, “You have a spider on your head!” to the little boy.  I actually thought he was kidding, but I could tell he was getting frustrated as he screamed it the third or fourth time.  The kids finally noticed what he was talking about(a real spider on the boy’s head), but it didn’t exactly repair the relationship…

  

On one evening we bought cheese, fruit, meat and bread and sat and picnicked and talked right here.  Does it get any better than this? (this is Jack’s 17th attempt at the photo…)

Jack would probably not say that these two days of the trip were his favorite, but they did make a huge impact on him.  He  talks about Le Chat Noir almost daily, and is waiting to find a frame to hang his poster. He learned that the French have wonderful food(in addition to croissants).   He was also completely taken by the French language, and thinks he is quite fluent.  He will speak in gibberish, but with French intonation and sounds.  If you didn’t know better, you would think he was really speaking French!  My sister came over the other day and she started “talking” right back to him (taking cues from her high-school French lessons).  I really need to get a video of that, it is so hard to explain!