A Day Out

In the afternoon yesterday, we went out headed nowhere in particular.  I wanted to walk for a few miles since the discovery of some very good blue cheese...

Man sitting on nothing  - Owen loved him and Jack was a little put out by since Jack didn’t realize that this wasn’t a statue at first…

A giant’s door near the LouvreJardin Des Tuileries (between the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe  The lighting is bad, but the plants in the foreground were totally in bloom in all kinds of purple.

Playground in the park.  After this photo the boys ended up playing with a bilingual girl who kept switching between English and French while she bossed each kid in the game.  All the other kids were in awe of her.

Along the edge of the whole garden is an outdoor fair with rides and carnival games.  It is soooo hard to walk by this kind of thing because the boys get so excited but I am trying to have a good summer without spending like I am on a 2 month vacation.  The boys really wanted to go on bumper cars, but they were for adults and were full of 20-somethings who were incredibly rough.  We walked through the park farther away from the rides, but the boys were drawn to a crazy upside-down ride that everyone was screaming on.  Next to that were these bumper cars that were made for children and had Spiderman motorcycles and ATVs.  I caved.

I bought a pack of 6, but put the other 4 in my purse for another day when I want to go for a long walk and can bribe the boys with the tokens.

Leaving the park heading onto Champs Elysees…

WAIT!!  The boys must do tricky moves! Take photos! Take video!  Post it on the blog, Mama! Did you get my big jump?  Um, yeah…

The sidewalks on this road are enormous and all0wed the boys lots of room to play on their scooters while I window shopped.  The sun set, and this brand new place arrived – an amazing city of lights for sure.  I have not had much of a chance to be outside in the evening and be relaxed.  It gets dark between 10 and 11, and that is when I am usually putting the boys to bed.

Arc de Triomphe – The photo just doesn’t show how beautiful this place is on a summer night.  Even the boys comment on it.

A few miles from home, Jack wiped out on his scooter.  He was getting over it pretty quickly until he noticed a Metro sign, then cried harder until I agreed to take the Metro home. (with three miles to go – it was probably a good idea anyway.)

Then Jack tore through the metro tunnels… all better.

Cluny

This morning I hesitantly asked the monkeys if they were up for seeing a museum.  Surprisingly, they were quite enthusiastic.  I hadn’t even pulled out my, “it’s close to home” or “it has the Unicorn tapestries that you have been wanting to see.”!! 

Out we went on our scooters (because I learned that museum staff are usually willing to put the scooters in the bag check area, and the boys are so much happier riding their scooters.)

Before we went, I read up on some of the pieces of art using the Rick Steves book that my mom left.  That way, I could talk about them to the boys and maybe buy myself some time.

It happens that there are some statues in the museum that used to be on Notre Dame. During the revolution, people beheaded the statues and beat them up pretty well because they thought they were statues of past French kings.  Turns out, they were biblical kings.  A man took the defaced statues and buried them in his yard to save them, and they were only recently unearthed (the 70’s I think).  This story fascinated the boys, and after I told them,(and Owen repeated the story twice to be sure that he got it straight), Jack yelled out,  “When we leave this church, we are on a mission to find the fake statues at Notre Dame!”  There are replicas on the real Notre Dame.  It was fun to see the boys so enthusiastic!

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries were the main reason that we went to this museum.  I read about them in Tracy Chcvilier’s book, and the boys read a Magic Tree House book about the tapestries too.   There are six massive wall-hangings, each representing one of the five senses and another one representing desire.  The boys had fun trying to figure out which was which – and since Jack studied the five senses in his class last year, he felt very studious listing them off before we looked at the tapestries. 

The following tapestry was Owen’s favorite. It represents smell (The Lady is weaving a wreath out of flowers for the unicorn) When I asked him why it was his favorite tapestry, he said, “because they have shields like they are getting ready for war.” 

This one was Jack’s favorite.  It represents taste (the Lady is feeding some candy to the unicorn.)

After spending some time in the room with the tapestries, the monkeys were uninterested in seeing anything else.  We made a brief stop to look at some medieval shields and some swords, but then we were outta there…

I would have like to look at the rest of the medieval items, but I didn’t want to ruin the excitement that Owen and Jack were feeling for the place. 

Jack, “Mom, this is the best church we have been to so far!”  (Since this museum was from the middle ages, most of the art work was still dedicated to religious stories, especially the crucifixion -so I think Jack doesn’t differentiate between churches and most museums…)

Now if we could get out of our current schedule of 11pm bedtimes and 10 am wake-ups, we could actually get into Notre Dame without waiting in line for hours…

Eiffel Tower

A few days ago (When Mamau was still here – boo-hoo!) we climbed the Eiffel Tower together.  When we came to Paris two years ago, Eric and I decided not to fight the other tourists and stand in line for hours.  But the monkeys made it clear from the very beginning that they were going to the top on this trip!The line to climb the stairs to the 2nd floor and then take an elevator to the top was the shortest, so we went that route.  The monkeys had threatened to abandon us if we used this method (rather than just the elevator from the bottom)  they didn’t like the idea of waiting for hours either…

In the end, the stairs were not difficult.  While there are about 700, they are wide stairs, in an open area – and you can enjoy the view as you walk.  For some reason this makes them no comparison to the  narrow spinning chambers like the turrets of Notre Dame.  The boys actually ran up a fair number of stairs.Of course the favorite part to climb were the unauthorized bits…The views were beautiful from the 2nd floor, and the boys could appreciate seeing some spots that they recognized (the park at that they played at two years ago, the spot we sat for the fireworks, the Seine river)

They have talked a lot about climbing the tower both before and after the trip, and are glad that they did it with Mamau.

The top level also had amazing views – especially because few of the surrounding buildings are over 10 stories.  But, we didn’t stay up there for very long because it was very crowded and was quite cold.

The elevators are fun in that they have clear sides so that you can see the view as you go up or down.

Having climbed the tower, I am glad that I did it, but also glad that we did not climb when the boys were younger.  Within the last year, the boys read the Magic Tree House Series book about the tower and can appreciate the monument for it’s unique structure and historical value (as much as kids can anyway.)  They also have a unique connection to the tower because of their French Immersion school back in Washington.

Those connections helped me to deal with the crazy tourist feel of the place.  First there are the lines are crazy.  You wait in lines for each section of the tower – tickets, stairs, elevators up, an elevators down.  And the scammers and pickpockets are crawling everywhere.  So much that there are signs and videos running in all parts of the tower warning about them.  Kind of takes away from the good feelings you get from being there…

A Few Tidbits

Our favorite crepe place is around the corner from our house.  This morning the worker let Owen help make his own crepe.  Owen thought it was great.

Especially squeezing the lemon on top of the sugar.

When I went to pay, the cost .50 euro less since Owen had done part of the labor!

 

We found a new fountain close to us that Jack especially liked because it looked like the lions wanted to eat him.

These green fountain are all over Paris.  I read that they are water fountains.  Somehow I couldn’t bring myself to drink out of them (you fill a cup or bottle).  But after several days in the 80s with water costing $2-4 (and not usually remotely cold) I suddenly think they are brilliant!

Lynne and Chloe agree…

up-close view

Yummy lunch/dinner at the Rose Bakery by the Luxembourg Gardens.  Goat cheese, olives and olive tapenade, tomatoes, artichokes, zucchini, and roasted onions and small dried figs. 

We went to the Musee Orsay today and Owen recognized some Gauguin paintings from studying them in class last year.  He was happy about his knowledge (and told Mamau that he would prefer to see more Gauguin rather than moving on to the Van Gogh section…  Both boys want to return to the museum and see the remainder of the galleries.  We will definitely go back!

London Qs Arrive

My cousin Chloe and Aunt Lynne are here for a quick visit from London.  It has been a whirlwind of fun.  I’m ready to pop into bed, but thought I would post a few quick photos from the day today…

Breakfast.

Lunch.

Dinner.

Dessert.

I think there was a bunch of stuff in between, but I can’t be sure….

Tourist Advice

Tourists have given us some of the most useful advice that we have used so far.  One couple suggested the museum pass – that while evil because you have to squeeze things into a shorter space – were a great buy because they allowed us to bypass almost all of the lines to get tickets for the museums that we went in. 

Today’s adventure came via a Pittsburg family that we met on the Metro.  They told us about a place called Parc Floral on the outskirts of the city.  Inside the park are lakes, stages, cafes, all kinds of playgrounds, and – most importantly – a ropes course. 

We had planned to climb the Eiffel Tower today, but slept in instead and decided to check this place out.

Owen has tried ropes courses before and had liked them, but been quite timid.  I wasn’t sure how the boys would react to this course – a true course in the trees.  Both were very excited when they saw what it looked like and happily put their harnesses on.

Neither hesitated on any part except for a few seconds before the zip lines.

The lower levels were about three feet or so in the air.  A height that was fun, but not scary for the boys (or the younger kids who were doing the course – I did not see one frightened child for the almost-three hours that we were there!)

After the first level, Owen moved on to a new level that he thought was the second level of the course, but quickly accented to a great height – and a very long zip-line.  He ended up being on the third and most advanced/highest level!)  The scariest part was the first zip-line, which he did- even though he was a bit nervous. (There is one continuous cable throughout the entire level that you cannot get unattached from, so there is no way a kid could accidentally unhook themselves completely and fall – but it also means that there is no possibility of going back!)

Here is the 2nd zip-line that is much lower than the first on the level-three section, but still pretty scary.

 

Jack found the beginning to the real second level and was thrilled that he was allowed to go on it.  (There he is at the top with the orange shorts!)

One more of Owen doing his fancy moves…

Both boys did a second go on the 2nd level and really wanted to go again.  But we had been there for several hours already and the place was closing in a little while. 

Also, Mamau and I learned that the shops really do close at noon on Sundays!  So the lunch that we had planned with ham sandwiches and cheese on baguettes, had to be given up for applesauce and cookies until we got home and could buy a baguette on our street which is over-touristy and never closes. 

Paris Plage

Each summer the government sets up a beach along the river. There are umbrellas, lounge chairs, special water areas and even buckets and shovels to borrow. Happily for us, it is a few blocks from our apartment. We spent many hours at the beach on this warm sunny day. The boys digging, me studying for the GRE and Mamau reading magazines and then doing a little shopping on her own.

School

This afternoon the boys went to a session at a Bilingual school that I had checked out before we came to Paris.  The boys were very excited about going, though none of us were sure exactly what to expect.  The school is an English immersion school, so the teachers were native speakers from England, but also speak French.  I was a little disappointed at first because when I had spoken on the phone with the school, they said that the teachers speak in French, but I  think they meant that they speak French.  I guess “speak in French” and “speak French” don’t seem like that big of a difference when you are not a native English speaker…  The staff ending up being very accommodating and let Owen speak French to them during the session (hm, or is that “speak in French…?)  Also, the French director gave a 1/2 hour of tutoring to the boys as well.   It was a perfect mix, and both boys ran up to me after “class” exclaiming how much fun they had and begging to go back again.

This is Jack’s fire breathing dragon art-work and his French notebook that they sent home with him.

Owen’s notebook had extra subjects and homework!

The French director came up to me afterwards to chat.  She didn’t really speak English, but her points came across.  She wanted to compliment Owen on his pronunciation and speaking abilities.  She also chided me on the fact that I did not send Jack with a coat on such a day.  She absolutely insisted that I take a sweatshirt home with him!  I wore short sleeves all day and wasn’t cold, but it was cold for a French summer, I guess….

After school we decided to head to the Champs Elysees.  The roadway that we walked on had a beautiful rose-garden median…

Complete with parks (but no bathrooms…) 

The area we were in was on the outskirts of the city and full of local  French children (rather than tourists like Luxembourg Gardens.)  Owen quickly asked a boy to play and the three boys had a great time with their pirate game. After the first boy left, Owen tried to join a game of tag with another group of children his age.  They swiftly informed him that he was not going to play with them. Owen was stunned, and sad.  I felt both feelings too (my poor Owen) but then realized - whatever city - kids are kids - and it is hard to navigate social situations in your native language, much less in another one.  So Mamau and I encouraged him to find someone else that felt friendlier that day.  And he managed to find another boy to play with for a bit before we moved on.

And, move on we did!  To yummy cheese and cured meats.  We bought some for later, and moved on again.

This time to the Arc de Triomphe.  No one could fathom climbing another 284 steps today, so we just admired the outside.

Then we admired Mercedes Benz.

(this car had its own guard to make sure you don’t touch it.  My boys did well, but Mr. red shirt below got yelled at…)

And then we happened upon a movie theatre playing Ace Age 4.  So we treated ourselves to this new kind of “museum pass” that involves no walking or stairs.

Tomorrow we head for the beach!

Stairs, Stairs, and More Stairs

Today was the day of stairs.  We started out climbing Notre Dame – with 384 – and ended up climbing many times that by the end of the day.  While this was Day Two of the Museum Pass, the boys were happy to go to Notre Dame and climb up.  It is one of the things from their list that they want to make sure they do in Paris.

The boys really liked this bell.  Jack was a little nervous that it would ring when we were near it because he figured it would be pretty loud.  (It takes 8 men to ring it by hand, so I wasn’t too worried…)

The views were as good as promised!

We also climbed stairs at Saint Chapel church, The concierge (old prison), and the Louvre.  I know, I know – again!  But it just felt wrong to have been so close to the pieces of art that we wanted to see, and not see them.  The boys were a little hesitant at first, but when they realized that the Mona Lisa was there, they were game.  (Ok, so Owen was game, and we bribed Jack with ice-cream…)

The boys liked the artwork much more today and actually asked to stop at several paintings.  Owen was fascinated by the Christ on the cross paintings.  Fascinated in a kind of -awful car wreck you wish you didn’t look at but can’t quite stop yourself from looking again – kind of way.  I tried to hurry him along as he had a hard time getting over a painting he saw yesterday – depicting the bible story with King Solomon deciding what to do with two mothers with one dead and one living baby, each claiming the living one was her own.  But it felt strange telling Owen not to look at these great works of art that were so interesting him.  And the pieces today were not that graphic (certainly we had passed other scenes of hell and some scary looking demons which didn’t phase him at all.)  Jack finally said, “These make my tummy feel funny inside.  I don’t want to look at them anymore.”  And we moved on.

I think we will stick with the Monet’s water lily paintings or the like,  for the time being!

We all enjoyed Jack’s bribe…some ice-cream from a shop across the street from our apartment.  (one that makes your ice-cream into a flower on the cone – will have to take a photo!)  Somehow we have passed this store several times a day and neither of the boys have figured out it was there!  It was so good that I am afraid I will cave the next time the boys ask for it!