Reflections on Paris

Thank you Chad, Sarah and Milo for inviting me on your trip, it was wonderful. I would go again in an instant. And thank you Agathe, Laure and Marguerite for hosting us for dinner in Paris. And thank you Jean-Paul, Marie-Claude, Remy, Marie-Therese, Francette and Albert for coming to Paris to see us. And thank you Parisians for being so good to me (except for the pick-pocket who stole Chad and Sarah's camera). You all contributed to making it a most fantastic trip for me. I have to go back. I brought 5 walking tour books with me and only did one of the walking tours. Walking tours are my passion. If I can't talk John into it, maybe I'll just go back by myself and walk to my heart's delight.

Wednesday, May 20

Chad dropped me off at the Baltimore airport for my 7:30 AM flight. This is the first time I have ever flown in or out of Baltimore. All my other flights have been via Washington National (Reagon) or Dulles. I hardly slept Tuesday night, worrying that I'd get up on time, I guess. I always choose a window seat because I love the view. It was a beautiful day and I knew I'd have a great one today. But, what a shock, I didn't recognize anything! Where was the capitol building? Where was the Washington monument? All I saw was beautiful patchwork farms in all different colors. Oh duh, it took me at least 10 minutes to figure out that I was flying out of Baltimore, not DC. I have a ways to go before I get over jetlag. We flew into Chicago, then another uneventful, ontime flight to GR to my honey John. John's been practicing golf nearly daily the two weeks that I've been gone, so I changed my clothes and we got right out onto the golf course, then I rushed off to Meijer to buy groceries for my dad, delivered those, then off to play tennis with my old buddies from 7:00 to 9:00, then home to John to watch Ugly Betty. It's like I never left.

Tuesday, May 19

We're SO tired, but it's great to be home. Milo opened his big box and it was a tricycle from the Engstroms. He was so excited. I offered to put it together but Sarah and Chad got impatient with my pokiness and they did it. Milo loves it.
For dinner we went to one of their favorite restaurants in Silver Spring, the Austin Grill. Every other Tuesday night there is a toddler rock band that plays there: John Henry. What a riot. All the little kids (the place is full of parents and their little kids) get up on the stage with the band and dance. John Henry gives them instructions on what moves to make. When he's not giving instructions, Milo just jumps. I'd say that the average age of the kids on stage is 4. The waitress asked us what we'd like to drink and Milo said: "Du lait, s'il vous plait."

Monday, May 18

Today is our last day in Paris. I'm so sad. I need to come back. I met Remy and Marie-Therese at the exit of the metro de la Cite near Notre Dame and we walked around for an hour and a half and talked, the walking was secondary, the visiting was the fun part. The weather of course was gorgeous. They returned to our apartment to check it out and then we said our good-byes. The apartment rental agent came to check out how well we left it and apparently he was satisfied because we got back our deposit, then the chauffeur came at noon.

It was a long drive to the airport, all the way through Paris. Paris doesn't have highways running through the middle of it like US cities do. We had a lot of little hassles, but everything went pretty well. I bought a Notre Dame model for Milo since we spent so much time there, also some more sticker books, that seems to be his big thing at his present stage. Last time we were in France he was in his puzzle stage. We brought along at least ten of them last fall and he would dump out all ten at once. The flight to NY went really well, we sat upstairs, it was like our own little world. I let Milo run around a lot and everyone loved him. He fell asleep 30 minutes before take-off and woke up about an hour later to lunch. Then he never slept again until we got home at 1:30 A.M. (7:30 A.M. the next day in French time). We read and read and read and did endless sticker books. He said that he didn't need to sleep because it was day out. It was light in NY when we landed at 7:00 PM something (1:00 AM Paris time). This is when our challenges really began. Milo looked out the plane at the Hudson River and said excitedly: "There's the Seine River!" We rushed to the next flight leaving for DC but couldn't get on (we weren't ticketed on it, but just hoped to get on). So we waited for our 10:00 PM flight which didn't take off until midnight (6:00 AM next day in Paris). We were SO tired. The televisions were blasting news to us about Farrah Fawcett's anal cancer. I guess we didn't miss much news while out of the country. That flight only lasted 30 minutes. We were planning to take the metro back home to Silver Spring but it closes at 1:00 AM, so we had to take a taxi. We finally got to bed at 2:00 AM, 8:00 AM Paris time. We missed a whole night. We were awake from 9:00 AM Monday morning in Paris, through 6 hours of time change, until 2:00 A.M. DC time (8:00 AM French time, that's 23 hours). Milo was wonderful the whole time. There was a big box next to the front door when we came home.

Sunday, May 17

We started the day off today at the flower market which turns into the bird market on Sundays. It's a block away from the Notre Dame in Place du Parvis.

"Look at the flowers Grandma!"

"Grandma, the bird is looking at me!"

They also sell bird equipment. The bicycles on the right are cool. You rent them from areas like this, then you can return them to other places around the city like this, it's quite inexpensive.

The bird merchants that I overheard had accents from southern France. We went from there to the Hotel de Ville to meet Jean-Paul and Marie-Claude. They spent the night at a hotel at Porte d'Orleans. They left their car there and took the metro to join us. While we were waiting for them Milo had his last ride on a carrousel. This time he chose the brown horse on the second level.

The last carrousel ride.

Jean-Paul, Grandma Lorraine, Marie-Claude and Milo

We walked along the Seine to the same restaurant that we went to on Monday with Francette, Albert and Marguerite: Cafe Louis-Philippe.

Walking to the cafe, Notre Dame in the distance

Jean-Paul, Marie-Claude, Lorraine, Milo & Sarah

Chad had and the same vegetarian dish as on Monday: tian, pommes de terre dauphinois and beans and tarte au citron. Sarah had onglets aux echalotes and tarte aux pommes, Jean-Paul also had the onglets et tian and profiterolles, Marie and I had bar (a whole fried fish with it's head) aux echalotes and I had tarte a l'orange and Marie tarte aux pommes and Milo had lentilles aux echalotes (it was a big day for shallots), strawberry milk (mmm, good), and profiteroles (cream puffs). It was so wonderful again to pass time with them. We hope to join them in New York soon. They saw that there was a special show on about Kandinsky, so they want to come back here before it leaves on August 10. They plan to go to Tunisia in September for two weeks for more research for his doctorate. Then they can talk about NY. Chad, Sarah & Milo headed back to the apartment for a nap and I headed to the metro de la Cite to accompany them to say goodby. They have about a 4-5 hour drive home to Besancon. I returned on Rue Saint Martin and went in a bookstore to look for more activities to do on the plane with Milo. Nothing. When I returned, Chad and Sarah left to do the same, they came back with some things.
After Milo's nap we took the metro from Chatelet-les-Halles to Duvernet-Mouton and walked to Agathe and Benjamin's home at 15 rue des Plantes. Agathe's parents were there visiting from Strasbourg so that they could see us. We've been great friends from 1980. In this picture we're on Jules' bed. The artwork is by the talented Lucien.

Marie-Therese, Lorraine, Remy

Remy and I are the ones who started the Strasbourg-Grand Rapids exchange with our high schools back in about 1998. It's still going on today and will probably continue as long as those two high schools exist, long after we are dead.
Milo adores Agathe and Benjamin's two little boys and he wanted to stay there to sleep. Agathe said that he could live with them. Below is the bed (Lucien's) where Milo took his nap on Wednesday.

Milo, Lucien almost 6, Jules 3 1/2

We brought along the marionettes that Francette gave us. Agathe and Benjamin have a curtain hanging in the boys room for putting on puppet shows.

Here is Marie-Therese controlling the princess

Milo on the riding toy and Agathe reading to her children

Our wonderful Greek dinner

I forgot to take a picture of our desserts, mmm, very good. Here we are enjoying our dinner:

Benjamin, Agathe, Marie-Therese, Sarah, Milo & Chad

Waiting for our last metro ride back to the apartment

Our last metro ride

Milo's last bath in Paris

Saturday, May 16

Since all of Chad and Sarah's pictures from yesterday were lost, we went out on the same walk again this morning,

Courtyard of our apartment

going straight west from here past the Centre Georges Pompidou (20th century art museum),

Centre Culturel Georges Pompidou

Forum les Halles (to retake the picture of Chad and Sarah from when they first met),

Here it is for the 3rd time!

past the Eglise St-Eustache again and back into the courtyard of the Louvre. We decided not to pay to go back into the museum. I offered to photoshop Milo's picture in front of Venus de Milo but Chad thinks that's cheating. I don't think so, Milo was there, we were all witnesses, maybe I'll do it and write a disclaimer. I read the directions for our camera when we got it and did a good job with it then, but I forgot them. Chad and Sarah played around with it a lot but so many of the pictures were still blurry. I was bummed that they were blurry, but at least I learned that it wasn't just me! We repeated all the same pictures, then continued west instead of going to Sacre Coeur.

Looking west from the Louvre

Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel with Louvre pyramid behind, Milo and Sarah front middle

We observed many statues and discussed what the people in them were doing. Milo spied another carousel, he has quite an eye for them. So Grandma took the blame and he got another ride. While Milo and I were on the ride Sarah discovered that the camera was set on Manual Focus, well duh, no wonder it was almost always out of focus. Yay!

Milo on the carousel in the Jardin des Tuileries

So then Chad and Sarah proceeded to take 185 pictures just this morning! So hopefully all the rest will be in focus. We continued west to the end of the Jardin des Tuileries.

From the west end of the Jardin des Tuileries you can see the Place de la Concorde

and the Eiffel Tower
or this view.

At this point Chad, Sarah and Milo headed back home for lunch and nap and I decided to continue all the way down the Champs Elysees up to the Arch of Triumph, all the while waiting for a call from Jean-Paul or Chad saying to come back. Paris has so many gorgeous parks, I was so impressed. Although I've seen all this before, seeing it with older eyes changed my perspective. How wonderful to see and hear people from all over the world enjoying the same thing. As the "language lady" (French,, German, Spanish, English), it was so fun to listen in on so many of the conversations passing me by. I would say that less than 50% were French, and very few were English, maybe 5%. maybe 5% Spanish and I didn't hear any German, so all the rest were languages I didn't recognize, how cool! I saw more Chinese in masks. It seems that it would be a challenge to negociate this walk with the swine flu. There were little stands all along the route with food: crepes, sandwiches au jambon, sandwiches au fromage, bonbons, etc. I examined each carefully (walking as fast as I could) and decided on an apple, but I decided I would buy it on my return trip. We've been eating SO much that I was looking forward to feeling hungry, a sensation that I haven't felt for a while. I arrived at the Arch of Triumph at 1:00. It felt good to be free of Milo's pace and really take off and actually have to breathe a little, but I was unimpressed with the scenery. Since I'm not into haute-couture, it just wasn't my thing, but I'm still really glad that I did it. On my way to the Arch I walked on the north side, on my way back I walked on the south side. I thought I would see the Arch as I was walking to it, but the trees on the Champs-Elysees are so thick that you can't see it. That's a good problem, compared to how it was when I was a kid, this is beautiful. When I was a kid here in Paris, all the buildings were black and traffic was everywhere. Now the buildings are all scrubbed white and the traffic is underground and there is so much room for walkers. Someone was really thinking when he/she planned the changes. So the south side did not have any apples! I was so hungry. I arrived at the Louvre and then walked north to Rue St. Honore, I read that it's a really "in" street, so I followed it to the end. I finally found an apple! Crossing the Place Colette I heard the most beautiful classical music. I followed my ear and found a whole orchestra: 7 violins, 2 violas, 3 cellos and a bass. They were average age around 30, all dressed in black. The bass case was open on the ground in front of them and I saw CDs in there, so I think they were just street musicians like all the rest, but oh, so nice. They all had music stands, so it took great effort to get all those instruments and equipment there. I arrived back home at 2:40, so the whole return trip took one hour and 40 minutes.
Milo took a nap, Chad and Sarah went for a walk and while they were gone my cousin Jean-Paul (my mother's brother's son) called. We planned to meet them in front of the Hotel de Ville. While on their walk Chad and Sarah discovered that the helicopter was operating, so when Milo woke up we rushed off for the big ride. As we were walking there it started to rain really hard, we were all wet again (and my other pair of pants was in the laundry!). Fortunately they kept the carousel open.

Milo loves the camion de pompier, so I had to get this picture:


We met Jean-Paul and Marie-Claude at 5:30, it was so great to see them again. Renaud was supposed to come too, but he has had tonsillitis all week and wasn't able to make it. We walked through the Quartier Latin, then St-Germain-des-Pres:

Before leaving home I read Hemingway's Moveable Feast, this picture is in his honor:
We walked around until 7:00 (dinner time in France), then chose a Greek restaurant. For the entree Chad, Milo and I had Greek salad, Sarah had a dolma, and Jean-Paul and Marie-Claude had a salad with calamari. For the main course Marie-Claude, Chad and I had moussaka, Jean-Paul had brochette and Sarah had steak-frites. For dessert Jean-Paul had glace au chocolat, Marie had Greek yogurt with honey, Chad & Sarah had baklava and I ordered fruit for Milo. Jean-Paul and Marie-Claude took the metro back to their hotel from this station:

The metro stations here are in the art deco style, aren't they cool?
This one is La Cite, near Notre Dame

It was so wonderful to see my cousins again, it was like we never left them. We both talked about all our families, they were especially interested in the well being of Kelly, Michele and Wendell. We left them and planned to meet again the next morning.

Friday, May 15

This morning we walked west along our street which turned into the Rue Berger. It was mostly pedestrian only and really beautiful (not the weather of course, but the Paris scenery). The gardens in front of the Forum des Halles were so gorgeous. One of the first trips that Sarah and Chad took together they took a picture of themselves in this garden, so they wanted another one (this is significant later). I forgot my camera, so no pictures from me. We walked to the Louvre, our main reason for going there was to see Venus de Milo to take a picture of Milo in front of his namesake (also significant). Venus has been moved for renovations so it took a while to find her. There were huge crowds around her so it wasn't the best picture, but we got it. I think Milo was unimpressed, especially since she doesn't have arms and not a lot of clothes. We looked at a few more statues from Greece and talked about them, then left to have lunch. Milo and I had Chinese and Chad and Sarah Italian (it was a food court). The DC people returned to the apartment for Milo's nap and I stayed at the Louvre. I've spent the last few months studying Parisian history so to spend time in the Louvre was such a huge treat for me. I was mostly interested in the history of the building. I started with the history of the Louvre, I loved it! They had models of it after all its' different stages through the ages. I ran back and forth between them to compare them. Next I went down into the basement to see the archaeological digs of the original Louvre, again, so cool. Not many people there either since they're all trying to see Venus and Mona Lisa. Then I went up to the top floor (3rd to Americans) and rapidly walked the whole length, sometimes sucked into looking at pictures but trying to just look out the windows, the views were great. The rooms themselves weren't impressive. Then I went down to the 2nd floor and those rooms were magnificent. There weren't all that many people until I ran into a huge mob, I knew that it couldn't be Mona Lisa because there were statues all around, oh yes, I know, it was Winged Victory. I saw a Chinese woman wearing a mask, we also saw some Chinese in the airport wearing masks, they're afraid of getting the swine flu from the rest of us, Sarah said that it's not unusual behavior for them. Then I thought I should hurry back in case Milo's nap was over. I was satisfied for now what I had seen, I'd like to go back and see ground floor, but, another time. I stopped at a patisserie called Le Gay Choc (remember we're staying in the gay district) and bought a beautiful little raspberry tart. Milo was still sleeping so the 3 of us shared the little tart. I haven't mentioned before that Chad has been supplying us every night with tarts, mmmm, good. After Milo's nap we took the metro north to Montmartre, this time I remembered my camera. At the bottom of Sacre Coeur there was another carousel, Chad and Sarah are anti-carousels, they're such a rip-off, so I said that it can be a "grandma" thing, I'm the guilty one. Milo LOVES them, he feels so cool on them, Chad took lots of pictures of us with the Sacre Coeur above us. We road the funiculaire to the top of Montmartre (more pictures)

Milo and I in front of Sacre Coeur

and walked around Place du Tertre, then sat in a restaurant to eat crepes. Milo and I had chocolate and bananas, Sarah had nutella and Chad had apple. Milo was covered in chocolate, so more pictures. Chad took lots more pictures descending, then Milo played in the playground at the base of Sacre Coeur


then took the metro home. It's a seedy area and it was a different crowd on the metro than we have encountered so far. When we got off the metro at l'Hotel de Ville, Chad discovered that someone stole his camera (very expensive, does still pictures and video) out of his pocket. Fortunately they have been downloading all the still pictures each night, but unfortunately none of the videos nor any of today's pictures. This happened to me 25 years ago near the end of a camping for a month in Austria, Greece, Italy and Switzerland with Kelly 7 and Chad 10. I was devastated that all my pcitures were lost, the other stuff, I didn't care. A lesson to all of you, guard your cameras. I'm not doing a very good job with pictures, many of them are blurry, so now I'll have to improve. We walked to the carousel at St. Paul because I've been owing Milo a ride on the helicopter for pooping in the potty since about 3 days ago, it was closed again! All done, bonne nuit!

Thursday, May 14

Milo clutching his favorite bread

I'm almost the luckiest grandma in the world. I guess the luckiest ones have their grandchildren living near them. When Soren and Petra were 2 and 4 John and I took them to Disney World. All around us we saw other people our age with their grandchildren and most of those children were so obnoxious. I felt so proud. Milo is the same. Everywhere we go we see other kids screaming and Milo says to me: "I'm not crying Grandma." He's right, he hasn't cried once, he always has obeyed me, he's interested in everything, he's too perfect. This is weird but so wonderful.

So it looks like the rest of our trip is nothing but rain, rain, rain. After last night I'm kind of rained out, so no great adventures today. We spent a long time in the apartment this morning working on the sticker books. We're both learning lots of new French words. I also bought him a connect the dots book before coming and we have spent time on that each day too. We left the apartment at 11:45 to go out to lunch. I read about an Israeli place (remember we're in the Jewish quarter) on Rue des Rosiers just a few blocks from here. It's known for their falafels. It was 17 euros for "la vegetarienne", so I decided that it was probably a huge platter for that much money, so we would share it. We sat in the first row looking out into the street and Milo was such a pleasure commenting away on all the passers-by. He talks non-stop. We gossip about everyone. It turned out to be the worst middle eastern food I've ever had. The falafel was the only good thing about it, but there were only 4 little balls of it and we fought over them. The whole dish was about the size of a small appetizer at home. No wonder French people are so skinny. How can anyone afford to go out?

Israeli Restaurant, Chez Hannah, Milo and I are in the picture on the left

Well, the way I got him out the door this morning was with promises of the ride on the helicopter. We walked, no stroller, so it took us forever. He may be perfect, but he is SO slow! He has to climb up every stoop and post and bench and whatever comes along and comment on everything that he sees, so it probably took us 45 minutes to go what I could have covered in 10 minutes. So we finally arrived at our carousel at Place St-Paul and it was closed AGAIN! It was covered in plastic so we pulled it apart a little and Milo stuck his head inside to dream at his helicopter. He didn't whine, didn't complain, just commented. Then it started to rain again so on our route home I turned into a little toy store. Most stores here are so little that you feel like you're in someone's home. It was just us and the owner, a woman of my age. Right at the entrance was a Brio train set, all set up. It was so cool and Milo was so enthralled, he could have spent easily an hour there. He took on a voice for the train and went round and round and round. Oh dear, what do I do? I searched and searched for something to buy. It was quite a challenge, I finally landed on a BMW. When I felt that it was no longer appropriate for us to stay, I told Milo we had to go, "no, I want to stay here", I thought, "oh, oh, my first temper tantrum with Milo." Although he was not happy about leaving, he was fine, he continues to amaze me. I handed him his new BMW and he loved it. He had to run it on all the walls, posts, fences, everywhere. He's easily amused. It took us forever to return. We stopped at the grocery store because we were low on everything. We love the frozen ratatouille in this store, so I bought more of it plus more large flat noodles. Milo preferred the spaghetti noodles and wasn't too happy with my choice. He kept insisting that his choice was better and tried to convince me. He reminded me of Chad on the debate team. He doesn't ask for much, so why not, I got his noodles. I also found the Soignon St. Maure cheese that he loved at Agathe's. I was loaded down with a heavy backpack and two heavy bags and a dawdling 2-year old. The walk home was a challenge. We worked on our books some more and then Milo took an hour and a half nap. He's great to spend time but a relief to have asleep. I read Hemingway's Moveable Feast before coming here. It describes his life in Paris in the early 20's with his first wife and their baby "Mr. Bumpy". When they wanted to go out, they put the baby in the crib with the cat and felt that the cat was a great babysitter. Times have sure changed, or at least I hope that they have. Yesterday I fell in love with the Latin quarter so armed with my walking tour book and the stroller, I decided to explore it better. In front of the Hotel de Ville is a carousel, it wasn't functioning but the woman was in there, reading a book. She seemed annoyed to have to look up from it, but then turned on the music and took my 2 euros 50 and Milo chose his white horse. He was SO happy. It wasn't the helicopter, but he was happy. The music attracted all the other kids around so we waited a long time for 5 more kids. As we went around we could see Notre Dame

Notre Dame in the distance

and the Centre Pompidou, and of course the Hotel de Ville. Can you believe the city hall? It looks like a castle.

Milo in front of l'Hotel de Ville (city hall)

We then crossed the Seine and went past Notre Dame again. Everytime that he sees Notre Dame (since it rhymes with pteranodon) he sings his dinosaur song. We got to the spot in the Latin Quarter where the walking tour begins, Milo began repeating: "I want to go to a restaurant." I kept telling him that we would go eventually, but I finally gave up, to a two-year-old there is no "eventually", everything is now. It's a very touristy area and we have a choice of everything, even Mexican. Milo said he wanted spaghetti, so I searched for an Italian place. We found a perfect one with a whole meal for 13 euros per person. Milo had tomato and cucumber salad, spaghetti and fruit for dessert. I had vegetable soup, salmon and the fruit plate. Milo devoured the tomatoes and cucumbers, I ate his lettuce, then he dipped his bread in the vinaigrette sauce. He picked out all of the mushrooms from his spaghetti and ate more whole tomatoes and some of my salmon, in addition to tons of noodles. The fruit plate had strawberries, apples and pears and was covered in a red couli. Milo ate all of his and then my strawberries. He sang the dinosaur song at the top of his voice. Fortunately were seated at the front, near the street. I included this picture even though it's out of focus.

Le Vieux Paris, Italian Restaurant in the Latin Quarter

On the way home we stopped in front of the Notre Dame for a picture of Milo standing in a flaque d'eau (puddle). This is his new big word for the week, since we have so many of them.

Milo standing in a flaque d'eau (French for puddle), he has learned that word well

We came home to more sticker book work, then Mommy and Daddy came home from London! Grandma is free!

Wednesday

Chad and Sarah left at 7:30 this morning for Chad's book promotion in Canterbury so I am in charge of Milo now. He whined for about two minutes this morning when he discovered that Mommy and Daddy were gone, but then I reminded him of the helicopter ride and our agenda for the day and he was pretty excited. I gave him a choice of things for breakfast and he told me that he wanted "French" bread, not the other healthy whole wheat bread that I bought for him! I only brought along two pair of pants and one pair of pajamas, so I decided to wash them (you need to remember this, like my last laundry story). We spent over an hour working on one of the sticker books that I got him, his attention span is better than mine! I made him learn all the French words on each page before going on to the next one. He loved it. We headed for the helicopter at 10:45, it's next to the St. Paul metro stop. It was closed! So I told him that we would come back here after we... then I listed all the other things that we were going to do first and he's been perfect ever since. So we took the metro to Chatelet, then changed to the Porte d'Orleans line and got out at Mouton Duvernet. All this could have been very difficult for me as I was carrying a stroller, a two year-old and my backpack up and down steps (there were no elevators to be found) but people so so wonderful. I remember when Chad was going to school in NY and I was reading up on preparing for going there and reading about how rude New Yorkers were and it absolutely wasn't true, people were so great there, well, same here, everywhere people wanted to help me. From the metro it took us about 15 minutes to walk to Agathe's apartment (For those of you who don't know Agathe, we met her about 24 years ago, she and Chad were 7 and they were in the same 1st grade class in a suburb of Strasbourg, we have traveled to Switzerland and Greece together and she spent several weeks at our home in GR the summer she turned 14.) Their apartment was really nice and Milo was thrilled to be there. He checked out Jules' potty chair but was not impressed (it was red) so he decided that he would prefer to do his business in his pull-up. He saw the bidet in the bathroom and asked me what it was and I told him that it was a little sink. The boys played very nicely together. Jules had a bit of a struggle sharing (he's 3) but otherwise it was great. Milo was so thrilled to have a whole room full of cars and trucks and riding toys. Their apartment looks out onto a street with no cars and tall trees, so it's very serene. I told Agathe ahead of time to make the lunch very simple, but oh no, it was magnificent. Milo ate more at lunch today than he has since he's been here. I asked him what he was hoping that Agathe would make and he told me pasta, green beans and strawberries. Well, she had all those things plus salmon (Milo even ate that) and whipping cream for the strawberries, I think maybe that was his first whipping cream because he wanted more and more strawberries (always insisting on the cream part) until they were all gone. Before the strawberries, Agathe served bread and cheese, he had 4 chunks of bread and 4 slices of the cheese, it was a goat cheese called Soignon Sainte Maure. I'll have to look for it. He was quite messy after lunch so he told me he wanted to wash his hands and got down and made a mad dash for the bathroom. I tried to keep up with him to help him and wondered where the stool was for him to reach the sink. Meanwhile he was standing at the bidet washing his hands, then I realized that when I told him it was a "little sink", he figured that it was a kids' sink. Oh dear. I told Agathe and she said that's what they use it for, a sink for the boys. She said when they first moved in there they considered taking out the bidet, but it was so perfect for her little boys that they'll keep it, at least for now. How cool. After lunch I told Milo that it was time for a nap (yah right, like he was going to take a nap in this toy wonderland with two fun boys) and he said "OK". I let him choose his bed and a stuffed animal and he snuggled right in and slept for an hour! Agathe is totally appalled by his perfect behavior. She doesn't want her father to find out how perfect he is because he complains about her kids! We'll have dinner with them again on sunday night with her parents, maybe he'll act like a 2 yearold then. Her boys watched movies in their parents' room while we waited for Milo to wake up. I insisted that he was not always perfect and warned her that he'll cry when I wake him up. So I woke him up and he said: "I thought I was in my house, this room looks just like my room and the bed is like my bed too" Then he rushed off to wash his hands in the cute little boy sink and was ready to go, still Mr. Perfect. We took the bus to the Jardin du Luxembourg. I brought along the Madeline book to show him the picture in the book. It's a beautiful park, the Senate meets in the old palace built in 1615 for Marie de Medicis.

Lucien pushing Milo

So one of my dreams has been to go to the Guignol Puppet show and now I had Agathe to take me there along with 3 darling little boys. It was very expensive, we got there 30 minutes early and got good seats and waited and waited, it started 10 minutes late. It was the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The first four rows are reserved for little children only and what a riot. The kids interact with the puppets and they scream at them to watch out. It was everything I dreamed of, Milo loved the rabbits, squirrels, Little Red Ridinghood and all the other characters, BUT, when the wolf came out Milo kept repeating: "I don't want to, I don't want to". Since I haven't really spent a lot of time with Milo alone, I didn't want to risk traumatizing him, so I finally gave in and left. I left Agathe there with her two boys and another 35 minutes of the show. Oh dear, I hope it went well for her. Her boys are darling and get along so well, they seem to really love each other. It was a beautiful day. Milo repeated over and over, "I was afraid of the wolf." "He was just pretend, but I was afraid of him." He told me that he liked all the other characters. But he also said that he really wanted to go on the helicopter ride. So we strolled through the park, how gorgeous. Tons of PDA (public display of affection), a bit much for an old high school teacher, but then this is France, land of love! We watched kids sailing boats, people sunning, reading, it was beautiful. I decided to walk home instead of taking the metro and what a treat: cool narrow streets like out of the romantic old movies.

Milo in front of the Pantheon

I know, it was all there when I was here in my twenties, but I didn't appreciate it as much then, or maybe Paris has just cleaned it up and it looks better now. I think a little of both. We bought a crepe with nutella and I thought we could share it but Milo loved it and ate every last bit. We walked around the Notre Dame again, I asked if Milo remembered it and he said that it's "Notre Dame, like pteranodon, gramma", OK, I guess he gets it, I don't know.

Milo after his nutella crepe

We walked on some narrow sides streets that were so cool, then entered into the gate at the back of the church and I sat on a bench while he ran around a little. There was some blue sky and he was having a great old time, so I spent too much time there, then he told me it was raining, so he stayed under the tree with me for protection, we would stay there until it stopped.

Just before the deluge, all is good.

It never stopped. It rained harder and harder, and harder than I ever remember. I ran from one cafe to the next, thinking it would let up. Milo just laughed and laughed through the whole thing. He's somewhat protected under the stroller but I've never been so drenched, then it turned into hail. I don't believe it. My only other pants are sitting in the wash machine. I told him that we would go to the helicopter when the rain stopped, but now I have no more clothes, wait, I packed running shorts, so I put Milo in the bath, made dinner, started laundry (I was mostly nude for all this, Milo asked me what I was going to wear to cover my penis) and I've been sitting here in the apartment in my running clothes writing this. We have an iron, so maybe tomorrow I can iron the moisture out of my pants. The Madeline book is soaked.
Well, I've rambled on and on and am too tired to reread it, I'll fix it tomorrow, it's 12:50 and I've got to get my grandma sitting sleep. Bonne Nuit!

Tuesday May 12

Oh boy, now it's Wednesday night and I'm going to try to remember Tuesday, oh boy, where to begin. I have lots of pictures to add but I'll have to wait for Chad and Sarah's return for that and then I'll fill them in.
I woke everyone up at 9:00, they're beginning to adjust. Last fall when we went to Strasbourg we remembered that one of Milo's favorite activities was the boat trip, so we decided to do that. We walked across the Seine to Ile St. Louis (I haven't figured out how to do accents on this MAC, so please excuse my French, it's difficult for me after teaching accents for 30 years not to use them!), then walked across to Ile de la Cite where Paris began in 300 BC (I'd love to go on and tell you all the history but I'd lose you all, so I'll shut up). As we approached Notre Dame de Paris I got out the Madeline book to show Milo. I think he gets it. Notre Dame in his book is orange and it's gray in person, but I think he knows it's the same place. It was swamped with tourists and the line to go in was an hour long, and this is May, not spring vacation nor summer vacation. So we continued through the island and glanced at Sainte Chapelle and walked through the flower market. By this time Milo was tired and hungry so we went back home for lunch and nap. During his nap I went to a nearby department store: BHV (Bazaar de l'Hotel de Ville) to look for stuff to do with Milo while Chad and Sarah were gone. I bought 4 activity books. Then we walked to the dock for the boat trip. We chose the glassed in covered boat because it's been rather rainy and cool since we got here, not bad, just not sunny. Just as we got on the boat the sun came out and we cooked inside. We were saving climbing the Eiffel Tower for a sunny day. The batobus that we took stops at all the monuments and you can get out and take the next one anytime during the day, so we decided it was time for the Eiffel Tower. Only one elevator was functioning, the only other choice was to walk up with Milo in one arm and the stroller in the other. thankfully Milo doesn't realize that going up is an option, so we just looked at it. In the distance Milo saw a playground and ran for it. What a disappointment. We're really spoiled in the States with our parks. Even our backyard play equipment is better than what I've seen in Paris. This is a HUGE park (Champs de Mars) and all they had for children was a tiny enclosure with awful stuff. The slide was so short and steep that Milo about broke his neck. There were tons of garbage containers, but not the cans, just the plastic bags.

Anti-terrorist plastic garbage bags in Paris

The crows pecked them all apart so that there was garbage everywhere. (I learned today from Agathe that this is new since 9/11, after 9/11 they got rid of all garbage cans and now have all clear plastic bags so that you can see inside. Agathe was surprised to hear that we still use cans since we're the ones who were atttacked). So we went to a Patisserie to treat ourselves to tarte au citron and tarte aux pommes. Milo rode the carousel on the Seine in front of the Eiffel Tower, another 2 euros, then we took the batobus back home. Just before bed Milo reminded me that he wanted to go on the helicopter and I reminded him that he had to poop on the potty, so he demanded to be seated on it and as he was doing his duty he announced "I get to go on the helicopter."

Day 3, Monday

Milo slept until 11:30 today, so we rushed really quickly to meet Francette, Albert and Marguerite in front of the Hotel de Ville.


Marguerite's grandmother Helene was the youngest sister of my grandfather Victor. Their mother was the daughter of Anna Gasser, daughter of the famous Antoine Gasser of Seven. Helene left Alsace in in 1905, at the age of 19 to be a tutor in the home of a rich Parisian family who lived near the Champs-Elysees. Marguerite was born in 1939, she and I are in the same generation. I brought along my copy of the Bruckert family tree and she helped fill in many of the gaps. We have tons of relatives in Paris. As a kid, the only relative that I knew in Paris was Marianne Bruckert, who lived in Montmartre. We saw her every time that we went to Paris. Marguerite told me that Marianne always told them AFTER we left Paris that we had been there. The rest of the Parisian relatives decided that Marianne was jealous of everyone else and didn't want to share us with them! What a shame that we missed out on so many great relatives! We had a great time with her, you all would enjoy her very much. Francette and Albert are great friends with her and often go to Paris to visit her. We had lunch at the Cafe Louis-Philippe on the Seine, just east of the Hotel de Ville.

Chad and I had une Assiette Vegetarienne, Sarah had a steak, Milo had Tagliatelle Basilque, Francette and Marguerite had Andouillette a la Sauce Moutarde and Albert had Boeuf Bourguignon. Marguerite treated us all, she was very generous! We walked to our apartment to show it to them and unload some of our stuff (Francette gave us two gorgeous, giant marionettes for Tova), then took the metro to Bercy. The Ministere de Finances is there, along with a giant Bibliotheque, and a mammoth grass-and-glass Palais Omnisports (the sides of the building are covered in live grass, Marguerite went to a concert there with one of her nephews and his girlfriend and she noticed that tons of people were smoking some strange, sweet smelling weed, it turned out to be marijuana) , we also walked through the Yitzhak Rabin Garden, so beautiful. There's also an enormous psychedelic building called the Cinematique Francaise. This whole area was constructed out of the old Paris wine depot.

Milo rode on a carousel, he chose the goat.

We stopped at the Partie de Campagne for hot chocolate, it was the best hot chocolate that we've ever had!

Thank you Albert and Francette for that treat! Milo was pretty exhausted by this time (no nap), so we headed home. On our walk home Chad and Sarah shopped for groceries while Milo took two rides on a carousel: first time around he chose a car,
second time around he chose a bus.

We promised him another ride the next time that he poops in his potty, he wants the helicopter for that ride! We walked home then while Chad and Sarah prepared our dinner (ratatouille with lentils and quiche) Milo and I took a walk. We watched a man getting a haircut, the posted price for that was 36 Euros. For cut and color it was 61 Euros. We watched some people get on and off their motorcycles and learned the whole process. (I forgot to mention yesterday that Laure rides a scooter to work.) The rest of the evening we've been reading while Milo slept. It's still hard to go to bed on time due to the time change. Chad and Sarah just went to bed now (12:15), but it's only 6:15 at home, I'll need another pill, especially after that delicious dark hot chocolate! Bonne Nuit!