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!