We start the day at Le Jardin du Luxembourg, and the kids sail boats in the pond. It is the highlight of Paris for me. Mark and I simply relax on chairs to watch and it’s so peaceful. An American tourist asks to take a photo of our kids, and I wonder if it has anything to do with them being dressed in an old-fashioned way (beret! driver’s cap!) for an old-fashioned activity. Could they think Julia with her beret is French? For the record I only spotted one beret the whole trip (on someone who wasn’t Julia), and I think it was a tourist.
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| James and his boat. He chose the Argentine one in honor of his Argentine friend back home, Matias. |
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| Julia sails her French boat. |
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| Big boats can be hard to carry. |
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| Kathy, Mark, Julia, and James with their French and Argentine boats at the pond at the Jardin du Luxembourg |
I have such slow walkers who have to climb everything they see, it feels like everything perpetually takes longer than it should. And as I think this I notice Mark balancing while walking on a raised curb. I wonder where my kids get it.
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| Mark and Julia goofing off in sync. (Also, right about now I was like, "We have a lunch reservation!") |
We have our first of two modern French meals at highly regarded restaurants that are kind of let-downs. We make the mistake of ordering cuttlefish for one of our entrees, and discover we are not fans. It’s like eating scallops mixed with rubber, with a tentacle for effect. Thankfully, James doesn’t mind it (we don’t call him “the garbage disposal” for nothing), and we happily pass off the cuttlefish onto him, while we dig into the steak.
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| Kathy poses with her new enemy, cuttlefish. |
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| Thankfully James tolerates cuttlefish. |
On the Pont des Arts (and basically every bridge in Paris afterwards) we see a shell game
being played. It’s pretty easy to pick out the shell game guy’s friends as the ones actually
playing the game. Shell game guy tries to get Mark to play, and when he demurs the kids
keep asking, “Why not?” As we explore Paris, this is Mark’s Achilles Heel. Between Mark
stopping to watch every shell game and the kids having to climb everything, it’s a wonder
we ever see anything.
being played. It’s pretty easy to pick out the shell game guy’s friends as the ones actually
playing the game. Shell game guy tries to get Mark to play, and when he demurs the kids
keep asking, “Why not?” As we explore Paris, this is Mark’s Achilles Heel. Between Mark
stopping to watch every shell game and the kids having to climb everything, it’s a wonder
we ever see anything.
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| Locks on the Pont des Arte. A few years ago they cut off all the padlocks on the bridge because of the structural damage they were causing. When we visited, the locks were only visible on street lamps and on a thin pipe on the stairs underneath the bridge. |
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| Right after I took this photo of a shell game on the Pont de Arte, this guy told me "no pictures." (A friend said, “He probably wants you to shell out for the photo.”) |
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| Julia climbs on one of the many rings on the wall next to the Seine. They were constantly drawn to these like moth to flame. |
James’s favorite: Boats (especially his boat fight with the U.K. and Russia. I termed the fight
between his Argentine boat and the U.K. one “The Falkland Islands War, Part II.”)
between his Argentine boat and the U.K. one “The Falkland Islands War, Part II.”)
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