...Patrick's first week off

Since Patrick is taking the first two weeks of August off, we have been trying to do something out and about every day except for Monday (8/01/11).  To start out the week right with that "vacation feel" for Patrick, we just relaxed at home.  


Tuesday we first went to the American Library of Paris and while that might not seem very exciting, we were all looking forward to it!  The library had been closed for a month to remodel so we were all in need of some new reading material since we can't run down to the Barnes and Noble.  The kids are on a reading frenzy because we promised them "bucks for books".  We then walked to the Musée du Quai Branly.  We visited their permanent collections: Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Americas.  Saw lots of cool masks and artifacts.


Wednesday:  We finally went on river cruise.  Actually it was a canal tour, but very cool.  Went through the locks and saw lots of neat things.  The guide did the whole tour in French and English and was very fun.  

Notre Dame from the boat

Tunnel with holes to surface to allow light
in and gas to escape

Moveable bridge to allow
boats to pass

Entering a lock

Thursday we were going to go to Notre Dame and see some gargoyles, but by the time we got there, the line was already long and the weather was looking dicey.  So instead we walked around and found some birds to feed a leftover baguette (it was in the car for this purpose, you never know...!)  The rain started, so we called it a day.

Max and "Fred"
We have named all the pidgeons "Fred" for simplicity
(I don't know.....it's kinda funny)

Friday the weather was still yucky so we took the opportunity to see Cars II.  Cute.  Love that Mater!

Saturday we went to the Cite de Enfants which is a hands on museum.  The kids and I had been there once, but this is a place you can do back frequently and still not see everything and they have changing exhibits.  We spent about 5 hours there Saturday and still haven't made it to the third floor or the exhibits on the lower (negative number) floors.  They also have a huge Geode which shows 3D and I-Max movies.

Haven't been in it yet

They have an area where you get a wrist band and play a series of about 35 games (memory games, math games, and some physical challenges) and when you are done you scan your wrist band and it prints out your results.  So not only is it fun, but like a free souvenier of your visit.  Around these games are displays that show you how much the average human consumes during a year.  Really impressive.  This place is a must do and we will be going back again (and again, and again!).

One year average of 35.4 liters of beer

60 liters of milk

21 liters of wine

They also have a decommissioned sub that you can explore.

He really was enjoying himself.....really

Sunday (today) we went to the Conciergerie former royal palace and prison. Marie Antoinette was imprisoned here before her beheading.  Marie Antoinette's cell was converted into a chapel dedicated to her memory but they have reconstructed what it probably looked like.

Marie Antoinette's cell

 The Conciergerie and Palais de Justice underwent major rebuilding in the mid-19th century, totally altering their external appearance. While the building looks like a brooding medieval fortress, this appearance actually only dates from about 1858.  The inside is spectacular.

spiral stairs to kitchen off Great Hall

One of four fireplaces in the Great Hall
Checking it out for Santa, Patrick?

Great Hall

So not really sure what we will be doing in the upcoming week.......but will keep you posted!

On a side note, I did get some pictures of the Paris Plage from the canal tour.  Check out previous post for what the plage is ........

Sand castle built by Disney

Umbrellas and sand brought in to make a beach

Check out the size of those pots!
Lounge areas all along the banks of the Seine!

...the Paris Plage arrives

No, not plague...we are not being damned with locus or anything!  

The Paris Plage is a free summer event that transforms several spots in Paris into full-fledged beaches.   Ten times more sand than in previous years will be trucked in and deposited on the banks of the Seine. It will be possible to build sand castles with the amount of sand they are bringing in.  Disneyland Paris has commissioned sand sculptors and will recreate the castle of Sleeping Beauty out of sand.  Since it is not possible (or desirable) to swim in the Seine, they also set up a pool and offer water aerobics and other classes as well as time to just swim.

Another location, The La Villette Basin, in the 19th district, is also hosting Paris Plages and its events.

This location will have more water features.   On a large, navigable lake, people will be able to take part in different nautical activities, with small boats, canoes, kayaks, sailing and crazy pedal boats like floating spheres (the kind you get in and roll around~think human hamster ball), dragon boats or surfing! This year, you can go surfing at La Villette!  A 15-metre long, 6-metre wide wave simulator will be located on the Quai de la Loire.  Kids will be able to try surfing on a funny little mini-surfboard shaped like a manta ray, the Splizer, developed by Tribord who is hosting the wave pool.  Gotta get Max and Sam out there for that!  There will be river shuttle boats that will take you from event to event.

I have read that the activities fill up fast, so the best thing to do is go in the morning and sign up for a slot and then do other things while you wait.  There are also going to be free concerts and street performers there, as well as my favorite way to pass time, people watching!  Now if the weather will just cooperate. Don't get me wrong, I am loving not being in N.C. right now with the heat and humidity, but in order to swim or surf, it would be nice if it could get above 70 degrees.  That's right, you heard me those of you sweltering away in N.C.  It has not been above 70 degrees this week!  It has also been a little rainy, but that is supposed to end.  The forecast only calls for highs in the mid-70's (highest being 76 degrees) next week.  But as long as it's sunny, the kids will brave having blue lips from the cold to swim!

For Bastille Day, we started a day early and went to a Lorraine's, a coworker of Patrick's, for the 

Sapeurs-Pompiers (Fireman's) Ball.  You may find yourself asking about the relationship between fireman and the  most important holiday. The answer is that firemen host the largest dance parties to celebrate Bastille Day in all of the fire stations in Paris July 13 and 14 .  There is a fire station close to Lorraine's apartment so we all met there and had some munchies and then walked over to the fire station.  The kids were great, considering it is now about 10 p.m. but they were troopers.  As we got closer, you could hear and feel the bass from the speakers.  This is a free event, but the firefighters have a big barrel or bucket and ask for a donation as you come in.  Once in, it is like a huge outdoor nightclub.  People everywhere, dancing and watching the stage show.  When we walk in there were two guts on stilts dressed up like devils.  Now, walking on stilts is impressive enough, but these guys were also in springs and would bounce up and down like pogo sticks ON STILTS!

Couldn't get a good picture as they were
constantly moving!

There was a feeling of an outdoor concert with a huge stage set above the crowd.  There was DJ at this event and a band that played either with the DJ's tracks or in between.  They played a lot of older (to us Americans away) tunes.  The kids were loving it because they knew most of the songs and were singing along.  Samantha was dancing with Patrick and then got pulled into the crowd of the other women we were with for a good old dance circle!  We left shortly after midnight and things were still going strong!  The crowd was a mix of all ages from kids right up to seniors shaking their "groove things"!  There was a fair number of decked out ladies and I can figure out why.....Paris Pompiers are known to be some of the best looking in the world.  However, I had my doubts as to their success as there was a lot of Village People and Gloria Gaynor tunes being played!

For Bastille Day, we went to Bercy Village.  Bercy Village is the urban-renewal project in the 12th arrondissement, next to Parc de Bercy and the Seine, which consists largely of small wine warehouses from the late 19th Century that have been saved from destruction by conversion into shops and restaurants.   We wandered around and then had an early dinner at the Hippopotamus (a kid friendly chain that actually has good food).  To end the day, we went a saw Harry Potter.  We had to go to the 3D showing because the other English language time was sold out.  It was fine in 3D (nothing jumps out at you) and I was glad they didn't muck it up with effects just because it was shown in 3D.  I did find myself looking at the French subtitles frequently as they were a bit distracting on the bottom of the screen, but it was kinda fun too to see if I could follow along!

On a side note, we did go shopping and stopped for lunch at KFC!  It was great.  It's kind of funny the simple/stupid things you miss when living in a foreign country.  But we were all giddy with excitement at the self-service soda machine with free refills and an ice dispenser!  The French rarely serve beverages with ice and if they do, it's usually only a cube or two and there are NO free refills on anything but water.  On the way out I filled my cup with ice cubes and a dash of soda and was a happy, happy girl.  

These signs in the KFC made me smile.  

Free attitude?
Well I wasn't going to pay for one!

"Soda, ice, here it is at pleasure"
see, it's so rare they made a sign celebrating it!

Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and I will be able to get the kids down to the Paris Plage and get some pictures of a beach in the middle of the city.  Until then, enjoy a BIG cup of crushed ice for me...

it's summer vacation

So school is out, kids are home for the next 60 or so days and are looking to me to entertain them!  What!  Since this is the first summer vacation they can remember (oh how I miss you year round school back in N.C.) they are under the impression that like the Y.M.C.A. (miss you too Y.M.C.A.) I am supposed to have this vacation thing all planned out...... you know, crafts, activities, funny songs, blah, blah, blah.  Don't want to break it to them that real life doesn't always come this way ~ sometimes it is boring and there are chores to do (Surprise! even on summer break we must vacuum and do laundry) as Mom doesn't get the summer off!

But thankfully because we are where we are, there are all sorts of new things to do and see.  Only yesterday, I entertained them for about 2 1/2  hours by trying to find a store in Paris (which I never could find!) by taking the bus and getting a wee bit turned around.  Along the way, we saw some things (Eiffel, Seine, etc), bought some drinks since we were thirsty from wandering around in circles and topped it off with a quick trip to the Paris-equivilent of a small Big Lots (thankfully no toys at this store). How's that for fun, kids?!?!  On today's fun agenda kids, we get to wait for the Paris equivalent of the cable guy and if he lives up to his Paris standards, we could be waiting a LONG time (different ideas of time here.  Parisians seem to have a different time zone that everyone else.  More on that another time!).  What?  That doesn't sound like fun?  What could be more fun than letting a stranger in the house while keeping the dogs locked in another portion of the apartment and quiet and playing charades and speaking "Frenglish" with the cable guy?  Come on, where's your sense of adventure?

Max did go to a birthday party for one of his classmates a couple weeks ago.  It was held at a place with mini-golf, go-carts, indoor soccer and a few arcade games.  The kids loved it.  The parents of the birthday boy, Yoon, had arranged for the boys to do 2 sessions of karting and have a one hour indoor soccer match.  There were six boys there so they played 3 v 3 and the place provided a referee so there was no "confusion" as to the rules (as boys tend to make up there own when left to there own devices, I have found out!).  It was a virtual United Nations around the table for cake.  Yoon, the birthday boy, is from Korea and two boys born in Paris but parents from England and Australia, one from Nigeria, one from India, and Max from the U.S.  Samantha and I wandered around some shops in the area and went back to get Max just in time for cake (!) and a little air hockey.

Sam watching Max and Yoon play

Max and Yoon

Samantha is going to spend the night this Friday at her friend Sophie's house.  I am sure much giggling will have to be endured by Sophie's parents.  God bless them!

Sophie and Sam at school's summer BBQ

Sophie Appleyard and Samantha

Since summer is underway, there have been music festivals popping up all over.  There was one held at the Hippodrome that we can see from the apartment.  We could also HEAR from our apartment but only bass tones and the occasional lyric.  It was a three day event and I read later that some people camp out at the place for all three days.  From what I could tell, it looked well attended and seemed to have quite a few tents and other things besides music.

Think the big white tent was the stage

Looks like a good crowd

So what, you may be wondering, are those cranes doing there?  Well they were lifting people up and then dropping them attached to bungee cords!  Called the kids to the window and we watched for a while as two by two people went up and then, wooooooooo, down they go only to spring back up for a couple of time.  Looked like fun!

Arrow pointing to person
(click picture for bigger view)

This is two people boucing

It was a beautiful day and while I was taking these pictures, noticed I could see Sacre Coeur really well so here are some more pictures of it from my bedroom window.

Just below tree line is the Hippodrome and music festival

Soldes (bi-annual sales) are still in full force and we went out last weekend to see if we could find any deals we couldn't live without.  We did find some shoes for both kiddos at good prices and saw lots of people.  I think I like seeing the people more than seeing the sales but there are some places that make me wonder "what?".  Like this one:

Shoe store named after U.S. TV talk show host?
Whatever.....

These are the boots women here wear to run to the bus!
And during this event they are only 25 Euros!

Sometimes things get lost in translation here.....or do they?  Maybe this person has a weird sense of humor or great business savvy because this store was sure getting noticed by everyone who went by!

Good ole Western wear in the heart of Paris!

Off to plan some more fascinating summer adventures for the kiddos.  Let's see, how about walk the dogs without dislocating an arm or trash chute tag......it's going to be a looooong summer! **wink**

I went to the kid's school play

I was going to call this post

"And then.... I saw a bunch of 9, 10 and 11 year olds in a play about Jews struggling in Russia and they all had British accents"

but thought that might be too long ~

The kid's school music department put on Fiddler On The Roof with the fourth and fifth graders.  What a big undertaking!  And as the British mom's say it was "bloody brilliant"!  The kids did great and the leads in the play where suprisingly good.  We were told that we couldn't take video and to please refrain from photography because of the distraction, but I held the i-Phone low and recorded some of the songs! **Shame, shame**

Okay..this is where I was going to have a little sample 

of the music I surreptitiously recorded

but I couldn't get the file to load.  Maybe when Patrick gets back in town....

I also snuck a few pictures as the kids were filing in.

No, the other children aren't evil....
red eye reduction fail!

Max in back row, second from the right

I overheard some of the parents before the play discussing how they thought Fiddler was a strange choice for the music teachers (two older, very dynamic men) to pick.  I mean, why not a play of persecution, poverty, and the struggle to hold on to one's beliefs in the midst of a hostile and chaotic environment?  I mean what 10 year old can't relate to the constricting customs required of them by Judaism within Russia on the brink of revolution and Jews feeling increasingly unwelcome in their villages?


But seriously, I applaud them.  The music is fantastic.  Great songs like "Sunrise, Sunset", "Matchmaker", "If I Were A Rich Man" and my personal favorite "Do You Love Me?".  The play also has wonderful comedic scenes which the kids played to a "T".  Great choice by these guys!  Not traditional, but really how many times can parents sit through "The Music Man" or terrible (and in my opinion, too mature content!) renditions of "Grease"?  And most of all, the kids had fun and were proud of their production.  **claps all around**


I wish I could have recorded the whole thing!  Patrick unfortunately is in Prague and missed it, but I anxiously await next year and have put in a request that he not travel the last two weeks of school next year.  Too much to miss!


And now ~ Wet Dog, Part Deux

Einstein says, "This is SO not cool"
(sorry about picture quality ~ dark hallway plus laughing at the poor, pitiful creature!)

this is what you get when it rains in the morning

Our dog Einstein has never been partial to being wet.  She is a fastidious little thing when it comes to being dirty or wet, especially her paws.  We call them her "royal feet" because she won't let you touch them and pulls them away quickly if you do.  So when it rains in the mornings, like it has been doing here, she is not a happy camper.  And then even after the rain has stopped, she will do anything to avoid stepping in the wet grass!  I think if she could "hover pee" she would.  So you can only imagine her dismay when it was really coming down yesterday......but they had to go......

"I am displeased and shall now pout"
"Someone get me to a day spa, STAT!"

And then there's Morgan.....

".....raining?  Was it raining"

......Soldes are upon us

This is the first official Soldes since we have arrived.  Here is a brief definition of Soldes in Paris:

Sales are state-regulated in France and generally run during two periods of the year: once in summer, just before the massive exodus toward the sea and sun, and once in the winter, shortly following Christmas. Department stores, boutiques, designer outlets, and even hardware shops clear out items from the previous season, gradually slashing prices over the course of the sales period.

Patrick and I experienced one when we were here last December.  Well actually I think it was pre-Soldes since we were here before Christmas.  We have been told it is the equivalent of Black Friday only these biannual sales last 6 weeks with discounts going up each week but if you want the "good stuff" it will go in the first weeks.

Now herein lies the problem.  People in Paris do not know how to form a line!  I have been to Black Friday sales in the U.S.  Yes, people will try to "cut in" the line, but there is a line. It should look something like this:

The "lines" (or queues) here look something like this:

But increase it by two more people side to side and then add the people who linger around the sides and front.  These "lines" are not just for sales, but can be seen at the Metro stations, bus depots, checkout counters.

I imagine that when the Soldes start the line might look like this:

"Ve Vant fashion"

Even when angry, U.S. crowds still keep in line, but might appear like this:

Just a short post for now.....got to go make dinner.  Patrick is in Prague for the next two weeks and the kids are in their last two weeks of school.  I doubt I will be checking out any sales myself, but there are some stores that offer online deals...might have to check those out from the comfort of my own home....no line!

....we make some friends

We are starting to meet people here through our children.  We made some great friends in N.C. like this. We met the Beck family through the same daycare and even when our kids went to separate schools, we kept in touch. Even though we are scattered around now, I can see us continuing to play a part in each other's lives.  Max and Charlie email each other now, usually just a couple of lines,  but keep abreast of each other and things going on.

On Friday Max had a friend, Hathorn, come over to the apartment after school.   They ride the bus together and Hathorn is in Samantha's class.  They had already hit it off at school and since they ride the bus together, we knew Hathorn lived in the area.  As it turns out, he is a short walk from our apartment.  Hathorn is one of 5 children, the rest being girls (Lilly 12, Peony 7, Sapphire 5, and Giselle 1).  We had briefly met the parents, just long enough to say "hi", while dropping the kids at the bus stop, so when Patrick and Max walked Hathorn home, Patrick was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome he got from the the dad, Rupert.

Rupert shared the story of how he and his wife came to Paris about 16 years ago with the intent to get a little "cross cultural experience" for a few months and ended up staying.  Patrick told Rupert that at times it feels like it's not "real" that we are here in Paris and Rupert stated that he still feels like that too at times even after 16 years!  He then invited us to go with him (his wife and oldest daughter were out of town checking out a boarding school in London) and the other kids to Hathorn's cricket match at the club they belong to.  Even said Max could play if he wanted!

So we met up at their house and caravanned over to the Standard Athletic Club.  It was great.  The Club in primarily English speaking (WOO HOO!) and offers all kinds of sports and even has an outdoor swimming pool (something kind of rare here).  Max and Hathorn went off to practice cricket and Samantha, Peony and Sapphire (the littlest one, Giselle, stayed home with the nanny) took to the playground and ladybug hunting. Max was a little leery of pitching and batting during a game, but volunteered to field (much like baseball fielding).

A little practice

Max on the side waiting to field errant balls
(white shirt, black shorts)

Samantha swinging 

It was a beautiful place.  Large, grassy fields and great play areas.  The pool was set in a wooded area surrounded by lounge chairs.  After the game, we had some lunch at the clubhouse (not a fancy affair, but nice!) and parted ways as Rupert then had to take Peony and Sapphire to birthday parties.

Patrick and I looked at each other and thought, "hmmmmm, maybe we are on to something".  It is a little pricey and does require a car to get there as it is surrounded by a huge natural park with trails, etc. but an English speaking, pool-having, sports-playing place 20 minutes or so from the apartment?!?  We might just have to tighten our belts.....we'll see.....

Game over

Deep in conversation about cricket, probably

Happy boys