Going out ... but going out in style

Well, the unthinkable has happened, as we all knew it would, today was our last day in Paris.  Jack packed up the older girls at 8:30 this morning and said 'I'll get the girls out of your hair for a couple of hours so you can pack.  Maybe we'll see a movie or something.'  I didn't see him again until 5:30!  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the peace while I got organized, but I think at least some of the motivation for this big day out was so Jack could avoid packing. I have noticed that, every time there is packing to be done, Jack is suspiciously absent, always employed elsewhere on some very pressing business ... 

So Jack and the girls did take in a movie - Cars 2 in 3D.  Afterward they made their way over to the Pompidou, which is free on Sundays, and were fortunate to be able to join an art workshop that was just starting.  Lunch at the chic Restaurant Georges on the top floor of the museum had the potential to go very badly but the girls did Daddy proud and garnered lots of admiring looks from older patrons at other tables.  With the wolves solidly at bay, they continued on and toured a special exhibition that explores Indian society called Paris-Delhi-Bombay.  Jack knows India well and the girls were very engaged in the exhibit and loved hearing Daddy’s stories.  (He probably didn’t tell them about the time he was driven to a dark alley by an Indian cab driver who then attempted to mug him).  Finally, Jack took them to one last patisserie, Pain de Sucre, where they selected 5 pastries to try.  It’s not fair to judge a patisserie on just one, now is it? 

We met for dinner at our local brasserie and had our last steak frites for a while.  At home, we got the kids to bed and finished up our packing.  We then sat down for our well deserved treats from Pain de Sucre but they looked a little worse for wear after their trip across town ... they still tasted good though!  Tomorrow morning, the maxi cab comes at 7:45 to take us back to Charles De Gaulle.  The only bright spot is we get to spend next week in Canada, enjoying the company of our friends and family – that really takes the sting out of leaving Paris!

À bientôt.  

T-minus 2 day to Canada

August 6^th

This is the last weekend of our trip L  Since we have completely exhausted the Paris with Kids book we brought, we were forced to duplicate a previous activity!  We went back to the Le Palais de la Découverte which is the science museum a short walk from home.  The girls enjoyed returning to their favorite spots and I was left wishing that my French was better so I could read the placards.

We decided to continue the theme of visiting old favorites and Jack and I started date night off with a late lunch at Fauchon.  Chicken with morels, fois gras terrine, rosé champagne, cheese plate, baba au rum … now that’s a nice little lunch!  Afterwards, we did a little souvenir shopping and then headed off for a wander through Saint-Germain-des-Prés.  We stopped at a local brasserie for dinner and had a nice meal reminiscing about our trip and trying to identify all of our favorites (stay tuned ... ).  

T-minus 3 days to Canada

August 5th

This morning we took our time getting out of the house. We decided to try again for the Musee des Arts & Metiers. We took the metro so as to ensure we would not be sidetracked on the way. The name of this museum is very misleading - in fact, there are no arts and crafts at all. It's a museum of scientific inventions starting with instruments for tracking the stars in the sky all the way to the Cray2 Super Computer. We got the audio guide for Jacqui because she loves it and she happily entertained herself.  It was all a little over Charlotte's head but she did seem intereted in the French version of the Mars Rover they had, as well as Adler's Avion III - the worlds first working airplane. She thought it looked like a bird robot and named it Titi. 

 After getting busted for drinking water in the museum and then running in the museum - we decided we'd better take our leave before they decided to kick out the rowdy Americans.

Instead of our usual baguette avec fromage and jambon,  Jack and I opted for a late and civilized lunch at La Galerie des Gobelins in the Hotel Plaza Athenee.  It is featured in our book as being one of the best places for afternoon tea complete with your choice of an exquisite pastry that you can choose from their pastry cart.  You can’t dally though – they only have a few of each item and if you miss it, it’s gone.  Jack was not going to suffer this fate – we were there at 3:00 on the nose, had a light bite and, when our time came to step up to the cart, chose the caramel religieuse and the fig mille-feuille.  Both were lovely and the whole experience was a highlight – what a peaceful respite from the madding crowds and noise of the city.  

We then spun through the standing collection of the Musée des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris housed in the Petit Palais.  The highlight is certainly the beauty and opulence of the building itself - never actually palace but a building built for a world’s fair.  We took a leisurely stroll toward St. Chapelle for a concert: Masterworks of Sacred Music featuring a classic ensemble and mezzo-soprano Ghislaine Roux but got caught in a deluge about half way there.  We managed to find a little spot to stay dry and wait out the storm.  We were able to dry off in the concert but got caught again on the way to our dinner rez at the Mini Palais restaurant.  This time we were not so lucky and had to sit through our 2-hour meal with soaking wet pants and shoes on.  Wet denim is not a pleasant accompaniment to any meal! 

The Louvre - one last time

Jacqui had recently read about Egyptian hieroglyphics in one of her Katie Kazoo books (at least they are good for something), so Jack decided to take her to the Louvre and give her a little Ancient Egypt 101 tutorial. I knew that charlotte and Natalie would get nothing out of that little trip so we split off and went back to Paris Plages for a little sand castle construction and ice cream consumption. Everyone enjoyed their morning excursions and we were all back by 2:00.

Jack and I started date night with a little caffeine and a little sugar at the Salon de Tea at Laudree. Then onto the Palais du Tokyo and the Paris museum of Modern Art. Both were partially closed down for renovations but together were a nice evening out. We wandered down the Champs toward home and stopped in at Vesuvio for dinner - a decidedly tourist-oriented restaurant that, nonetheless, was putting out good looking pies. We were grateful to take a break from steak frites and enjoyed both the pizza and the people-watching.

La posture du Chien Tête en Bas

We are all moving pretty slowly today after our blow-out at Disney yesterday.  I know my excuse - I’m getting old ... 

We set off this morning with the goal of reaching Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts or, alternatively, the ‘Lineup at the Louvre is Too Long Museum’).  Charlotte pitched a fit before we even got out of the elevator so we had to bribe her into the stroller with the promise of a croissant from Laudree.  Jack ordered up a few pastries en français and, as you can imagine has gotten quite good at it with all the practice he’s been getting these last few weeks.  Well, the cute pastry girl behind the counter then asked him something in French and he stared blankly at her before saying he only speaks English.  She giggled and said (and I quote) … “Your French is very good”.  Well, he strutted out of the Laudree, all proud of himself and, after he recounted the story to me, I said, “I’ve heard your French, it’s not that good.  She must have been flirting with you”.  Surprisingly, he seemed disappointed!

We continued on toward the museum with everyone happily munching on their pastries when we happened upon the Palais Royal  - one of our kid books said that this is a nice stop since the children like to climb on the sculptures in this courtyard.  And, in fact, they did.

It was approaching lunchtime at this point so we stopped in at Pied du Couchon for what was renowned to be the best Gratinée à l'Oignon in the city.  I am a huge fan of French onion soup so I was bitterly disappointed when they served me what closely resembled a steaming bowl of dishwater with tepid cheese on top. The girls shared a plate of the duck confit and loved it.  Once recharged, Natalie and I headed home and Jack and the girls headed to the Aire du Jeux on top of Les Halles for a quick scamper and then to the square in front of Saint-Eustache. 

Jack is now incapable of heading home in the afternoon without picking up a little sweet treat … for the blog of course … so, they wandered down the pedestrian market street, Rue Montogueil in search of something blog-worthy.  They found it at L’Atelier du Chocolat where they picked up some of their famous chocolate bark.  Sadly, there was none left for me so I’m not actually able to write about it …

I left everyone to their sugar crash and popped off to a yoga class in the 17^th.  Due to some really terrible signage and the characteristically serpentine Parisian streets, I was exactly 4 minutes late for the 5:00 pm class and the front desk lady would not let me in.  She made me wait for the 6:00 class.  That was not very zen of her.  I found that the class, although all in French, was fairly easy to follow along – knowing gauche and droit really helped.  I did notice how formal the instructor was – all so very much down to the business of yoga.  And she didn’t even end the class with a little Om or a Namaste or anything.  Just ‘merci’.  I’ll take California’s chatty, hemp-wearing, chanting, Namaste-ing yoga teachers any day of the week.

We stopped in at the movie theater to enjoy their air conditioning and watch ‘Killing Bono’.  It was meant to be a comedy but was really pretty sad.  After all the meals out these last few weeks, we are starting to suffer from restaurant fatigue so we decided to have dinner at home tonight.   We’ve only got a few days left and feel like we’ve checked most of the big to do’s off of our list.  I think everyone is ready for some down time in beautiful, rural Canada next week.  The question is, where are we going to get our pastries every morning?!?

Euro Disney ... Shoot me now.

Lisa and team cottage gets the prize - we broke down and took the kids to Disneyland Paris! There are at least 734,475 ads for it on the metro and the girls did not miss one of them. We figured that they have been real troopers on this trip and they deserved a day that would really top this vacation off for them.

Our overall impression (and I'm not sure why this surprises me), is that it is pretty much indistinguishable from the original. I was expecting (read: had hoped for) a little nod to Europe. A few little tongue in cheek touches that would remind me I'm not in California or Florida aside from the absence of palm trees. But, alas, there were none that I could discern. R2D2 and Buzz Lightyear were speaking French but for every character speaking French, there were 5 speaking English. The food was disconcertingly amusement park faire - pizza, burgers etc. We ordered an Astroburger and it came with a potato patty on it. Luckily, it had pickle slices on it, otherwise, it would have been without any texture (or flavor) at all. Again, surprising only in that I had expected France to up the anti a little on the quality of the food and also the items available. The only slightly surprising food item was gingerbread flavored popcorn. After my last popcorn experience, I didn't try it.

They also had a playground so we had to get that in - just to stick w the theme.

All that said, the girls had a blast and Natalie managed well with the truncated naps and feeds on the run. We staggered home at 7:00 pm, tossed the kids into bed and enjoyed a quiet and civilized meal at Bar30, which is, thankfully, just around the corner from our apartment.