Was it really 45 yesterday? Ocean pictures in a single day? Oh dear. Well, it just tells you how full my days have been! And of course, much of it is the fault of the month and the place: April in Paris. Everything screams beauty and color and tender growth. Paris is a big city and there are definitely parts to it that overwhelm me (as any city does these days). But I have found my neighborhoods and quiet corners and special places that wake me up to city life in good ways. And even though I know these blocks so well, I see them in new and brilliant ways every time I am here. Add to it the treat of having the young family with me and you're going to get... 45 pictures!
But that was yesterday.
Today is my last full day in Europe. It has been a long trip! I have a mess of stuff to pack even as I want to spend a good chunk of the day with the young family (they're also heading home). I can tell you one thing: it cannot be a 45-photo day.
The first peek outside reveals sunshine. It wont last, but it's a pretty sight nonetheless.
This is our last breakfast together here, at the Pavillon.
And then what?
We left this day open. Depending. If the weather is good, maybe we should go to Versailles. If not, maybe a museum at the Georges Pompidou Center. There's not a shortage of possibilities.
Well, the weather gave us a morning treat of partly cloudy skies. We settled on an excursion to the 19th Arrondissement and the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. I've been there only once and it was a long time ago. Why? because it's a pain to get to: several metro connections and a walk. And yet, it is a lovely park and quite different from the others. It is just at the northeast corner of the city. Less visited by tourists, that's for sure. Less crowded period. And it is hilly. How so? Well, it was built on quarries and so it actually rises up high. Higher than other point sin the city. A walk through it puts you on hills.
We are off!
(energetic girsl ran this way and that within the first minutes of our adventure!)
To one subway...
And then another.
We alight at a station to the west of it and head up the hill to a park entrance. It's a less familiar to me area of Paris, though I dare say, most younger than me people would say that the 11th and 19th districts (arrondissements) of Paris are more edgy, more hip and more likely to have young and ethnically diverse talent try its luck at cooking up innovative dishes in eateries.
Now the park:
What can I say, it's a really fine time to be here right now.
(playground!)
Everything is blooming, everything is fresh!
And yes, the views to the north are lovely.
Walking, riding, walking some more -- it stirs up the appetite. We come across an eatery in the park called Rosa Bonheur. Self service, actually. You go in, you order your food and when its ready, you bring it to one of the many tables outside.
I stay with the kids while the parents attend to the food decisions. Some French speaking Italian kids come over and show off their loot. Primrose is always scrambling to figure out how much trust to put into such encounters, but Juniper plunges.
And then the parents bring a couple of pizzas (so good!) and we concentrate on filling up on foods.
Our walk continues. (Same Japanese cherry as in the Jardin des Plantes!)
And when we do leave the park, we still continue with our adventure: to the Canal St.-Martin!
I suppose the one misadventure was the train stoppage: One of the lines (our line) had to close down because of some incident on the tracks and so we sat for a while in a very crowded metro car, trying to figure out our options.
Of course, there are many as there are many crisscrossing metro lines. We pivoted to another combination of metros.
And now it's definitely time for a Juniper nap. I grab a cup of coffee in my room...
Then I head out to pick up another tiny toy for the kids. It turns out that the one I'd purchased on our night together was especially popular, and I thought that perhaps for the long flight home, they should each have their own, rather than negotiating nonstop who should have how many minutes with the one they were to share.
When I came back, the young family was all ready to go down for a farewell drink at the hotel Bar James Joyce. I was invited!
At 6:30, we set out on the half hour trek across the Left Bank to the restaurant La Rotisserie. This is the lesser cousin to the renowned Tour d'Argent. Checkered table cloths, roasted chicken -- all very informal and yet extremely focused on good ingredients and great taste!
And this is when the rains start. We, of course, don't mind. Paris in the rain... Big deal?! I suppose the one who minds most is Juniper. In the stoller, her legs get wet and pretty quickly she is in parental arms as we pick up the pace on our walk.
We're here! And it is delightful! The kids love their chicken, we play around with other traditionally French bistro fare.
Our walk back is going to be wet of course. No one could possibly mind, given all the sunshine we've had all week.
(photo by Primrose)
Despite the rain, the kids begged, begged for a repeat of the ice cream treat they'd been having here after dinner: two flavors on a cone, with a macaron stuck on top. Not possible to deny them this in their last hours of our glorious trip!
(the giggles start right here!)
There is no final line to this story. Not even to this day, let alone this week, or my three weeks. If I like to review events, words, sweet moments in my head, well I sure have a lot to work with. All with one huge happy smile of contentment. A week in Paris with these guys was of course what mattered most. I'm so thrilled that Paris gave us all these fabulous memories.
And so much love....
