woodpile: April in Paris

Pretty much heaven. Crisp, hot-chocolate-inducing mornings. Cold breezes that made you pull your jacket tighter, followed by sunny blue-sky afternoons. Gypsies selling lilacs on the street. Sidewalks. History and art. Moderately interested children. Bread and cheese and chocolate. Grandparents.

Some particular memories:
- our first morning we were wide awake before 6am because of the time change. Rather than try to keep the kids quiet for sleeping grandparents, I bundled them up and we went down to the corner cafe for hot chocolate, which came as hot chocolate pudding in a mug with a small pitcher of steaming milk to mix in. The early morning feel, our first look at Paris, and stirring the hot foamy milk slooowly into the chocolate goo... delightful.

- Lucy bought a grapefruit at at street market all by herself, speaking French. We had to practice a bit before she went, because it turns out that 'grapefruit' in French is 'pamplemousse.'

- in true French form, we conceded defeat easily and often when it came to famous sights, backing out of lines for the towers of Notre Dame, the Eiffel tower tour, the Catacombes, and bailing on Utah beach in Normandy. (though we did go to Omaha beach and it made me want to cry.)

- We did go to the Louvre, which mostly entertained the kids by reminding them of a Studio C skit. I made a scavenger hunt for Theo that I think I should market (Find a mostly naked man. Find a mostly naked lady. Find a dead guy. Find a cat.).

- Lucy learned how to caramelize onions from her grandmother, and put in serious time with her grandfather looking at Foucalt's pendulum (which is very cool). Theo invented the sweater war (see below).

"I can't believe I'm THIS close to something THAT famous!"- Theo

There are no pictures of me in Paris. This almost looks like me, but you can tell it's Lucy- her legs are longer.

The stunning Saint Chappelle church.

Each one of those little glass panels is a story from the Bible.

Here you can see Lucy studiously examining the windows, and Theo working on his photo-bombing skills.

The kids called this Heaven Street. One night when we didn't want to choose, we ate Greek Salad, raspberries, Vietnamese spring rolls, french fries, a crepe, and ice cream cones for dinner.

Theo introduces Grandpa Martin to the joys of sweater wars, which pretty much consists of hitting each other repeatedly with sweaters.

Artie chokes 3 for a dollar.

We went to the glorious Mont St. Michel, a major site for Christian pilgrimages since the 8th century, and one of the most magical places I've ever been.

For starters, it had a real drawbridge. That had actually been used when the French held off a siege here for a year, because every morning the tide would come in and wash the attacking army's stuff away.

This place actually was what every Renaissance Fair is trying to be. Our guidebook said, "the main village street is awful- a garish tourist trap. But if it makes you feel any better, it's been exactly like that for a thousand years."

The story goes that Michael the Archangel appeared to the abbot and told him to build a giant building on that rock out in the sea. When the abbot was initially skeptical, St. Michael burned a hole in the abbot's head with his thumb and the man was convinced.