Summer in Paris

We just got back from five days in Paris.  Definitely a good trip.  But I am (more than) a bit of a homebody and, even here in Aix, it was definitely good to get back home.  First, the trip:

We arrived Tuesday in the early afternoon.  Depositing our bags in our friend’s apartment, we hopped back on the Metro to go see the symbol of Paris.  The Tour Eiffel.  The boys were so excited – there were many photos taken, with us leaning on the tower, us smiling with the tower, the view of the lines under the tower.  We decided to just walk around, forgoing the experience of climbing the tower for another trip.  We THOUGHT that the lines were bad because it was late afternoon.  Ha!  Little did we know!  Walking around the grounds, taking in the swarming souvenir salesmen, and just enjoying being in Paris, all was grand.  We walked for a bit to a different Metro stop and headed back to the 17^th arrondissement.  Too tired to hunt for food and cook, we picked up some surprisingly delicious middle eastern food. 

Up the next morning and off to the Louvre.  The lines, even early in the morning, were outrageous.  Snaking all around the pyramids, through the whole courtyard and into the next.  Ed and Noah decided to walk around and maybe skip the excursion.  They saw Julian, Micah and I enter and went to the park instead.  Julian, Micah and I decided to wander our way through to the Mona Lisa.  Along with all the other people who had waited in the line.  Can I say that I was wowed?  I didn’t really get the chance to look at her.  It was a mob scene, unlike any the boys had been in before.  We squeezed our way to the front, the boys snapped a few photos and I snapped a few of them snapping photos… We then went to a few other areas of the room to check if she really did look at us at each of the vantage points. Yup.  Cool. 

We explored a few other areas of the museum and then popped out to meet with Ed and Noah.  After a lunch on a picnic bench we explored the Parc de Tuileries, and all of its amusement park rides!  Let’s just say that it had been a long time since I had been in a fun house, and it really was fun.  And the Frenchman running the booth had fun with the air jets as I crossed over key parts of the walkways…. Good thing my skirt was really a skort, eh? 

Heading back to our friend’s neighbourhood, I picked up some veggies, beans and grains and cooked up a meal in the apartment.  It really was a blessing to have an apartment with a fully working kitchen, toys for the kids to play with (and swords, oh how many swords!) and space for us to spread out.  Plus, it is August, so many of the neighbours were away on holiday! 

The next morning we awoke to go off to Versailles.  The Metro train ticket takes you all the way there for the same fee, so we popped in our tickets and an hour later were lining up in, yes, another queue.  After losing Micah for the second time since we got to France (said much more nonchalantly than was felt) we finally made it into the grounds.  The palace itself is an overdone wonder, but with lots to ogle.  But the real treat was wandering the gardens.  We ran, meandered, strolled, and felt at points like we were the only ones there.  The grounds are enormous!  After an ice cream Ed decided to start his way back with the boys whilst I, who could not convince anyone to join me, scampered off to see Marie Antoinette’s Petite Trianon.  She quit Versaille after a bit … the chamber-pots were a bit too pungent for her, and the gossip a bit too cutting and built her own home.  Complete with a theater that only housed seven or so royal guests while she portrayed peasants, servants, etc.  That went over really well in the times leading up to the French Revolution.  She also had a farm built for her with a sheep hold so that she could stop by and play shepherdess for an afternoon. 

We picked up some sushi on the way home (we are so urban, after all) and headed off to bed.  The next morning we went to the Palais Garnier, the opera house.  This was top on Micah’s list of things to do, as the Phantom of the Opera was to have taken place in this theater.  We ogled the enormous chandelier.  And I have to say I was so pleasantly surprised to see the opera house ceiling, a mural painted by Chagall.  Totally different than any other French gilted walls or classic statuary.  Totally colorful and beautiful.  And it was really fun to have Noah and Micah try to hunt out the Phantom in all of the different nooks and crannies. 

The afternoon was a bit rainy so we ended up going to the Aquarium, near the Eiffel Tower.  Neat to see the tower in different light.  And the Aquarium was … an experience.  It actually housed very few fish, but lots of entertainment for the children.  Microscopes, computerized fish floors, and a full-fledged cinema that showed Peter Pan while we were there.  Who knew that the Aquarium would give my kids their screen time for the day? 

The next morning Ed took Julian and Micah to hunt out an English language book store to find some reading for the train back.  Noah and I stayed back and just had a morning at home, cleaning up after ourselves, playing some games, etc.  We had a lunch and then headed back to the train station.  The TGV is amazingly fast.  You speed by the cars on the highway at least twice their speed.  And then we were home. 

It is so nice to wake up in Provence.  The light here is so beautiful.  I never would have imagined the quality of light to be so different, but it is bright and airy and, at least now, so reliable.  This evening I walked into our kitchen and the light was literally golden on the walls.  It floors me every time.  I have walked past Noah and Micah’s room many a time thinking that someone left a light on, only to realize that it is the evening light coming in, creating the glow.  And yes, it is summer everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere right now, but we hardly use the lights here at all right now.  The computer, yes, the lights, not so much!

Anyways, as much as we loved all the sights and experiences that we had in Paris, I think that each one of us is glad to be back in Provence.  Life is just that bit slower, people already know us on the streets and in the stores, and the routines are just that bit freer to allow us the chance to make choices on the go.  All I know is that I am so glad that we chose Southern France to spend the year, and not Paris.  There is so much that Paris has to offer, but it is so urban.  So full of people all the time.  And not just the tourists.  The subway was well utilized every time we went on it, the streets always had pedestrians in large numbers.  Call me a country girl, but I guess I just need that little bit more room to see what is going on around me, to take in the sights.  The sounds.  The light.