Hi again!

We are in the late stages of the school summer holidays and have been relishing our role as tourists in Paris. Although we have been living here for seven months, we haven’t had many opportunities to explore the city as a family until now. During the school term, the weekdays were devoted entirely to surviving at school and weekends were mostly about resting and relaxing.

I will attach some pictures of some of the places we have been to in Paris. Before I do so, here are the highlights of the month in my opinion.

 

Our visit to Sancerre in mid July really kicked off the summer holidays. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like you are on holidays unless you’re somewhere other than your own home! Richard’s old (longtime, not elderly) school mates Dan and his brother Rick had kindly invited us to join their family vacation. We all stayed in a ‘gîte’ belonging to the family of Audrey who is a friend of Dan’s. The house was delightful! It was huge and accommodated everyone without a problem- in fact every couple or family had their own ensuite and there was a little stream in the backyard for the kids to play in (and to keep the beer cold when the fridge was overloaded). Perfect!

Staying in the house was Richard’s friend Dan, his wife Tash and their little children Marni and Freja, Rick and his partner Ash, Dan and Rick’s brother’s wife Ilona and young son Leo, Dan and Rick’s father Michael and his partner Linda, Tash’s parents Jane and Rob and the five of us. Audrey and her family who owned the house were often there too which was lovely (and they dropped us fresh croissants and baguettes every morning). On our first night, they cooked the most delicious dinner I have had this year and it was awesome that this trés sympa French family (Audrey’s mum, dad, partner, two little kids and their family friends) stayed to enjoy it with us.

The time Richard (and I) spent hanging out with Dan and Rick and their partners was indeed priceless. We stayed up very late every night sitting out in the fresh air happily working our way through the bottles of local wine and talking. It was wonderful to see Richard so relaxed and happy. We stayed on for a few extra days just with Dan’s family and had the whole place to ourselves and it was sad to say goodbye knowing it might be a few years before we see them again.

 

Our friend Luke was back in Paris the following weekend to see the end of the Tour de France after having done some serious cycling of his own around the country. We all went to the Louvre museum and then had lunch nearby. The atmosphere in the city that day was awesome as crowds started to gather to see the bikes coming in to finish the race. For lunch, I ordered andouillette which I was hoping would be something like ‘bangers and mash’ but was it was a sausage made of intestines and it tasted as bad as it smelt! Despite this, we all really enjoyed being with Luke for his last lunch before he headed home to Melbourne.  Later that afternoon, Bessie and Richard went back into the centre of the action and watched the final laps of the Tour while Solomon and Kitty stayed with me and watched it on TV, occasionally sticking our heads out of the window to see the Patrouille Acrobatique de France (the French Air Force planes with their trails of blue, white and red smoke). Richard and Bessie apparently had a magical afternoon together and took their time wandering the streets on their way home at dusk.

 

Winter, spring, summer… Whatever the season, our kids have loved playing with their beanie boo soft toys here in the apartment and they do so almost every day. Solomon, Bessie and Kitty consider them as their children and they have organised discos, book fairs, school classes and international (a.k.a. inter-bedroom) travel requiring passports. You can therefore imagine the devastation when Bessie was helping Charlie the owl fly and accidentally threw her out of the apartment window. Bessie dropped to the ground, sobbing her heart out and once she found her voice, reminded us all of what a good girl Charlie was and that Charlie “never did the wrong thing”. We went downstairs immediately but, alas, we could not find her and we assumed she was caught on the roof. Still hoping against hope that somehow she would be found, Bessie drew a “missing” poster with a tempting ten euro reward incentive and we stuck it at the “escalier A” staircase entrance. Lo and behold, a week later, a filthy and soggy Charlie was returned to us. Her fall from six stories had been broken by a windowsill pot plant! The anonymous good samaritan had handed it to the concierge and did not even claim their reward!

 

Richard’s friend from med school, Kylie, was here in Paris for a few weeks. She and Richard went out to dinner a couple of times. Richard had just bought a new wallet and on their first night out, he took the empty old wallet out with him and did the “I’ve brought the wrong wallet with me” trick when he saw the bill. Fortunately Kylie knows him well and therefore believed him, almost expecting the situation, and she didn’t cancel dinner number two. She also took the whole family to the biggest flea market in Paris which stretches across many streets in the north of the city just at the periphery. It was really fascinating to browse through the thousands of antique bric-a-brac items and some stunning furniture and chandeliers.

 

For Australians, summer equals water. We associate our summers at home with visits to various beaches, long days in and out of nanna and pa’s pool, squirting each other while watering the dying plants in the garden, and impromptu poolside BBQs with friends and neighbours. Naturally, we Blazés went searching for water here in Paris. We decided against a visit to ‘Paris Plages’- it seemed to be just some deck chairs placed next to the river Seine and no swimming. We liked the sound of “Europa Kids” which on the website looks like an awesome play park with some big inflatable pools, some jumping castles and apparently the biggest waterslide in France. Forty five bucks later, we were there and I was surprised at how many jumping castles they managed to fit in the space and how little water there was despite every attendee choosing to wear bathers. In fact, the only sources of water were two hoses stuck up the top of two small potted palm trees- like little showers for the kids to play underneath. My kids were unimpressed from the start and they pointed out that the jumping castles were useless because the plastic was so hot (Bessie lost skin sliding down one). They had a turn on the big water slide (more like a “barely wet” slide) and then we went back to the apartment. We’ll do the water thing when we get home.

 

Those who know me well would know that I really do not like zoos. I hate wandering about these spaces with so many beautiful animals in cages only a tiny fraction of the size of their natural habitat. It makes me so sad! Also, I really dislike being part of a crowd at tourist attractions and fairs which means my poor children miss out on these kinds of outings most of the time. We were on our way to see some stuffed dead animals like giraffes and elephants at the National History Museum when the kids spotted some kangaroos at the entrance to the nearby zoo and they voted to go to the zoo instead. Kitty told me I had to stop saying “oh, the poor things” at each enclosure and I tried to hide my flowing tears after staring into the eyes of a monkey who looked to be pleading for freedom. Morals aside, it was an enjoyable afternoon and I had lots of laughs with the kids who were in awesome comedic form. Solomon’s comment, “Look at that evolved ape” while pointing out the zookeeper cleaning the orang-utan cage was my favourite comment of the day. Having Richard with us on outings like this still feels like a novelty and it is a true delight.

 

Otherwise, our holiday down time has been “old-school”. The kids watch ‘I Dream Of Jeannie’ and ‘Get Smart’ episodes and movies like ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘The Sound Of Music’. We play lots of Monopoly and Richard has just taught the kids contract rummy- our favourite after dinner pastime.

 

I must sign off now because my mum and dad arrive tomorrow morning and I still need to spruce up the house! They are here for a month which is really exciting. Oh, and we have booked our flights home! We will be back on January 4th 2018.

 

Please keep your emails, letters and texts coming! Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

Cindi x