City of de-LIghts

By Dan

Our first 36 hours in Paris have been full of art, culture, sights, sounds, and, naturally, good eating!  Our initial experience was a good one, with a friendly taxi driver.  It's been consistent ever since . . . . We haven’t seen a lot of other American kids around, and I think it does get some additional attention and goodwill. Walking down the street today, Grayson was clutching Christina’s hand. An older woman, after passing them, laughed to me and shouted, “Amour, amour! Amour pour maman!” She sure got that right.

The apartment we rented is in a great location, in the 2^nd Arrondisement. We followed the scavenger hunt laid out by the landlord, opening doors via codes, safes via passwords, and doors via keys, to get into our apartment. It’s on the second floor, on a street of low end clothes stores, and we get to it after passing a window display of naked mannequins. Welcome to Paris! It’s, well, cozy and a little Spartan, but does the job for us. The alleged internet connection didn’t seem to exist, though, so we won’t be connecting frequently while in Paris.

We spent our first afternoon eating mouth watering sandwiches in a park, then checked out Notre Dame. We took the free tour, and were reminded just how little we (or, even more, the kids) know about Biblical history. All of the references to saint this and saint that, and the story of the such and such, in the Bible were not exactly familiar to us. It’s really cool how a cathedral was designed to function as a book for the illiterate of the Middle Ages.

One of our more fun new traditions is the evening pop quiz, which is taking place on an every other day basis. Christina and I pose questions based on things the kids would have learned over the course of the day if they had been paying attention, and the kids write their answers. After two such quizzes, the range of correct answers runs from 4.5 to 9.5 out of 10, with each kid coming out as leading scorer once. On the subject of education, in honor of the first day of school at home, the kids pulled out their math and grammar workbooks, and did a page of each today. It may take a few days to scrape off a summer of rust. . . . .! There’s no doubt, though, that they are learning a huge amount already. We’ve also instituted a system of brownies (points awarded on a random basis for unexpectedly good behavior) and squeegees (negative points for bad behavior), which will be netted out at the end of the week, with a reward if there is a positive number. (Russell and Chip, I hope you appreciate the vocabulary choice.) So far, it is getting the kids’ attention, but they have been terrific. They’re getting more boisterous, which I’m interpreting to mean that they’re feeling more comfortable. On the crowded streets, though, there is lots of hand-holding (which delights Christina and me). And, we’re exercising parental privilege from time to time, and saying that yes, we will be going to yet another museum. (It’s great to be the one paying the bills!)

Today we made our first major travel screw-up, and walked a long way to a museum that was closed on Tuesdays. Oops. Things got better, though, as we splurged for a proper French lunch at a proper French restaurant. The nice lady next to us smiled at the kids’ attempts to order in French, shared her water with us, and blew smoke our way throughout the meal. Nevertheless, it was a very positive experience.

Initial reports from the kids are that they like Paris more than Amsterdam, because there’s more to see. This feels like a real major tourist destination, with lots of classic sites, as opposed to an attractive city with some memorable museums. The language thing is increasing the overall experience, as well. My three travel companions are being good sports about letting me try to accomplish things in French, when the chances are very good that the person speaks English perfectly well. I can confirm some very significant deterioration in skills, but I am definitely able to function OK.

The big challenge for our remaining days in Paris will be prioritizing what we see and do, while maintaining a sufficiently leisurely pace. What a great city this is!