Snapshots of our weekend

It's Tuesday morning here, between the time I drop off the boys at school, and when I head to my class. Somehow we haven't updated on our activities the past few days, so here's a very quick, short-attention-span version. Saturday we went to ... wait for it ... a math games festival, in the square in front of St. Sulpice (of Da Vinci Code fame). Here's Carter, hard at play.



Sunday was French mother's day, Betsy's second (and final) mother's day this month. We went to the steeplechases at Hippodrome D'Auteuil. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time being outside.





Oh, and here's a picture of our new cousin/nephew, Victor.

Victor Alan Colque est arrive!

As many of you know, Betsy's twin sister Cathy Karr-Colque and her husband Roberto have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first child. Well, Victor Alan Colque was born today, Thursday May 25th, sometime around 1am DC time. We found out when Marilyn called us just after 8am Paris time. We don't have many details, but we got this photo from Roberto via phone cam. Congratulations, guys!

Call me Lance!

(From Betsy) Having been inspired by our weekend biking excursions and a friend from work, I decided last week to try biking to work. I’m still intimidated by the Parisian traffic, but it’s not like I have to ride through the traffic circle at the Arc de Triomphe… and it seems like a good way to combine exercise, commuting, and getting to know the city (or at least the part between home and work). My friend Ted from the office, who lives around the corner from our apartment, let me tag along with him on his usual route one morning last week, and I was totally thrilled with myself (although he’s much more fit than I am, so I’m sure I was dragging him down). As an added bonus, it takes even less time than taking the metro.

Ted had a meeting in the afternoon, so I gathered my courage and rode home on my own, just retracing the path we took in the morning – pretty harrowing in reverse, as it turns out, since I discovered there were two places I had to merge across moving traffic. The second time I only realized the problem about 20 feet from a fork where I was about to get dumped onto the highway running alongside the river, so I had to bail out along the sidewalk (at least there are sidewalks everywhere, that’s something to be grateful for!) and walk my bike back a couple blocks to find a safe way to cross over. So, Lesson #1: can’t necessarily reverse all your routes! I took a little movie of my ride, though – check it out.

Since then, I’ve ridden in twice more, mapping out a different route each time. The biggest challenges are figuring out how to get under the périphérique (the beltway)---there are only 3 or 4 spots where you can cross in this section of the city – and finding routes that aren’t too traffic-y. But the nice thing is that a lot of people here ride bikes, so even though the drivers seem more aggressive, they’re actually much more used to having bikes in traffic with them. Even if it’s busy, you can get through an intersection or around a double-parked truck just by holding out your arm and the car behind will actually slow down and let you merge into the lane.

As Ted said when we were sitting at a light when we rode home together last Friday, “Sometimes I just feel so American.” He’s lived in France for about 10 years, but looking around, I knew just what he meant. There we were outfitted with biking helmets and dayglow vests with reflectors, waiting patiently for the light to change. I mean, I basically don’t care how dorky I look if it helps the cars see me better… Meanwhile, the French people on bikes are pulling into traffic and zipping around traffic circles. The guys are wearing suits, and half the women are riding bikes in skirts and high heels. Not a helmet to be seen. And more than a couple people smoking a cigarette while riding. Actually, this is one of the things that finally motivated me try riding to work – I figure if they can ride bikes like that, I should be able to do it in normal shoes! The kids are totally thrilled about me riding my bike to work, and completely jealous that I get to wear a cool dayglow vest. Carter bought himself one like it this afternoon (only 5 euros!) and is lobbying to come to work with me one day so we can bike together.

Here’s a couple quick highlights of our weekend, since we haven’t posted in a while. Chris and I had dinner last Saturday with a friend of my high-school buddy David and his wife Jamie. Their friend Melissa married a Frenchman (another David) who she met while they were both working in Philly, and the two of them moved to Paris three years ago. We left the kids in the capable hands of a babysitter (a great kid, from the upper grades at Carter’s school, who lives about 1/2 block from our apartment) and met Melissa and David for dinner by the Bastille –a very hip and lively neighborhood. It was good to get out on our own, and Melissa and David were really fun. They made us feel very welcome, and we’re already planning to see them again in a couple weeks.

On Sunday (see pics), we spent the day with our friend Kevin (from Mandeville, the one Chris met at the Paris orientation session at the American Church). He’s had some problems with his visa and is headed home to Louisiana to see family and friends and get his visa resolved. He came with us in the afternoon to see the Musee Bourdelle, a small museum in the 15th arrondisement. Bourdelle was sculptor and a protégé of Rodin, which definitely shows in his early work, but he strikes out with his own style later on, which is slightly neo-Stalinist… the museum has some really pretty little courtyards, and the kids enjoyed posing with the sculptures (and even being one).

Well, that’s the news from here. Tomorrow is the Ascension holiday, so we all have the day off from classes and work. We’re getting to together with my friend Monica (who also worked at EPA and moved from DC to Paris a month before we did) and her family tomorrow afternoon. Tonight we’re anxiously waiting for news about Cath’s baby being born. She’s in labor (and has been for a while) as I type. We love you and miss you and wish we could be there.

p.s. Kidding about the movie of my bike ride, of course! (As if I'd even be brave enough to take my hands off the handlebars!) The movie, "C'etait un rendez-vous," is a cult classic in France. It shows, at true speed, an early morning car ride (rumored to be a Ferrari, but actually a Mercedes) through Paris. Aside from the thrill of the ride and the number of red lights they run, the thing that inspires a lot of awe is that they didn't get caught by the police doing it. According to the web site, they were supposed to have look-outs posted at various points along the route, communicating by radio to the driver of the car and warning him about any traffic impediments. They didn't realize until after the fact that the radio connection in the car wasn't working... I think the close call with the bus crossing the intersection is the best evidence. The film catches some great Paris highlights zipping by at 150 km/hr: Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, the Louvre, the Moulin Rouge, and Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. The kids have been warned that this definitely falls into the category of "do NOT try this at home."

Our five-point plan

I hope you can read this. No other caption necessary.

Paris in the Post, and on sale for Fall!

Thanks to all of you who've sent links to the special Travel Section feature in Sunday's Washington Post, on seeing Paris with kids. You probably recognized many of the places from our blog, since they pretty much mapped out our iteneraries to date. In fact, yesterday as we rode to the quais Carter reminded us that on a rainy day we need to go to the Sewer Museum (actually he said a dry day, but what fun is that?!?) and the Catacombs. Anyway, as you all prepare to come see us, check out the Post - it's good stuff.

Oh, and if you want to come after October 15th, Air France has announced a big sale. At $438 r/t DC-Paris, it's going to be hard to beat.

Limited-time super sale!
In celebration of Air France's 60 years of service in the U.S., we are glad to bring you an amazing offer.
Not only can you fly round trip to Paris this fall & winter, at incredibly low fares from our US gateways, but, for just $60 more, you can continue on to one of 60 select cities** and you get a free stopover in Paris!
But hurry, this deal ends May 22, 2006!

Happy Mother's Day

First, happy mother's day to our moms, Glennell and Marilyn. We wish we were there with you, especially today.

Second, an especially happy mother's day to my sister Michelle and her new son William, and my sister Lisa and her new daughter Ashley. Also, our friend Whitney just had her first baby, Zoe, last week, so congratulations and happy mother's day.

Now, on to our week and weekend. The week followed an increasingly familiar pattern. After the Monday holiday (the last until ... a week from Thursday, Ascension Day), we all went to work and school on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Calvin had his first day of "centre de loisirs" or play-day at school on Wednesday. Since the maternelle isn't open on Wednesday, they have an optional play center for the kids. I think they stay with the ages all together and just have more unstructured play, movies, and less curriculum. He was reasonably happy to stay - if an unfamiliar cast, at least it was at his familiar school - and he found one teacher who was happy to speak english with him. After my class, when I headed to pick him up at 1:20, he was sitting with one of the directors learning more French words. He was kinda zoned out, but it turns out to have him picked up at 1:20 they have to wake him up from his nap. Maybe this week we'll let him spend the afternoon, too.

Yesterday, Saturday, we started with Betsy and Calvin to the market, and Carter and I to run errands - get a birthday present, new mechanical pencils for him, etc. After lunch, the boys indulged their increasingly creative streak and dressed "up". See the pics, which cover the next events too.

We took naps while a storm rolled through, then in the evening went to a pro rugby game. The local team, Stade Francais, is near the top of the league and this was their last home game of the season. We'd been tipped that it was a more low-key atmosphere than the PSG soccer matches, with 5-euro tickets and a more family crowd. Walking to the stadium, we were approached by a scalper, who must've really thought we were suckers - asked for 300 euros for 5 5-euro seats! We talked him down to 45 euros, which means we probably still overpaid, but come on! We went with our friend Kevin from Mandeville, and it was really a nice time. The weather held, the beers were cheap, and since we didn't understand or really care about the game, we didn't mind our "pelouse" (lawn) tickets. Betsy even indulged the boys (and herself) with a flag, lanyards with mini-rugby balls, and a jersey to wear biking to work. The boys especially liked the pink remote-controlled car that would bring out a new ball for, I dunno, extra point trys and kickoffs and stuff. They also LOVED that after the game, the kids were all allowed to run out on the field, wave their flags, and celebrate with the team. Check the pics. (Aside: would any US team dare have pink as a color, and "Come on Eileen" as a theme song???) By the time we got home and had some dinner, it was ten or so, so the boys slept in ... a bit ... this morning.

Once they got me to get up, we made a fancy parfait with the market fruit from yesterday, while Betsy slept in a bit. The boys also, on their own, set up a "Mother's Day Boutique" with gifts to ... sell to Betsy. (I think this new creative streak may be because we took them away from all their friends and other distractions. What do you think?) Good prices, sure, and what says "I love you" more than two postcards for 5 cents??? After brunch - yes, we had cantaloupe, so it counts - we decided to go for a bike ride on this fine day.

We went to Fat Tire and rented a bike-and-a-half plus a kid bike for Carter, with Betsy on her bike to get it (her) broken in to start riding to work soon. The City closes the highways along the Seine on Sunday for bikes, blades, walkers, etc. We rode across the Champ de Mars, where the police and other agencies (?) were having exhibitions of moto-riding, wall-climbing, and who knows what else. We rode the quai down to where it ended by Musee D'Orsay, then hit the city streets, sticking to smaller ones or the big ones with bike or bike/bus lanes. That was a bit harrowing, as Carter still wobbles, daydreams, and occasionally doesn't hear directions. But he did quite well overall, and we made it down to the Jardin du Luxembourg. He had a birthday party at 2 that was a couple blocks from the park, so we had a picnic under the trees and then Betsy took him to the party. Calvin and I rode around and then met her and explored the park a bit. It is amazing - in one place, a model boat basin, seeming miles of paths, beautiful gardens, petanque courts, an apiary, pear orchard, huge playground, carousel, puppet theater, and oh yeah, the national Senate.

We rode back up Boulevard Saint-Michel to the Seine. It's a straight shot, all downhill, so Calvin had a great time as we zoomed along with several other cyclists and a few cabs. At the end, we hopped onto the quaiside street, which has a bike/bus lane, and while we were riding there had our only slight mishap. Calvin got too confident and was messing around with his feet, and got one wedged against the tire, earning him a nice scrape and some tears. He recovered after a few minutes, and we tooled on back to the river-side route, across the Champs, and back to the bike shop. We were home about 4:15, just in time for Betsy to head back out to get Carter. By the time they got home, our Mother's Day dinner of quiche, salad, and escargot was almost ready, and after that and dessert we were all ready for bed. The boys are long asleep now, and it's time for me to follow them. Good night!

Monday holiday

Here are some pics from our Monday holiday adventures. You've also got to see this hilarious movie. I will try to add some description, but not tonight.

Versailles (updated)

(Edited Tuesday night to add movie, and THANKS to my office mates!)

Alright, before the Versailles stuff, here are a couple of random photos from during the week. If you're saying to yourself "eh, I'll skip 'em and get to the good stuff", well don't or you'll miss the kids in drag.

Moving on, our tour yesterday (Sunday) was delightful all around - great weather, beautiful setting, fun kids, and a good guide. We owe huge thanks to my office mates from EPA, who found the Fat Tire tour folks and got us a very generous gift certificate. Plus, they got it back when the dollar wasn't in such crappy shape, so it was worth something! Our friends at Fat Tire have been very indulgent of our constantly hanging about distracting them from work, so it was nice to finally be able to take a tour with them!

I wish I had the energy to tell you in more detail, but I don't, so for now you'll find some pictures and an excerpt from an email Betsy sent KEG about it. Also check out the movie of the boys getting ready.

This weekend we took a bike tour out to Versailles. It was really fun -- we saw the castle, of course, and also a lot of the gardens. There's something like 750 acres, so we saw only a small part of the whole grounds, but still covered a lot more than you can get to on foot. We had a picnic lunch down at the end of the grand canal, which has a straight view about a mile up to the chateau. The kids were so good. Carter rode his own bike, and Calvin went on a trail-a-bike (have you seen these? It's basically half a bike, with a seat, handlebars, and a back wheel. The front hooks onto the seat of an adult's bike, so the back end just gets pulled along. The kid can pedal if he wants, but the only necessity is that he hold on.) Calvin got jostled a little on a couple bumps in the path, but never fell off and was so proud of himself. It was a little nervewracking with Carter on his own bike when we were on the streets (we took the bikes on a train out there, so had to go back and forth to the train stations from the bike shop). His main problem is that he gets distracted by the passing scenery, or his bike chain, or other interesting things, and forgets to look up and go straight. But the guide took really good care of him, and Carter never complained about being tired or anything -- he really only complained about me nagging him all the time to pay better attention. Now he's lobbying to go on a multi-day bike tour somewhere in the countryside.

Weekending

Here's a super-quick update. It's almost midnight Saturday night, and tomorrow we're going to spend the whole day on a guided bike tour to/of Versailles, the chateau and gardens and the town. Yes, we're finally using the gift certificate my (Chris') office gave us to Fat Tire Bike Tours. The tour should be great, we're all very excited about it.

Today was a fairly typical (so far) Saturday for us. We all slept in a bit - the boys had stayed up late watching the Narnia DVD Nan sent - then we had breakfast and went to the market. We got back around lunch time, so had a market lunch of North African breads with tapenada, tarama, tzatziki, olives, and sardines. We puttered, read, and played for a while, then the other three took naps while I cooked lamb stew for dinner - it was definitely a North African theme to our dining today. After naps, Carter and Betsy did homework while Calvin and I went to the Monoprix, then we had dinner and the rest of the evening (well, I guess teh whole day!) was pretty calm.

My French classes started Wednesday, which is one reason the blog posts have slowed down a bit. The boys had Wednesday off as well, so stayed with our friend Andria while I went to class. On Tuesday night, Betsy and I went out to dinner with a bunch of parents from Carter's school, which was nice and social, and the boys stayed with Matilde, a university student from around the corner whom we met through another family from Carter's school. Going back to Tuesday day, we picked up the beautiful furniture I posted about last week.

I will catch up on any pictures I took and haven't downloaded tomorrow evening, as well as showing the sites from Versailles. Thanks for your patience, and we'll type and talk to you soon.

What three-day weekend?

Mom gently pointed out to me that I titled yesterday's post three-day weekend then didn't explain. Today is Fete du Travail, or workers' day, or May Day, a national holiday here and in many countries around the world. Betsy and the boys had today off, making it a three-day weekend for them. Carter and I added up last night, and from last Saturday through Wednesday May 10th, he will have 4 1/2 days of school out of 12 days. Tough schedule.

Anyway, we were all pretty beat from our active day yesterday, and today was also to be a drizzly one. We guessed at least some things would be open today, since they were on Easter Monday holiday last month, but the museums and other attractions were mostly closed. The boys slept until 9 again (it's a wonder what letting them stay up 'til 11 will do!), and we woke gently and had some breakfast. We had a few sorting tasks to deal with - we'd changed out the boys' winter clothes for spring/summer Saturday, but got started on the jackets, hats, and gloves. The boys were playing, but Carter understandably wanted to do something more on his bonus holiday. We headed to the Montparnasse area, a few Metro stations away, aiming for the "crepe district." Carter had wanted to ride the super-fast moving walkway (seriously), and for once it was working. Check out this description (scroll down to the high-speed section):

The speed of a moving walkway is usually 3 km/h, but there is a high-speed version at Gare Montparnasse station in Paris. At first it operated at 12 km/h but too many people were falling over, so the speed was reduced to 9 km/h. It has been estimated that commuters using a walkway such as this twice a day would save 11.5 hours a year.

We didn't fall - see the proof.

We found a promising creperie, and it was absolutely yummy, gallettes, fresh cidre, crepes for dessert, mmmmmm. Afterward, we walked in the drizzle to the big Cemetery in Montparnasse. We enjoyed walking around the tombs but failed again to see any of the rumored cemetery cats. Perhaps they're smart enough to get out of the rain.

We headed home and had solid naps, then got up and finished our chores around the house and played a bit. Betsy made entrecote (steak) with buttery baby potatoes and salad, and we nibbled on Easter candy for dessert. The boys are down, and it's time for me to follow, so good night y'all.

P.S. Enjoy Jazzfest if you're there, listen if you're not.