We do too exist!

Oh yes, I hear you all out there, wondering if we've forgotten you, or home, or this journal, or how to use the camera, or all of our passwords, or all of the above. Well 'tain't true. We're here and leading our daily (en français, quotidien) busy lives. I'll skip the excuses and go on to the meat of a quick update. Since returning from Köln a week ago, I started back to french classes at the Alliance Française. It's 3 hours per day, 3 days per week now (it was 2 hours for 5 days last spring), and last week it was actually 4 hours per day to make up for the teacher's absence the week before. If you're wondering, 4 hours of french per day is too much for a 38-year-old brain, though our strong soldier Carter is managing at it quite nicely. In fact, his and Calvin's french has totally started bubbling over, just in the past few weeks. They've had conversations in french with each other without us, and if we ask in french they'll eagerly answer in much better french (than mine, at least). Their teachers all report that they're having fun and working hard.

Last week we had to say goodbye to our friend River, who we met as a guide at Fat Tire. He came for dinner to see the boys one last time, and then he and I went out for drinks. Just in case you're checking, thanks, man.

Last weekend, we started by taking it as easy as possible Friday, being all beat after a long week and traveling weekend. Saturday we got up late, then headed to the Jardin d’Aventure des Halles. (I *swear* I wrote about this before, but darned if I can find it via the blogger search. Hmmm.) It's this excellent kids-only play area tucked into the mostly horrible public parkscape at Les Halles, that after 900 or so years replaced the largest meat and veg market in Europe in 1969. By kids-only, I mean it's usually open only to kids ages 7 to 11. I took Carter sometime in August, and he was so excited to take Calvin and us on a Saturday morning, the only time it's open to us bigs and littles. Weirdly, Calvin was hesitant to go in, but man did he, and they, and we, have a blast. It didn't hurt that it was another 67-degree October day here. Check out the pics of the park here - they're better than mine.

Afterward we visited St. Eustache, a beautiful church with an amazing pipe organ. We hadn't been inside before, but outside is where Calvin faceplanted in a fountain a couple of months back. After we went wandering the rue Montorgueil, a great market street, one of the oldest in Paris. We found a brocante (thrift market) specializing in mid-20th-century furniture, and wandered through marveling at the miracle of plastics and pleather until we got starving. Thankfully, Carter and Calvin spied a neat resto where I'd had drinks with Kevin once before - Le Tambour, on rue Montmartre. It's decorated in, um, urban eclectic style, and in fact bills itself as "un bistrot de l'urbain bucolique." We met the proprietors, the charismatic André and his harried wife Christine, and their exchange student from Massachusetts, Maya. The food, atmosphere, and environs were first rate, so we'll definitely show it off when you come visit. After lunch, we wandered some more, buying fruit and veg and ice cream and beer, before Calvin and I headed home and Betsy and Carter went to the sporting goods store at the hideous underground mall.

Sunday we did homework and straightened up before heading to the Jardin d'Acclimatation at the Bois de Boulogne. It's the 50-year-old amusement park we visited back in April or May. Both boys had also visited over the summer with their camps. Carter had a birthday party in the afternoon, and we had another pretty day, so we all went along and wandered the park while he partied. Calvin rode his first roller coaster, and after Carter finished we rode three more coasters! They're all the tiny, tame kind, but you wouldn't know it from the looks on their faces.

Well, I promised myself this would be short so I can get some sleep, so off I go. Post a comment to encourage me to get the pictures and movies together - they're very cute!