En plein air

While Monday was certainly the nicest weather of the week, we (or at least I, Chris) have spent most of the past two days outside. Wednesday both boys had off school, so we had an expedition down to Betsy's office in Issy-les-Moulineaux. It's the first suburb southwest of the city along the Seine, and her office is on an island in the Seine. Issy and Boulogne across the river from it are historically very industrial places, but have been reclaimed and residential-ized over the past few years, with lots of work ongoing. The very northern edge of Issy is on the Metro, but the RER and a Metro tram (light rail) line go closer to her office. The boys and I decided to take a bus so we could do something new and see more of the above-ground city. I traced our route on Google Earth (see below) - turns out we walked a half-mile, took the #39 about 3.5 miles, then walked about a mile through the big park that is the northern half of the island with Betsy's office.



The park has tons of sculpture, play areas, open spaces, stables, a restaurant, and natural areas. The boys enjoyed playing under a huge sculpture by Jean Debouffet, "La Tour aux Figures."



We met Betsy for lunch in some "ruins" as the boys called them. Here's a movie of Carter describing them, with a good bit of creative back-story. After lunch, we visited Betsy's new office and then were getting pretty tired, so in lieu of walking back through the park, we walked across the bridge to Issy proper and took the tram, RER, and Metro home. Whew! Nap time!

Today the boys were back in school, and some of the english-speaking school parents had organized a randonee, which is basically a recreation and social walk through some more or less interesting place. They had picked Noisiel and Champs-sur-Marne in the eastern part of the Paris region. I dropped the boys off and hopped the train to join them. We walked about 15 km between 10h30 and 3h00, with a break for lunch. Not too exhausting, but a good bit of walking and some nice scenery along the river. The highlights were two areas, the chocolate factory in Noisiel and the chateau at Champs-sur-Marne. Aparently the Menier chocolate company that was here was the first to create chocolate bars - it was mostly a drink until then. This person's blog is much more informative about the beautiful, historic chocolate works, but here's my picture.



Several kilometers later, we arrived at the chateau in time for them to close it for lunch. Plus, no eating on the grounds, so we sat out in front by the road and looked at it for a while before walking around the extensive grounds. Lots of plants are tantalizingly budded, but not many flowers apart from the occasional daffodil. The chateau and grounds date from the very early 1700s.



Alright, I know when people requested more pictures they didn't really want my travelogue, so I promise I'll take more of the boys and us this weekend, weather pending. TTFN ...