Even in Paris...

Even in Paris, the toilet must be cleaned. I will not include pictures of that or the other housework and laundry I did today. Instead I offer pictures of what we did today because I needed a day to pick up around here. We went to the park. It started out very cloudy and cool, but then the sun broke through for about an hour and it was glorious. Here is Warren on his favorite toy, the spider-web climber.Avery was so cute sitting there on the swing, that I took this one. I love it.
We stopped by a boulangerie on the way home to get bread, and so we took a different way home. We turned down this narrow walkway, just for fun, and it ended up being beautiful. And, it came out right next to our apartment building! It's been there all along, hidden by a bend and behind a building just next to us. The guy in green is a sanitation worker; they are all over Paris, cleaning up the streets and emptying the trash bags that are everywhere.
As long as I was getting a fresh look at my neighborhood, I crossed the street and looked up at my building. I'd never done that before. It's actually kind of cute, in a shabby-chic sort of way. Definitely never going to make it into one of Melinda'a paintings, but it has a bit of charm.

The reason I'd never noticed this charm before is because this (below) is my entrance. Yes, it is a parking garage exit. If you look up at the building again, this would be just off the left side of the building.

Once I get in my gate above, we walk through this walkway/driveway to the back of the building. If you can see W & A by the white rectangle, that is the little gate to our apartment.

Here is the view of our ground-level apartment from the little white gate. If you walk past the blue shutters and turn left, that is our yard area, a real rarity here. The kids love it. Just across from the door--to the left--there is a "meadow" as my kids call it. It was drizzling rain by the time I took these, so I'll save outdoor pictures for another day.
Total steps today: only 6,923
French words: a emporter: to take out (as in, food to go, or food to take with you); tirer: verb, to pull (used on doors, tirez); ajouter: verb, to add (in recipes, ajoutez)
Oh, at the grocery store--yes, I have to grocery shop here in Paris, gotta have paper towels, tape and you can't eat out every meal, or even most of them--a French women asked me where the toilet paper was and I showed her. It was nice to be helpful.