The Sunshine Made Me Brave...

Today was going to be a day where we stayed close to home, but then I woke up and the sun was shining and somehow it made me brave. It's like that hymn, "There is sunshine in my soul today." Funny, because Abigail actually sang that at some point in our travels today. Anyway, by the time I finally fixed the shutter on my camer--it wouldn't open earlier--the sun was hidden behind the clouds, but believe me, it was glorious almost all day, and when the sun shines in Paris, you have to go outside and live it up.
I felt brave enough to take the kids on the Metro--all by myself. I put my ticket in my jeans so it would be easily accessible and practiced asking "Will you help me with the door of the metro?" (Later, I realized I remembered incorrectly and actually asked, "Would you like to help me with the door of the metro?" Oh well, the nice lady got the point.) On our metro line, the doors must be unlatched, and doing that, then hoisting the stroller up the 6 inches onto the train and making sure Warren gets on, all before the doors close automatically is a bit nerve-racking. But, it worked well to have someone else get the door. Once on, I felt a huge wave of relief and I was actually excited for our day out. We didn't have to transfer, so our only other obstacles were the 2 stairways up to the street. Thankfully, the city is full of people who offer their assistance, and a nice couple helped me up both of them. If I weren't so busy carrying the stroller up the stairs with 2 kids in it, I would take a picture. :)
Once on the street, we took a walk mapped out by a walking tour set of cards I have. We started at the Concorde metro station and headed up around Place de Madeleine, which is a church and also the name of the area. This is Paris gourmet food shopping at it's finest. We didn't go into any of them--I'm not sure we would've all been welcome, stroller, 3 kids--but we saw shops dedicated exclusively to honey, mustard and vinegar, and of course, chocolate. They looked fabulous. We also passed a lot of great clothing shops and some posh-looking toy stores. I'd love to go in them, without the kids. Maybe for their birthdays in May...Oh, I saw a store that looked like it was all things made of origami, but I didn't pass it on the way back. If I go back, I'm going in there, kids or no kids. That would be fascinating.
In the midst of all this fabulous food we stopped at a park and ate our fruit snacks, cheese crackers and beef jerky, all pilfered from our 72 hour kits back home. Yum.
After our walking route was finished, we walked to the apartment of the Shirtliff's--the people who had us over for dinner on Sunday. I had called her that morning before I left to ask if we could visit like she had offered on Sunday. When we got off the elevator at the 4th floor, we were greeted by the aroma of chocolate chip cookies, hot out of the oven. It was beautiful. Elaine had made them just for us. We ate as many as we wanted, along with apples, orange juice, fruit snacks and peanut butter on french bread and it was wonderful. Then we watched "Monsters Inc." It was great to have a place to unwind; Avery especially enjoyed being out of the stroller and running around on the rugs. I think it's the only place with carpeting/rugs that we've been in. It is so great to have a grandma away from home. She invited us back for lunch next week when they get back from Engand, and also will come visit us, since her yarn store is near by our neighborhood.

This is the park and church directly across the street from the Shirtliff's apartment. Paris is a city of contrasts--this picture illustrates that. I love that there are parks everywhere here! So do the kids. It is ideal for breaks from the long walks. We played for a bit, then set out on the long walk down St. Germain des Pres Blvd. to Andy's school, Ecole Polytechnique.

This is in the park/courtyard of the church, St. Germain de Pres. Abigail fell asleep on our walk here, but Warren enjoyed playing on the fallen stones that are arranged in the center of the grassy space. You can see that the park is kind of made up of these fallen pieces. While we were there, a nice older gentelman came up to return my map the kids had dropped and asked if I was the "child's helper." Seeing my confused look, he asked embarassedly, "Oh! You are the mother of all three!?" I replied yes, and we had a great time visiting. His English was pretty good. He thought I looked so young that I couldn't be the mother of the 3 kids; I didn't tell him that I'm only 25, anyway.
He has 3 sons, all grown and he lives in the French Alps. I told him that we were here for 3 months while Andy studies at Ecole Polytechnique; he was impressed by this and was happy to tell me that his father had studied there also. It must have been years ago, because he was at least 70. He said, "You're children are magnificent." I think people here really like their blond hair and blue eyes. We chatted some more and then he asked if he could take a picture so he could "show my wife my mishap." He pronounced "mishap" with the "sh" like the "sh" in ship, so I didn't understand at first. Then I realized he meant mistaking me for a nanny of 3 kids. After taking our picture, he offered to take one with our camera. These are the photos.

Nothing that different from the last one, except you get a better view of my scarf (yeah for scarves) and Avery dipping her binky in the cheese we pilfered from the Shirtliff's, La Vache Qui Rit. She was pretty hungry and really enjoyed eating the cream cheese-like stuff right off her binky. After this, we walked a bit further to Andy's school and met him, along with the 2 professors he is working with, Dr.'s Balinski and Laraki. They are delightful. I'm so glad he is working with such nice people. We visited for a while, then rode the metro home. We picked up 2 long baguette sandwiches at a boulangerie on the way home for dinner and ate in our garden area. It was a great day.
Total steps: 17,300 (a record, thus far)
French phrase to remember: "Pourriez-vous m'aider avec la porte du metro?"