Weekend Warriors

by Danielle

Dan just finished his last class until mid-June and although he has a few papers to write, we’re eager to have him more available for family time. This weekend was the first in recent memory where we did not have committments, school-related or otherwise.

Saturday started off bright and sunny, but by the time Rachel had a whopper nap it was gray, cold and rainy. Our friend Jamie told us about a kid-friendly restaurant (with high chairs-very rare here) in Republique, so we hopped a bus and in less than ten minutes we were in Belgian-themed Leon de Bruxelles.  What is Belgian food, you might ask? Mainly frites (french fries), mussels (prepared about ten different ways) and waffles (with a zillion combos of ice cream toppings). Oh, and beer. The place was full of families and it was nice to enjoy a meal and not be paranoid about making a lot of noise or disturbing other people.

Sunday we metroed to the edge of town to the Bois de Vincennes, a gorgeous park with four lakes, a zoo, a farm, floral gardens, playgrounds, and an enormous 12th century chateau. It was a cloudless sky and about 80 degrees, we were sunscreened and sweating- unbelieveable! Even in August the weather never got this hot. The park is so large (almost three times the size of Central Park in NYC) that we will have to go back repeatedly, as we were only able to see part of the lake and a playground, where we had a picnic. 

There are many places like this that we are eager to see, on the edge of town or within an hour of the city by train. For now playing tourist is a challenge, a balancing act between Rachel’s frequent naps, sketchy weather forecasts, Joseph’s mood, and parental energy levels. I hope to soon visit the town of Giverny, where Claude Monet lived and painted his water lilies series. But this week I’ll be satisfied with just seeing the paintings at the Orangerie at the edge of Jardin des Tuileries.