Sunday
Sunday morning means the market is set up, so I walked down the road to the local market to stock up on fruit and vegetables for the week. The prices are a fraction of what I see in the grocery store, so it is definitely worth the trip! I wasn’t impressed by the veggies at the first market, so I walked up the road to the second area market instead. This one was a LOT bigger and had many many stalls. I picked up vegetables and also some chocolate hazelnut bread!
We grabbed lunch at FrogBurger and ice cream at Amorino, just like Caden and I did two weeks ago. Then we attempted to get to the museum and missed the first bus by one minute and the second bus was held up by a massive bicycle group that stopped traffic. Instead we took the RER to the metro 14, but the metro station was closed. So next we power walked across the river and made it just in time!
Keller tracked down a small, off the beaten path museum for us to explore — The Museum of Fairground Arts. It is by tour only, and tickets are only available for purchase in advance. We pre-booked tickets for the 2pm tour.
The tours are offered in French only, but fortunately our tour guide spoke excellent English! He bounced back and forth between French and English for each room we were in. He did an amazing job and really involved all the children (and adults) in the tour!
The museum itself was fascinating! It began as a private collection of fairground and performance pieces that were collected over the years. Unable to get state funding for a museum, it is a privately run museum that also hosts receptions and events in addition to the tours.
The museum has an extensive collection of games, mannequins, and decorations from the late 1800s through mid 1950s. We all got a turn to play on an old horse racing game where you roll a ball and advance based on your score (like skeeball).
We also got to ride on an three different kinds of carousels! The first was a small Venetian carousel that simply spun in place. The second was a more traditional horse carousel. The third was a very special bicycle carousel! The bicycle carousel is the only one in Europe and is completely powered by cycling the pedals. It has a top speed of 40 mph! I don’t think the tour group was quite that quick, but it sure looked fast to me!
After the museum we wandered through the Bercy Park before heading back toward home.
Monday
Today we decided to head up to the Montmarte area of Paris to see the Sacre Coeur church. We’d seen it from a distance when visiting the Buttes Chaumont park, so we wanted to visit it up close. The church itself was pretty and felt very unusual with the rounded domes. The ceiling mosaic was particularly beautiful.
After the church we had lunch at a creperie close by before picking up another of our favorite praline bread loaves. Keller offered to wrangle the kids for quiet time and screens, so we parted ways. I went to Musee de L’Orangerie which was still on my To See list. Musee de L’Orangerie is the museum custom designed to display 8 massive Waterlily paintings by Monet. They were truly immense and the setting was perfect. It was neat to see so many of them close together and really compare the differences in techniques and colors between the versions.
The museum also had an extensive collection of other art work too, including Renoir and Picasso. I really enjoyed the impressionist pieces.
Later that night, Keller and Kamy went on an expedition to see “The City of Lights.” Kamy really wanted to see everything lit up at night, so they got tickets to the viewing platform at a tall building in the heart of Paris. It gave them a great view of the Eiffel Tower and they got to see it sparkle at 11pm.
Tuesday
Keller expressed an interest in seeing the Air and Space Museum on the north side of town, so we put that on our plans for the day. The Museum has a large collection of airplanes, helicopters, and space exploration equipment. They also had numerous planes you could go inside, including two Concorde jets and a deconstructed 747 so you could see the interior elements that hold everything together. There were a few school groups at the museum, but otherwise we had it basically to ourselves.
For lunch we went to an authentic Indian restaurant across the street. It was really good! We liked almost everything we ordered and felt very adventurous. It was a nice break from the French influence in most restaurants in Paris.
The afternoon included the standard quiet time and screens, plus dinner and a walk to the park.
Wednesday
With just a few days left in Paris, we were focused on hitting the last few Must See items. We went to the Grande Galerie de L’Evolution and the Childrens Museum — both located in the Jardin de Plantes. The Grand Galerie was full of taxidermy, including numerous extinct and critically endangered animals. The whale skeletons were particularly impressive.
The Childrens Museum was less interesting, but it was only a small add on to the initial ticket.
For lunch, Keller found a fabulous restaurant near by called Le Refuge de Passe. It was a French restaurant with an emphasis on home cuisine. We were the only people there, though the waiter said they were fully booked for dinner and were usually quiet for lunch. The food was quite delicious!
Keller then headed back to the apartment for work, while I took the kids back to Luxemburg gardens once more. Caden wanted to do the sail boats in the fountain basin, so we started there. The boats were really neat — they had a weighted section under water that “pulled” the boats forward. There was no motor, but the kids would push the boat off from the edge with a long pole and see where it ended up! We had the South Africa boat.
After the boats we went to Poussin Vert playground. There were fewer English speaking families there this time, but the kids still had a lovely time. In the late afternoon it clouded up again and rained hard. Pretty much all the kids (and definitely all the parents) sought refuge under the awnings. But Kamy and Caden kept right on playing on the zipline. At one point I think they were the only kids on the entire playground. There definitely wasn’t a wait for the zipline!
The rain cleared, we stayed longer, and then we headed out as it was preparing to rain again. The kids wanted to ride the carousel one last time, but they had to pay for their own rides. Since it was raining, the ride operators were not doing the lance and rings, so Kamy and Caden were a bit disappointed.
Back home for dinner and showers before bedtime.
Thursday
We slept in some this morning before heading out for the day. We tried to get brunch at a restaurant with great reviews, but they were temporarily closed for a break. Instead we had Italian at Meriggio. Again, it was quite tasty and pretty different than we were expecting. The favorite was a homemade penne pasta with pistachio.
For dessert, we went to the Choco Story Museum! It is a small museum dedicated to chocolate and it’s evolution from a spicy hot drink in Central and Latin America to the chocolate that we know today. Our favorite part was getting to watch a demonstration where they showed us how to create “filled” chocolates. Kamy and Caden were also able to create their own chocolates with toppings. They thought that was really cool!
One of the neatest displays were chocolate creations that were truly works of art. There was an Eiffel Tower completely made of chocolate and blooming flowers that were masterpieces. Kamy felt very inspired!
Keller took the kids back to the apartment, and I walked over to two specialty cooking stores that were recommended by the cooking class I took the previous week. One is a specialty ingredient store, G Detou, where you can find all kinds of unique and hard to find ingredients. I bought a bag of Fleur de Sel to restock my dwindling supply at home.
I also went to E. Dehilleren, a famous cookware and equipment store. The store itself was a labryinth with stacks and stacks of unique items. I did not know what half of the tools were used for! I picked out a small paring knife in a size I didn’t have at home as a souvenir.
After feeding the kids at home, the three of us walked up to the Aucun grocery store to stock up on Keller’s new favorite sausage! Then we went to both playgrounds in Buttes Chaumont one last time.
Friday
For our last day in Paris, we ultimately decided to see both the Louis Vuitton Fondation Museum and return to Jardin d’Acclimatation. The museum ticket also provides entrance to the Jardin, so we bought tickets online in advance. We also stopped at a local bakery and picked up sandwiches and desserts for a picnic lunch in the park.
The museum was very interesting. The building itself was a work of art and truly fascinating. The interior exhibits were modern and contemporary works. We don’t usually see much modern art, so it was a baby step into art that the kids have been less exposed to. Keller particularly enjoyed looking at the Murakami exhibit.
After the museum, Keller bought enough tickets at the Jardin for three people (Keller and the kids) to ride their favorite coaster Les Speed Racers twice. Then both kids did the spinning house. Kamy bought one last ticket to ride the Carousel, while Caden bought one so he could do Les Speed Racers a final time.
Keller split off to go work, while the kids played at the playground for a while. Kamy still wanted to pick up a small Eiffel Tower souvenir, so we stopped near the Louvre on the subway ride home for her to pick one out from the street sellers. We also bought a nutella crepe from a little cart which was very tasty and also felt very iconic French. =P
We also stopped at Pralus one last time for more praline bread … arguably our favorite sweet in France! It’s a good thing we don’t have those around the corner here … I’d be buying them constantly!
The rest of the evening included dinner and packing and cleaning to get ready to leave in the morning.
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Overall, Paris was just okay. The buildings were interesting and the long history is fascinating to me. However, we just didn’t really care for the city itself. It’s busy, loud, and dirty. Parisians (and tourists) don’t seem to take very good care of the city because trash and graffiti are everywhere. Smoking is constant and really distracting, and the air quality was poor. While the art museums are world class, there is very little English language support in other museums unless you spend another 5 euro per person on audio guides. It’s just not the city for us.
Part of what we wanted to figure out on this trip is how we want to travel in the future. I don’t think Paris will be on the list any time soon. But that’s okay! There is a LOT more of the world to explore!
