Saturday, December 13, 2014

Bon Voyage and Two Bottles of Wine

My final day of family fanfare... tear, sigh... hysterical waterfall of catastrophic tears... But at least we had a jam-packed schedule full of fun Parisian treats. One of the first things we did when planning for this trip was to think of kid-friendly Parisian spots for Le Moo Moo (my nephew, and yes I really call him that.) Over a year ago, a friend of mine had mentioned Parc de la Villette as one of his favorite spots, so I indulged in a day on my own to explore. It was then that I was introduced to the children's museum located there, which I thought would be a perfect for the little man. We researched the details and sister-in-law purchased tickets for us 3 adults to escort our wee lad in an afternoon of elfin mayhem. There were tons of things to test and explore, from water games to mirrors and the like. The best, however, was an entire construction room where the kids had to don worker jackets and helmets while they carted around blocks and used a real crane to pretend to build a house. He was in heaven and would have easily stayed there forever if we had let him. Sadly, (or rather perfectly for the adults), you are only allotted a specific amount of time in the museum so that it's not completely overrun.

After this, we made our way to Montmartre, my very favorite neighborhood of all time. We wandered through some of the shops, wound our way through the picturesque avenues, took some impressive shots by Sacre Coeur, and ended our jaunt around Pigalle. After a rather long day of standing and walking, we decided to treat ourselves to a cab and escape the shenanigans of stomping through the metro with a toddler and his entourage. It ended up being our second disaster with transportation in the same day. The first was when we actually attempted the metro between the museum and Montmarte, and this time was when all cab drivers in all of Paris were apparently on break at the same time. Even through that crazy app we call Uber. At long last, we found an available taxi, and were incredibly relieved when we made it back down to the 5th. It was actually all rather fortuitous because the siblings were able to do some last minute shopping on Rue Mouffetard before their departure, and while Le Moo Moo was turning cranktastic again and almost knocked down a display in a chocolate shop, this ultimately led to him being banished outside to hang with Auntie La. Twice, workers from the chocolate shop came out to give him a free sweet, clearly much more taken in by his dimples and charm than turned off by his spirited stubbornness. This also meant that he slowly progressed into a happier mood and allowed me to take some selfies again, one of which caused us to literally topple over on the sidewalk whilst he laughed hysterically.

We decided to spend our final evening back in the Parisian pad, so we picked up all we needed in the way of treats once again, and we ended up with a feast rivaling that of Thanksgiving. Sister-in-law and I decided to share a roast chicken, 4 or 5 desserts were bought, and of course the now prevailing ritual, two bottles of wine. I was certainly sad to say my adieus that evening, knowing the fam would be packing up and flying home the next morn. But happily, I also knew I would be seeing them again in just a few weeks for Christmas. And wow, has time already been flying!



























































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