Paris, Day 2: Jardin de Luxembourg, Rented Bicycles and Crepes

On our first morning in Paris, I decided to take the kids to Jardin du Luxembourg. It's a rather famous greenspace in the center of the city, near the old Sorbonne and the Seine, and since the recent installation of an incredible playground (that costs 2.50 Euro per child) near the Carousel and Puppet Theater, has become even more popular with families. Public school for Parisians began that same day, so the park was populated primarily with toddlers and expats, many of whom spoke English. Abby and Isaac both found friends to run around with, and it never ceases to amaze me how similar so many eleven-year old boys are. Actually, to be honest, it makes me feel better, too, because sometimes Isaac makes me crazy. He's sweet and funny and can be oh-so-helpful, but sometimes I want to strangle him. Seeing other boys who are almost middle-schoolers also make dinosaur noises and run around like apes makes me feel less like a failure as a mother.

We played at the park for almost three hours. I met some lovely American women living in Paris who gave me some good must-sees and tips for traveling around. The weather had turned cold--only 65 instead of yesterday's 90--but I just kept telling the kids to run around so they would warm up. When we finally decided to leave (Isaac did not want to go), we were disappointed by an out-of-order carousel and the non-existent rental booth for the famed remote-control wooden boats we wanted to float on the fountain/pond. The kids were pretty tired, anyway (read: Joe was on the ground in a crying fit), so we picked up a snack at the nearby grocer, walked to the train station and headed home. I'm learning that our best routine is to get going and out by nine or ten in the morning, then when the kids peter out by two o'clock, we can go home and they can do school stuff while I make dinner and rest up for my evening out with Ed.

Luxembourg gardens to the South . . .

. . . and to the North. This is the Luxembourg Palace, begun in 1612 by Queen Marie de' Medici, which now houses the national senate/assembly. 

I stole this photo from www.luckylittletravelers.com because I couldn't take one myself that captured the scope of this park. There are at least a dozen structures, so every age group up to twelve years has a number of playscapes to choose from. There is also this sandbox, and even a zipline, which the kids probably played on for two of the three hours we were there. It looked like so much fun! 

Even Mary found something to do at this park. I think she was just glad to have uninterrupted reading time.

I had a great day with the kids, but I had an even better evening out with Ed. In fact, I think I may be able to say this is one of the most fun evenings I have ever had. While I have been planning and executing my outings with the kids, Ed has taken the time to research our grown-up fun (to say "adult" fun sounds inappropriate). First of all, he discovered "velib," Paris's rental bike system. There are bike stations every four or five blocks all around the city, and you can download an app on your phone to tell you how many bikes and how many empty spaces are available at each place. You can buy a week's pass for eight Euro online and get a code, then every time you want to use a bicycle, you go to the station, input your code, and get the first thirty minutes free. After that it's one Euro for every thirty minutes. Luckily, we can get most of the way to downtown in thirty minutes, so we go until twenty-five minutes have passed, look for a station, park the bike, walk a few blocks, and pick up another one. If you don't have kids or bad weather to contend with, I think it must be the cheapest and funnest and most efficient way to get around Paris. 

We headed first to Notre Dame, which was closed, but there were still people milling around the square in front. It is as stunning and beautiful as you would expect. It's also in great repair, probably because it's so famous and frequented--lots of donations pay for great upkeep and repair.

I really need a haircut.

We were pretty thirsty from our long ride, so we set off to hunt for a water fountain. Ed had downloaded a map of Paris's water fountains, and he was looking for a specific kind: the Wallace fountain. Named for its English financier, these fountains were made in the late 19th century, and instead of just being a short stone pillar with a spigot, they are quite fancy, with four lovely Romanesque ladies surrounding a steady downward stream of clean drinking water. We searched for a long time and had given up, when, lo and behold! we found two of them right by the bicycle station. Ed was happy--he can get a little obsessive about these things, and it was going to bug him all night if we didn't find one.

A dark photo, but a triumphal moment worth commemorating. 

Now it was after 9:00 and I was itching for real Parisian crepes. Again, Ed had done his homework, and he led us on our bicycles to "Crepe Alley" (I don't know if that's the real name for it, or if he just made that up). We went to a well-reviewed creperie, and I had one of the most wonderful gastronomic experiences of my life. My crepe had pears, chocolate, roasted almonds, and vanilla ice cream, and I wanted to lick the plate when I was done. Ed's was salted caramel and ice cream and something else, but it wasn't as good as mine. Poor Ed. I didn't share.

So now we were wandering again, because nature has begun its urgent call. After failing for more than twenty minutes to find a public toilet, we raided the nearby McDonald's in the hopes that we could sneak into the locked bathroom on the coattails of some unsuspecting customer. You have to use a code from your receipt to open the bathroom, so we almost bought a soda just to get a receipt and code. But instead, we swallowed our dignity and asked a young woman for the receipt she was about to throw away. Then we let five other un-receipted people into the bathroom after us. So there, McDonalds.

The view from the McDonald's street.

By now, it was after 11, but we kept striking out at bicycle stations--they only had bikes left with flat tires or broken chains. We finally found working bicycles and headed home, and after our thirty minutes were up, we parked them and walked a bit. I needed to use the bathroom again (lest you think I have a problem, at least an hour had passed, and I had drunk A LOT of water at the creperie), but this time there was a toilet just up the street. Paris has these great toilet kiosks with automated doors and a washing system that cleans the commode and the floor after each person uses it. 

This I stole from colleensparis.com.

However, I hadn't used one of these before, and after sitting down and beginning my business, I mistook the door handle for the door lock. All of a sudden, the automatic door slowly slid open revealing me to all of Paris. Ed laughed hysterically, and luckily there was no one else on the street, so I also could get a good laugh. In fact, we laughed most of the way home (when we weren't gasping for breath cycling up those last couple hills).

Just like last night, it was after midnight when we finally got home, and we paid for it the next day in exhaustion. But it was worth it. Really, who could ask for a more fun evening with their most favorite person?