Paris, Day 8: Somedays Feel Like a Strikeout

Remember how we were going to the Chocolate Museum on the first day in Paris, but then the kids were so frustrating they had to spend the day on their beds? Well, we decided to try the Chocolate Museum again, and this time the kids did well. They were ready on time, without my nagging, and with all their chores done.

Hooray!

STRIKE 1: The Chocolate Museum. This was not a cheap museum, but it could have been worth it, because even though it was small, the exhibits were interesting and imparted a great deal of information. The problem was primarily that the clerk at the beginning gave each of the kids a treasure map, which asked them to find certain Playmobil characters throughout the museum, and then they could turn in the map for a chocolate treat. As a result, the kids’ interaction with the museum was cursory, and not even Mary actually read anything or looked at the actual exhibits. They only wanted the little chocolate lollipop at the end. There was a chocolate making demonstration, but again, the free chocolate was the only draw, and they didn’t actually listen to any of the chocolatier’s lecture. At the gift shop, the kids spent almost all their allowance, and then as we were leaving, the clerk told us that because of the construction subsuming a third of the museum, we could have a free hot chocolate. So then the kids had more chocolate. While it was an entertaining morning, and while the kids LOVED all the chocolate, it wasn’t worth the money we spent on it.

After the chocolate-making presentation. Don’t you think this captures all of their personalities?

Drinking their hot cocoa outside the museum on the steps.

This photo is for those who want to try the original chocolate of the Conquistadors.

STRIKE 2: From the Chocolate Museum I walked the kids to a park about twenty minutes away that had been recommended to me, called Square du Recollets. I chose it because it was next to the Canal Saint-Martin, where we would be able to see the boats come through the locks. The park was a grassless and dirty scrap of a playground, and there were no boats in sight. On a happier note, we finally figured out exactly how to work the public toilets

Walking to the Canal Saint-Martin

STRIKE 3: We headed home in the early afternoon, and I decided to go out with Mary and try to find sweatshirts for she and Joe (since the weather was starting to get a little chillier.) I located some secondhand clothing stores on the map—no Champs E’lysee excursion for this family, and took Mary biking with me to the first one. She did great riding in traffic all the way there, but then . . . it was closed. So we walked two kilometers to the next one . . . and it was also closed. So we rode the train home. No sweatshirts.

Mary at the end of her bike ride.

So, all in all, for the amount of money I spent, I didn’t feel like there was much accomplished today, but I think the kids nevertheless had a good time.