Hello sunshine, we've missed you so.

Collecting glass, she had "painted" her nails earlier in the day with a marker.

Notre Dame with Sun

 I think the sun came out today just in time because Todd was about to move us to a more suitable climate if it did not come back out.  Yesterday we had school and then after a run we went to the Eiffel tower park to play in the few rays of sun we were getting that day.  It was amazingly crowded.  Completely packed.  Even the kids seemed to think it was not worth the effort to find a spot on the play structure.  So Austin and Jackson played catch with their tennis ball and the girls collected glass.  There is a lot of broken glass in the rocks around the parks and it's like glass in the ocean that has been smoothed by waves, this smoothed by the  constant stream of feet.  So after we played a while we came home and ate Tacos.  Yes I can make tacos here.  It takes some looking at the store but you can find tortillas and what else you need so it's  a piece of our routine here.
Bed again is allusive.  Todd and I stay up far far too late watching movies he's downloaded and TV shows.  Today we got up, looked outside and the sky was BLUE.  Ya the color after green, before purple.  I knew Todd was going to go to work

Like birds looking for crumbs girls looking for glass.

Run with sun and if you look close PDA

so I got up got school going and left for a run.  I know half of what I write about is running but it's become an fundamental part of my life here.  Much like eating whole loaves of bread and chocolate from a jar(nutella count now at 5 jars.)  I think the two have something to do with each other?  But it is also really fun.  It's like part run, part exploring.  With the sun out today it was really fun.  There is a monument called the memorial de la deportation.  It was built to remember the 200,000 people taken from France to concentration camps during WWII.  I studied it in College because it's Architecture that it meant to convey an experience.  This one is meant to make you experience in a small part what it may have been like to arrive at a concentration camp.  There are narrow walkways that take you down to the level of the river.  It is cold, dark, ugly, and hauntingly sad.
But it is completely effective, as you cannot help but sense the horror that must have been that experience.  There is a neat poem there that says,
 I have dreamt so very much of you,

I have walked so much,

Loved your shadow so much,

That nothing more is left to me of you.

All that remains to me is to be the shadow among shadows

To be a hundred times more of a shadow than the shadow

To be the shadow that will come and come again into

your sunny life. By Robert Desnos

I like how here feet don't touch the ground.

 Who himself was deported to the camps.
"We forgive but never forget." is also inscribed on the memorial.
So after running 8 miles, taking in Notre Dame in the sun and enjoying my own shadow for the first time on a run I came back to reality.  We had our classic lunch...bread with various toppings. And then the kids and I headed off to a new park that I had spotted on google earth maps.  It was about 1 mile away and so I asked the girls if they would rather walk.  They said they did so we hooked up the leashes and away we went.  It's in a different direction than we normally go so it was fun to explore.  The park was fun and we got the biggest

These guys fishing on river.

 

Cotton Candy I have ever seen.  Which made the park a huge hit with them, they cannot wait to go back, shocker.  We came back and took naps...so you can bet we will be awake at 2am, again.  But what does it really matter anyways?   We will have company next month which will be fun.  We are planning a short trip to Barcelona, Spain.  It's actually cheapest to fly us all so away we go.  We debated this a lot because we are actually quite comfortable here and the idea of going back to an airport with our kids is almost enough not to make us want to take advantage of our geographic location and see somewhere else.  So Todd and I both sucked it up and are making plans.

What the tower looked like yesterday...lovely.

Memorial des Maryrs de la Deportation 

Orsay and Sleep running.

Austin standing on a hanging walkway was a bit nervous.

 Woke up yesterday and decided to go out.  I decided I was either going to take the boys or the girls and asked who wanted to go and because Austin and Jackson said they wanted to stay here(presumably because they wanted to stay here and watch movies and play games) Todd informed them they they were going.  One day they will learn how this works.   I am not very good at making plans, I am more of a plan as you go person so I was undecided about where I was taking the boys but was planning on either going to the Invalids which is where Napoleon is buried and they have a military museum, or the Orsay Museum.  We started to walk and we were blessed with Austin's persistent complaining about having to go out.  He informed me that if he got cancer from all the second hand smoke he was having to inhale while walking it would be my fault, and that I was not as good at comforting him when he was upset as Nana is.  Again, one day he will learn how this works.

Ya, it's still raining.

 So we walked and walked and I started to talk about Van Gough and how he cut his ear off and that got their attention.  I tried to pull up some art history from the depths of my memory but apparently I have dumped a lot of that data.  All they really wanted to hear about was why he cut his ear off so I decided we would go check out the Orsay.  It is a very cool museum.  It is in an old train station, that has been converted.  It is no where the size of the Louvre but has great impressionistic paintings which are some of my favorite.  The boys liked the big clocks, oh did I mention that in an effort to get them interested I also told them this was the train station in the movie Hugo...so the clocks were a big hit.  You cannot take pictures in the museum of the art  so that was a bummer. We hustled through taking in some of the more known pieces.  At the top floor there is a huge glass faced clock that you can look out and see the river and Paris.  We then left having left the priceless works of art still unharmed and went outside to grab a bite.  The boys like hot dogs.  Which are a hot dog in a baguette, how Parisian.  So we sat on the steps and had lunch.  We then waked back home.  Todd and the girls had gone to McDonalds, he's now their hero.  He also took them to a park.

Crepes on the Rue Cler

 

Playing catch in the dark can be a bit hard

 So I laid down with the girls to get them to go to sleep and knowing I too would fall asleep set my alarm so I would wake in time to go for a run.  I got up and went out to run but I was still so sleepy that I think I slept through the first half of it.  I got back made dinner and then realized even though it was 9pm we were hours from getting anyone to sleep.  So Todd had the idea to go to the Eiffel tower and watch the light show.  Austin again, complained the whole way there. He suggested that going to the park was "death" and  complained again, about the dust and it's effect on his asthma...5 minutes after we got there he was laughing and enjoying himself in the place of "death." Poor kid.

I posted this picture on Facebook of the Paris parking job.  As funny as this is it is not at all unusual.  In fact I would say about 10-20% of all parked cars are in no position to be moved.  Just makes me glad we didn't get a car.

 

 I kept running by this guy thinking he looked familiar, and after I woke up on my run yesterday I stopped to see who it was...It's Thomas Jefferson.  I swear they have more statues of Americans here than anyone else.  Benjamin Franklin is on the other side of the river.

We have these mini magnets that Jackson is making jewelry out of his collection of bottle caps with.

I knew full well when I took this that Todd's comment would be "I thought you were out on a run?" He did not disappoint.

Are you sure you don't want to take the kids?

View from Louvre at sunset

Winged Victory

Still my Favorite

View on my walk home

Burning off 2 days of energy

Viva la France

Another Fav

Todd asks me as I am leaving if I'm sure I don't want to take any of the kids.  I think through the idea of bringing a kid/kids with me.  "Yep sure." So I will admit to feeling a little guilty about taking a run early in the day and then jumping out the door the moment Todd walked in to hustle to the Louvre.  But I got over it quickly and scooted out the door.  I decided to walk despite the fact it looked, like always, like rain.  I was in a hurry to get there so I was walking super fast.  Especially for here because no one here walks fast.  They stroll.  I got there around 6:30 it took me 30 minutes to walk there.  I went in through the Pyramid which I normally don't do because it's crowded but it was so late there was no line.  The Louvre has 3 wings that have 4 stories each.  For the last 3 times I have gone there I have been looking for the same Painting.  Joseph the Carpenter.  It's a french painting and I know that it's there I however, don't know how to find it.  I tried to ask some person who worked there but he didn't understand me.  It's not totally bad because now I have an excuse to go back, again.  It was not very crowded.  And as it started to get dark the place started to empty.  Partially I think because it becomes a little creepy.  The place is so big, and it relies heavily on natural light so with the sun going down it became dark, really dark.  It was actually creepy because at one point I found myself in a huge dimly lit stairwell and had no idea where I was.  I was tired and could not remember which wing I was in.  I was flustered and was looking at the "map," which for practical purposes could be a city map.  Finally it occurred to me I had my iPhone, so for the first time I had to use my iPhone to figure out where I was in a building.  I took in all the pictures, crashed in the cafe, grabbed and ham sandwich,  and sat there until finally I could see them shuffling people out.  I debated(again) taking the metro.  But as the sun came out while I was in the museum(rain was not a treat for once) I decided to walk.  Paris is really safe.  Your only real risk is being witness to far far too much PDA.  For one thing there is more police here than anywhere I have ever been.  Plus because we are surrounded by embassies, palaces, and government building so on about every corner there is some guy in a funny blue uniform and hat.  Then there are clusters of guys with machine guns.  It's a little hard to take their police cars seriously.  The range from funky vans with blue flashing lights with the tell tell european siren, to the compact(and I mean REALLY compact) smart car.  I have seen them on horses, scooters, and motorcycles.  But for some reason it's a little hard to take seriously a group of smart cars with flashing blue sirens flying down the street stuffed full of french police.  The machine gun guys however, have my full attention.  Anyhow back to me walking home.  I felt totally safe.  I walked by the river for a while and then got to my route. I tried to time it right because the Eiffel tower sparkles on the hour so at 10 I got to see it sparkle  It's really pretty.  I think it's funny that the french initially hate all these things.  I remember last time we were here people were still talking about how they hated the light show, they also hated the Louvre pyramid, and the Eiffel tower itself.  So if they start hating something take note, it's soon to be super cool and popular.

I watched it twinkle, gave some tourists bad advise on how to get to the nearest metro(oops) and came home.  I found Sierra asleep on Todd, Hannah asleep on the couch, and the boys watching movies.  Today we went to the farmers market.  It's becoming easier, and frankly I am starting to know a little french, at least I catch enough words to fumble through conversations about fresh fruit.  We went to a little park and the kids got out 2 days of compressed energy chasing each other around like crazed beasts. The bakery did not have baguettes ready but said they'd be ready in 15 minutes so Austin and Todd went back to get warm ones upon Austin's insistence.