The Richards Family Fairytale: Attack of the Peacocks

I've pillaged my guide books for more hidden treasures in Paris. One that kept coming up was the Jardin de Aclimacion. It's a children's park that's been here for 150+ years and it's located in Paris's version of Central Park the Park Boulogne. So I packed a lunch, got jackets, umbrella(ya we still need it), and extra pants(learned my lesson). We did one last go pee check and out the door we went. "Off like a heard of turtles.". We had to walk to the ATM and then to the metro. As we entered the metro and we heading up the escalator I realized Jackson(who was responsible for the backpack) is not wearing it. "It's in the bathroom, oops." I decide not to exit the metro to go home to get it, it would waste all our metro tickets and we head on and hope for clear skies and lunch.

The metro ride was fun, a little crowded but Jackson noticed a performer(there are tons on the subway) doing a version of the Muppet's puppet show. It was a little funny. It was a short walk from the metro to the park. The Park is a combination or circus, petting zoo and Carnival. You have to pay a small entry fee and then if you want to ride the rides you buy tickets. We were greeted by a white peacock. I'd never seen one before. It reminded me of Lord Shen from "Kung Fu Panda II". This analogy would become more relevant during lunch.

Lord Shen Kung Fu Panda(bad guy)

Photo credit Austin

We walked past some silly mirrors which the kids loved. Then saw the rides. There were tons. There were several funny ones they would never have in the US, like a horse ride where the kids are not strapped on. It was also a little strange it was not crowded so only a couple rides were open and with no rhyme or reason they would close and open another(very French). I let the boys go on a couple then we walked around and explored the park some more.

We found "work out stations", we've seen these in London too where you can exercise in a park on various equipment.

Now put your kid on that and pray they hold on

Don't worry we look cool doing this

The kids were complaining of hunger so we went to the cafe for lunch. We grabbed some kids meals and sat outside. We were quickly joined by several peacocks. It was cute at first but they got closer, and closer, until one grabbed the fork out of Jackson's hand and ran off with it full tilt followed by his cronies. Though Jackson was not amused we laughed it off...until they came back. I tried to block out other seats and even tied my scarf between two to keep the peacocks for sitting with us at the table. But they continued to come and sit eye to eye with us. One was looking very much like he had Sierras chicken within peaks reach so I kind of swatted at him. This caused a reaction that has sadly not been captured on film but I will do my best to describe the events that followed. Apparently it's hard for peacocks to back up in a hurry, must be the tail? So his only means of escape from my perceived threat was to use Jackson's forearm as leverage to get up onto then over our table where he quickly exited via Austin's lap. To his credit he did not spill any drinks, barely displaced the food and still created such a sense of panic amongst my offspring so as to make it seem the world had just ended. I, ever the great parent, was unable to control my laughter. Jackson just looked at me showing me his "scratch" which was almost visible insisting I tell the zoo people about the assault. I assured him I would have them make that bird into chicken nuggets for the next guests which only got me a perplexed look. Nerves calmed we got some ice cream(glace) and decided to do a very un-French thing and eat it on the run.

We found the bathrooms, also an adventure as they did not have toilet seats. It's a common thing here. Plus these happened to be child sized toilets so it took 10 minutes of explaining before they trusted that they were in fact toilets. We then found a group of about 20-30 miniature horses. The girls were big fans and petted a couple for a while. The boys spotted a complex of playgrounds and were off. They had a ridiculously tall spider web. I was half thinking when the boys were on their way up, I could very well end up there rescuing someone. But courage won out and they made it to the top. I had to halt the girls half way up. They had some amazing playgrounds but one of the things that must be appreciated was the parents seating. They had these lounge like chairs everywhere, think poolside. I have never been so encouraged to nap while my children dangled 40 feet in the air before.

We moved from there onto the petting zoo portion. There were several goats, sheep, cows. Jackson found a brand new, even saw the egg shell duck. We played for a while then left. We could have stayed there for hours more but I was trying to beat the subway rush. We had a pretty fun day over all and at a 1/10th the cost of one Disneyland ticket I'd say the fun had was a great value.

While we were there I kept spotting a structure of some sort that was being built next door to this place. It was one of the weirdest things I'd ever seen. I walked all over trying to get a better angle. I finally decided I would take a picture to send my brothers and dad to see if they knew what it was. It had 4 large cranes and I was guessing it was either a roller coaster or a Frank Gehry building....I was right! It's a Louis Vuitton Museum designed by Frank Gehry(architect.) He builds crazy stuff and although it's not my favorite style of architecture I admire peoples ability to actually build this crazy stuff. It has HUGE steal beams that twist and turn that I can only imagine how they engineer and put it together. Plus I was just delighted that my college degree in architecture has not gone completely to waste.